Companion pages listed at right and in this blog's nav bar compile readings on other topics relevant to startup management.
- The book The Business Model Navigator by Gassmann et al. provides an overview of 55 generic business models
- Alex Osterwalder, coauthor of the book, Business Model Generation, which introduces the business model canvas widely used by entrepreneurs and describes several generic business models, lists eight questions you should ask about your business model
- My 10-part series on business model analysis covers a range of topics and overlaps with my course note on the topic
- Steve Blank on the definition of a business model
- Fred Wilson uses a parable about software for dentists to make the point that a startup must have a defensible proprietary competitive advantage
- In his book Zero to One, Peter Thiel stresses the importance of having a proprietary competitive advantage -- ideally one that yields a monopoly
- Fred Destin asks when early monetization is important to a tech startup, using Snapchat as an example; Greylock's Josh Elman on the same issue
- Ben Thompson (Stratechery blog), using Apple as an case study, concludes that Clay Christensen's theory of low-end disruption does not apply in consumer markets
- Entreprenuer/investor/advisor Brian Balfour on how the emergence of new distribution channels opens ecosystem niches for new ventures
- Steve Carpenter's TechCrunch teardown of generic web business models and key metrics for each.
- Tristan Kromer shows how to use a business model canvas based on "Puppies-as-a-Service" as an example
- In "The Anatomy of an Online Ad," Sim Simeonov describes, step by step, the role of different service providers in the delivery and tracking of online ads
- Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz published Lean Analytics, a book which reviews key performance metrics for various tech startup business models
- Dave McClure's classic "Startup Metrics for Pirates" -- the AAARR!! framework; Edith Yeung adapts the framework for mobile apps
- Jeff Jordan et al. from a16z on 16 key startup metrics and 16 more metrics; Danielle Morrill of Mattermark on the same topic
- A post I wrote on LTV/CAC analysis; Rajiv Dham and Nino Marakovic on the same topic
- David Skok on the need to balance average customer acquisition cost with lifetime value of a customer and on metrics-driven business model analysis
- Skok on how to calculate LTV; Erik Jorgenson on the same topic
- Mark Suster reflects on how and why startups should use metrics
- Ryan Battles examines key traction metrics for content, social media, email, and advertising
- Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners on how to calculate lifetime customer value with cohort analysis
- With Tulane's Geoff Parker and BU's Marshall Van Alstyne, I've described strategy issues in two-sided markets
- I've written a blog post and course note that provide an introduction to platforms and network effects
- In another course note, I discuss conditions that lead to winner-take-all outcomes in networked markets
- With Andre Hagiu, I've analyzed strategies for staging user acquisition with a two-sided platform, that is, acquiring users on one side before targeting the other sided
- Chris Dixon post describing Geoffrey Moore's concept of the "bowling pin" strategy for solving the chicken-and-egg problem when mobilizing network users; Jitha on tactics for solving the chicken-and-egg problem; Harvard Business School course note on how to mobilize networked businesses by Ben Edelman and Peter Coles; GrowthHackers.com case study by Everette Taylor on how Belly solved the network effect startup problem
- Sangeet Choudary's blog focuses on platforms and network effects, e.g., the impact of reverse network effects on social media
- Entrepreneur/angel investor Brian Balfour on solving the chicken-and-egg problem with network effects businesses
- The book Platform Revolution, by Parker, Van Alstyne and Choudary, examines platform economics and strategies, as does Choudary's book Platform Scale; the book Matchmakers, by Evans and Schmalensee, covers similar topics, as does their book, The Catalyst Code.
- I've written about conditions under which rivals should share a new platform
- With Parker and Van Alstyne, I've studied when firms should open mature platforms and when they are vulnerable to platform envelopment, which entails one platform displacing another by leveraging bundling strategies
- Sangeet Choudary discusses how to manage startup growth strategies that piggyback upon an existing dominant platform, used by AirBnB, PayPal, etc.
- Mark Suster gives advice for startups with applications that face a substitution threat from in-house versions developed by big platforms
- Entrepreneur/investor Sim Simeonov expands upon the risk of platform dependency
- Dave Schappell, founder of TeachStreet, on challenges when transitioning from a free to paid model; MailChimp on their experience with this transition
- Nice summary of the freemium model by Spencer Fry, CEO of Carbonmade. For more, see Chris Anderson's book Free
- M. Wensing presents a taxonomy of different types of freemium offers
- Jeremy Levin and Rafi Syed of Bessemer explain why "end-to-end" marketplaces that facilitate complete transactions (e.g., Airbnb) are displacing those that only provide listings (e.g., Craigslist).
