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 – Password Manager & Data Vault for Teams

THE MODEL: A cloud based password manager and data vault with sharing features designed for business teams as well as individuals. Password access can be enabled or disabled to different members of the team. Also data can be stored either through uploading files or creating files within the platform.

STARTUP: Keynto (Austrian startup)

WHAT I LIKE

Core Idea – A password manager and data vault for companies.

Product Features – Password sharing with selected team members. Also creating and uploading data files which can be stored and shared with selected team members. Other features include team management, messaging, data logging etc. making the tool a comprehensive collaborative tool for teams.  Also multiple levels of encryption are used to ensure security of data.

Ease of Use – The platform having a simple user interface is suitable for both, novice users who simply want to securely store their data, and advanced users who are in charge of large IT infrastructures.

Pricing – The startup uses a freemium revenue model. Also the paid plans are very simple and transparent and based on the size of the team using the tool.

CONCERNS

Competition – From being a password manager, the tool has emerged into an end to end collaborative tool for teams, entering a space which is heavily competitive and dominated by some large startups.

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.

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.