[stcredzero]

If you're ever at a meetup, and the presenter dances around the question: "How does your company make money?" then ask yourself, is it possible that this company is in marketing/advertising? More generally, ask yourself: Does this company's operations give it high quality information about a particular market?

The takeaway: Don't dismiss a useful service that you can't directly monetize. It's possible that you can gain high-quality information which can be monetized indirectly. It's all about getting better information about a particular market than everyone else.

[hectorr]

While this is true, it is extremely hard to do in practice. You have to get good information, make sure it is good information, convince a market that it is good information, and then prevent your competitors and your clients from simply replicating your process.

[stcredzero]

You have to get good information, make sure it is good information

Yes, but often much of this can happen largely as a consequence of your doing something else, and you may not realize it.

convince a market that it is good information

Which is just basic Marketing.

and then prevent your competitors and your clients from simply replicating your process

Which is also a common issue with startups in general. Good word of mouth can keep you ahead of competitors, and you can make it cheaper for clients to just pay you than it would be to do it themselves. All basic things.

[warcher]

Some people have done sorta ok with this as a fallback position when their business model failed. I think it's a pretty dicey proposition. Foursquare did it after failing at everything else, and while they're ostensibly 'profitable' they're deeply in the red with little hope of a return to their investors. They're surviving to fight another day, but... eh.

[stcredzero]

Some people have done sorta ok with this as a fallback position when their business model failed. I think it's a pretty dicey proposition. Foursquare did it after failing at everything else, and while they're ostensibly 'profitable' they're deeply in the red with little hope of a return to their investors.

Sounds like they are deeply in the red because they were chasing something else? What if they realized this much sooner and didn't get so deeply into the red? Then they'd just have a solid and profitable business. I wouldn't discount this kind of business model. That kind of "sorta ok" is only a disappointment if you were hoping to be the next Facebook. Isn't that just greed clouding people's vision? A goose that lays copper eggs is still pretty darn nifty.

[warcher]

Well, the data comes from a substantial investment, which much be returned, or the business will be a failure. This is not a public service-- if you did some cool shit, but ultimately the bottom line is turning a dollar invested into fifty cents returned, you have explicitly and decisively failed in your work.