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10 Startup Business Models That Work

Why reinvent the wheel? here are 10 Startup Business Models That Work, And Investors Love.

1/10 Freemium business model — 10 startup business models that work

Here you allow users to utilize basic features of a software, game, or service for “free”, and then charge for “upgrades” to the basic package.

Examples: Google Drive, iCloud and Slack.


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2/10 Subscription business model

It is based on the idea of selling a product or service to receive monthly or yearly recurring subscription revenue.

Examples: Amazon Prime, Netflix and Slack.

3/10 Pay-as-you-go business model

This is a pricing strategy where users pay based on how much they consume.

4/10 Marketplace business model

A marketplace is a type of e-commerce site where product or service information is provided by third-party sellers and the company take a cut from the transaction(15%-25%).

Examples — Amazon, Fiverr, Urban Company

5/10 Fee-for-service (FFS) business model – 10 startup business models that work

FFS’s business model is based on charging customers a fixed and variable fee for every successful payment.

6/10 Transactional business model

The revenue is generated by directly selling an item or a service to a customer.

Widely used by e-commerce sites or any other product you purchase online. Ex Boat, Mama earth

7/10 Ad-based business model

Used by social media and search engine giants which use your search engine and interest data to show ads.

Example: Google and Meta

8/10 Hidden revenue business model

Job portals can make money by charging an upgrade both from the candidate and recruiter who is on the website.

9/10 Franchisee business model

Here the franchisee(local owner) is using the trademark, branding, and business model of a franchisor(company).

Examples are Dominos, KFC etc.

10/10 Razor blade business model – 10 startup business models that work

In this type of business model, one item is sold at a low price in order to increase sales of a complementary good, such as consumable supplies.

Examples: Gillet razor & blades, CCD Coffee machine & coffee beans, and HP Printer & cartridge for example.

To view graphic examples of each model and purchase a book on business models, please read the original post on Medium that was written by Navdeep Yadev.

In summary, we know of at least 10 startup business models that work. Your job is to match one of them to your startup idea, and then execute it as if your life depended on it!


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About the Author: James Spurway is an Angel Investor, Advisor, Mentor, Speaker, former Commercial Pilot, and Author specializing in raising debt and equity funds for pre-seed or early-stage seed rounds for Startups in the Fintech, DeepTech, AgTech, and ClimateTech verticles. He lives in Singapore and has spent the past 30 years living and building businesses in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, the USA, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia, where he was born.


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James Spurway

Genius is widely distributed. Opportunity is not. If you were #rejected by a top-ranked #accelerator, we can check your #pitchdeck, #model, and #capvalue to make you #investorready and help get you #funded. I'm a serial entrepreneur, startup mentor and fundraising advisor, angel investor, licenced twin-engine commercial pilot, author and speaker.

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