
Business Models - jmelkington
https://axial.substack.com/p/axial-business-models
======
heipei
I remember reading a comment on HN a while ago about the "basic" ways to
create value (and make money) that really resonated with me. I can't for the
life of me find it again. It was broken down into things people want like
"information that others don't have" and "moving things from place A to place
B where they wouldn't be otherwise" etc. Anyone remember that?

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coreymatyas
For once my slightly obsessive bookmarking habits come in handy!

[http://blog.rongarret.info/2009/10/catalog-of-wealth-
creatio...](http://blog.rongarret.info/2009/10/catalog-of-wealth-creation-
mechanisms.html)

From this comment tree on the original discussion of pg's "Frighteningly
Ambitious Startup Ideas":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3687080](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3687080)

The whole tree is definitely interesting in addition to the blog post linked.
Also, a follow-up post a few days later:
[http://blog.rongarret.info/2009/10/wealth-production-
mechani...](http://blog.rongarret.info/2009/10/wealth-production-mechanisms-
followup.html)

~~~
anaxag0ras
Speaking of bookmarks, I'm curious how you organize your bookmarks and
personal knowledge base. I'm currently using Evernote, and it's ok, but I'm
looking for something better.

~~~
bluebit
What's wrong with standard Chrome bookmarks?

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motohagiography
I did a visual version of this some years ago to reason about companies and
products.

[https://www.qtra.io/hn-comment-bizmodels](https://www.qtra.io/hn-comment-
bizmodels) (pdf)

The "Arbitrage" version isn't labelled properly, but it's basically taking
money from a buyer in one market and buying from a seller in another market,
then delivering the service back between markets.

It's convoluted and reflects thinking from 5 years ago, but if a
product/company doesn't make money one of these ways, it probably doesn't make
money, and if it does, metrics are just a matter of scaling numbers in one of
the nodes.

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OkGoDoIt
That link appears dead to me. Typo? I’d love to see it

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jiux
Link was dead for me as well. I took a look at the URL and took “s” off the
end. Maybe that is it?

[https://www.qtra.io/hn-comment-bizmodel](https://www.qtra.io/hn-comment-
bizmodel)

~~~
motohagiography
that's correct, I changed the url to the original.

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mercoles
Also useful: [https://reasonstreet.co/business-model-
library/](https://reasonstreet.co/business-model-library/)

More like tear downs of each business model and what to measure when deciding

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marban
Adding: Democratization of... Knowledge, Luxury, Trading, etc.

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foobar_
Odd to find advertisements not being mentioned. That seems to be the goto for
publishers. Excellent list!

~~~
TeMPOraL
Indeed. Some of these models are partially-applied functions - they're missing
the part that actually makes them money. For instance:

> _Network effects (can come in different forms such as direct, two-sided,
> data): Facebook — the value of the product increases as more people use it_

Network effects keeps the users in, money is made by ads and surveillance.

> _Crowdsourcing: YouTube — aggregate content /product from users individuals
> and distributes them at scale_

Really, it's also a form of network effects (viewers go where most content is;
creators go where most viewers are), and again, money is made by ads and
surveillance.

Also, missing models:

\- Regulatory arbitrage: Uber - conquering markets by breaking local laws
faster than the regulators can react.

\- Exploiting social capital: AirBnB - facilitating illegal or highly
undesirable behavior at scale, not caring about the neighbors of service's
users.

Also2:

> _Open-source: Bitcoin_

Bitcoin is not a company and does not have a business model. Also, "Open
Source" is not a business model. "Donations" and "Paid support" are.

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admiral33
"Donations"

What about companies with products that are "free", with a fixed priced
attached when - over an unconstrained period of time - you want to pay
(Sublime Text).

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bdickason
Github felt like it deserved a callout here (Free if open, paid if closed).
And there's no mention of free to play games which is a business mdoel
powering a large chunk of a big industry.

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r32a_
Bitcoin is not a company and has no business model. Another day and another
bad take about Bitcoin on HN.

