> If you EVER plan on charging for your product you have to ask for money NOW
There are actually a lot of good reasons to wait before you start charging. Like, getting situated, getting everything working, working out the kinks, evaluating possible monetization models, etc. etc.
> The second one usually refers to media companies and massive networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. If you’re the next Twitter, Techcrunch, Facebook or Instagram then kudos. For the other 99.99999% of you who fall in the first group with the rest of us, if you haven’t asked your users to pay yet, then your startup is completely bullshit until you do.
Uhh, no. A lot of companies can work on this model. And do so. The examples are numerous.
And, what is it with this condescending style of writing? If the content of the article wasn't full of reductive, hand-wavy half-baked ideas, the arrogance in that entire piece would be forgivable. But that's not the situation it looks like.
"Like, getting situated, getting everything working, working out the kinks, evaluating possible monetization models, etc. etc."
What does getting situated mean? Working out what kinks? People aren't paying for your product they're paying for what they believe your product to be. Kinks don't matter.
"Uhh, no. A lot of companies can work on this model. And do so. The examples are numerous."
Lets hear them.
"And, what is it with this condescending style of writing? If the content of the article wasn't full of reductive, hand-wavy half-baked ideas, the arrogance in that entire piece would be forgivable. But that's not the situation it looks like."
I think what you're missing is that there are very different kinds of startup. There is the high stakes "next facebook or bust" kind, where it makes a lot of sense to first grow a userbase, get a lot of investors to pay you and take it from there. And then there's the "we are starting a business" kind of startup you seem to be talking about. And a lot in between.
I don't think examples are needed here, since this is just common sense.
Also if you could reply to the actual content of my post, that would be great.
I'm trying to respond to the content of your post. If it's such common sense then it should be easy to come up with examples. I'd argue that there isn't much in between. Either you're building a company that has to sell a product or you're building a high growth monetize later company. This post is addressing the former option.
Instagram and Snapchat come to mind as companies who don't monetize their huge userbase. Instagram was in business to get bought out. We'll see what Snapchat does.
Zenefits is a licensed insurance broker it's free for users, they collect a referral fee from insurance companies. Since it's online they're sustainable from broker fees alone and don't charge users. I think some travel startups also work on a commission model for hotels + flights. Hipmunk etc...
Though referral/affiliate models are uncommon they challenge the statement about "Two kinds of companies".
Yea that's a good point...though one could argue that they're still selling a product, the insurance. But yea this model may require a different approach.
I have a hard time taking provocative titles and harshly written articles like these serious. Especially when the author has no real, credible experience building sustainable businesses.
I think you may be a little too active in your own post's discussion. You don't need to reply to every comment, especially if all you're going to do is argue and shut down any critical debate.
"Some business models are "get as many users as possible, get acquired, and live as a loss leader for a larger organization" and that's perfectly fine."
There are actually a lot of good reasons to wait before you start charging. Like, getting situated, getting everything working, working out the kinks, evaluating possible monetization models, etc. etc.
> The second one usually refers to media companies and massive networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. If you’re the next Twitter, Techcrunch, Facebook or Instagram then kudos. For the other 99.99999% of you who fall in the first group with the rest of us, if you haven’t asked your users to pay yet, then your startup is completely bullshit until you do.
Uhh, no. A lot of companies can work on this model. And do so. The examples are numerous.
And, what is it with this condescending style of writing? If the content of the article wasn't full of reductive, hand-wavy half-baked ideas, the arrogance in that entire piece would be forgivable. But that's not the situation it looks like.