[akronim]

In stark contrast to B2B where if you get the right niche you can be charging a few thousand per client per month. Even one client == ramen profitable. Then again I guess it's not as cool as having the millons of users required for B2C!

[axod]

One of the things I dislike about B2B is the lack of fine grain control.

With B2C, your revenue grows over time as you grow your userbase. It's pretty predictable, and not too risky.

With B2B, it's more binary. You might go months with 0 revenue, then get some deal and suddenly be profitable. But then there's added risk, as losing a single client can have a massive impact on your bottom line.

[asanwal]

Sorry and this may get me downvoted, but this comment shows significant naivete about both B2B and B2C business models.

First, neither is easy. But "B2C is predictable and not too risky" is patently absurd. It requires attracting users, keeping them and figuring out a way to monetize them in some economically sensible way. And this is while competing with 1000s of other services trying to attract attention as well. VC portfolios are littered with carcasses of B2C startups that never caught on (and those are the well capitalized ones)

With regards to B2B, I think you're describing B2B in a consulting context vs. B2B SaaS. In SaaS if done right, you have people with a pain and with real money to solve that pain. As a result, you don't require millions of users to make good money.

Of course, one is not better than the other. Depends on what you know, what gets you excited, etc.

[axod]

I've always found B2C advertising supported relatively easy. Perhaps I'm just lucky at it :/ Perhaps I'm just very bad at B2B.

However, I'd much rather have a million customers paying me $1 each, than have 10 customers paying me $100k each.

But I agree with your last point. Depends what gets you excited. For me personally, B2B is as soul destroying as it gets.

[sudonim]

B2B isn't as sexy, but in many cases it's a surer way to profitability, albeit without all of the magazine cover hoopla. You may not have 100 million users and burn through millions of dollars before reaching profitability.

[tastybites]

the right niche

It doesn't even have to be a niche. If you provide basic infrastructure stuff (email, hosting, IT, whatever) there's billions to be made on business customers.

It really just comes down to marketing and sales prowess and the know-how to deliver stuff for less than the big players.