Startup Model – Providing Key Insights from Non-Fiction Books

THE MODEL: A startup which takes non-fiction books and creates blinks, which are basically 15 minute reads highlighting the main concepts.

STARTUP: Blinkist (German startup)

WHAT I LIKE

Core Idea – A platform which provides users with bite sized reads highlighting the main concepts of non-fiction books.

Benefit to Users – Now users can learn from books without having to invest a lot of time in reading them.

Networking Aspect – Users can connect with friends to see what they are reading and highlighting. This further creates user stickiness.

Free Trial – Users can try the service for free for 3 days. This reduces the barrier for users to try out the service and can upgrade if they see value in it.

Non-Fiction Books – Fiction books and storybooks are read more for the love of reading. Non-fiction, on the other hand, are primarily read for the learning we can derive from them. This model, hence, is more suitable for non-fiction books.

Integration - The app is integrated with popular apps which are being used for reading and collaborating. Users can send their reads to Kindle and read them there. Also users can save any interesting snippets and sync them to Evernote.

Startup Model – Community for Photographers

THE MODEL: A platform for photography enthusiasts to be inspired, receive recognition and improve their photography skills. Users can upload photos, explore photos, share them, comment on them, critique them and so on.

STARTUP: Youpic (Swedish startup)

WHAT I LIKE

Core Idea – A community for photography enthusiasts to learn, explore and share skills.

Product Features – The community lets users upload photos, explore photos, share photos, comment on photos, get feedback etc.

Gamification – Users are incentivized to be active on the forum. The more a user is active on the community, the more points the user earns. Points lead to rewards.

Revenue Model – The startup uses a Freemium Model to earn revenue.

CONCERNS

Competition – There are some photo sharing and storage communities. The startup tries to focus on the learning experience to differentiate itself.

Startup Model – Discovering, Sharing & Adopting Business Processes

THE MODEL: A platform for businesses to find different business processes and execute them in their own business The advantage is a business does not need to execute a process from scratch and can avoid making mistakes which probably have been made before.  

STARTUP: Progressly (American startup)

WHAT I LIKE

Core Idea – A platform for businesses to find and implement work flows.

Benefits to Businesses & Experts – Businesses can use existing knowledge of experts to execute a business process, ensuring less mistakes and wastages. Experts get recognition for the work they share.

Freemium Model – Businesses can avail up to 3 work flows free of charge. For more, the startup has pricing plans. This ensures that a business can try the service for free and pay when hooked onto it.

CONCERNS

Expert Incentives – Merely recognition may not entice a lot of experts to join the platform and share their work. Some other incentives will need to be devised to ensure a better expert participation rate.

Revenue Model – Angry Birds

Angry Birds is a puzzle solving game create by RovioEntertainment Ltd. and has more than 200mn active monthly players.

REVENUE MODELS

Freemium – Angry Birds is one of the best examples of a game monetizing through this model. Players can start playing the game for free and the ones who get committed to it (around 5%) end up buying premium features in the app. Rovio does a great job of keeping users interested and engaged through new versions, upgrades and features for users.

Merchandise Sales – Angry Birds has been able to monetize it’s characters through sales of branded merchandise. Some products include Angry Birds iphone covers, t-shirts, lunch-boxes and so on. The sales strategy is a mix of direct sales and other models like franchising and licensing.

Advertising – The game also makes a lot of money in it’s free version through advertising. By not selling the game, as is the case with a lot of games, Rovio is able to reduce the risk of piracy as well as users can start playing for free.

Growth Hack - Freemium

A freemium model is a great tool to get more users to try out your product. Freemium means having a free plan and a paid plan for users. The free plan should be absolutely free, without users having to put in any credit card details, and should be able to attract users to try out the product. The free plan should be long enough to ensure users get a good usage trial of the product and hopefully get hooked to it. The premium/paid plan should have additional features which the users should now want, having used the free plan.

Optimizely has done a great job of this. It is a tool for websites for testing and optimizing their customer experiences. They have a Starter Plan and an Enterprise Plan. The Starter Plan is good for an individual user, testing out his personal website/blog. For businesses who want more in depth details, the Enterprise Plan seems like a good plan to upgrade to.