- A white paper by VersionOne VC provides a comprehensive description of online marketplaces: types, key factors for success, metrics, etc.
- Willy Braun of the VC daphni describes metrics for marketplaces
- Tristan Pollock on mistakes made by marketplace startups; Josh Breinlinger of Jackson Square Ventures on the same topic
- Aaron Epstein on tactics for mobilizing marketplace users
- a16z GP/former OpenTable CEO Jeff Jordan discusses challenges confronting tech companies with a local focus and how successful "local heroes" manage to scale rapidly
- Kleiner Perkins EiR and former senior Google and eBay exec Stephanie Tilenius looks at key factors for success with curated consumer marketplaces such as Uber and RelayRides
- Author Sangeet Choudary also analyzes network mobilization challenges for services marketplaces, with focus on professional services.
- MuckerLab's William Hsu looks at how marketplaces create and capture value
- Julia Hanna explains my colleague Andrei Hagiu's research on the difference between multi-sided platforms and traditional retailers.
- Bill Gurley of Benchmark, David Beisel of NextView Ventures, and Seth Rothman of Greylock on key factors for success in building online marketplaces.
- Matrix GP David Skok describes the "consumerization" of enterprise IT purchasing patters; provides an overview of key SaaS metrics; presents results of Pacific Crest's annual SaaS survey; analyzes key factors for success with the SaaS model; summarizes the SaaS business model; describes SaaS economics; interviews HubSpot VP-Sales Mark Roberge on SaaS sales best practices; and provides a link to a Bridge Group report on metrics and compensation data for SaaS inside sales.
- Redpoint VC Tomasz Tunguz writes regularly about SaaS businesses, e.g., he analyzes expense categories in publicly-traded SaaS companies; describes the fundamental unit of growth for SaaS businesses; asks how much SaaS companies should spend on customer acquisition; and examines sales efficiency
- Jason Lemkin of the SaaStr blog asks: What SaaS price point is too low to support an inside sales team? Lemkin describes how a SaaS startup at $10M in ARR is likely to allocate its first 100 employees by function. SaaStr lists its top 100 posts
- Jess Iandiorio of Drift explains how SaaS models are qualifying leads based on product engagement before initiating sales contact
- April Dunford explains how a SaaS startup evolves from founder to team selling.
- Dave Kellogg of Host Analytics provides an in-depth discussion of how to estimate and interpret Customer Acquisition Cost in a SaaS business
- Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software, probes methods for estimating attrition rates when calculating SaaS lifetime customer value and analyzes factors that can reduce profitability in SaaS businesses
- Lars Lofgren of KISSmetrics offers a primer on SaaS metrics
- Serial entrepreneur Ben Sesser analyzes the odds of building a successful SaaS startup
- KISSmetrics published analysis of SaaS operating metrics from OpenView Venture Partners
- Rishi Shah of Digioh on optimizing freemium pricing for SaaS; David Skok of Matrix Partners on why churn matters so much with SaaS models
- Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot lists 16 factors for success with a SaaS model; another post from Shah on the same topic
- David Barrett, founder/CEO of Expensify, examines new approaches that are disrupting sales and marketing in enterprise software
- Peter Levine of a16z describes the economics of open source software and speculates about why there will never be another Red Hat
- Upfront Ventures GP Mark Suster looks at the upside of pursuing early professional services revenue for an enterprise software company, then examines some of the risks of rely on such revenue
- Bonobos founder Andy Dunn describes challenges confronting ecommerce startups
- First Round Review interviews Julie Grace, head of engineering for Tindie, on product features that improve ecommerce site performance
- Josh Hannah on challenges with scaling commerce startups
- Katie Bolin of Spark Capital on attributes of successful ecommerce startups
- Kara Nortman of the VC firm Upfront describes the evolution of ecommerce models
- Jeff Jordan asks, "So, You Want to Compete Against Amazon?" and examines trends online/offline sales ratios for different retail segments
- Atlas GP Fred Destin looks at key success factors in ecommerce
- Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures on revenue models for online commerce sites
On-Demand Models
- Semil Shah on challenges confronting startups that provide on-demand services
- a16z GP and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon discusses challenges/opportunities with tech hardware startups
- Ben Einstein of Bolt addresses misperceptions about challenges with hardware startups
Flawed Business Models
- Andrew Chen on problems with online dating
- Nadav Gur on problems with travel planning sites
- Pascal Bouvier on reasons why fin tech startups fail