Summary
Our goal was to cover 10 of the most common revenue models for companies and provide guidance on how to identify one that's appropriate for your startup. We made the following points:
- A wide range of revenue models are available to startups. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages.
- Before you lock in a revenue model, identify any assumptions that need to hold true, then test those assumptions with customers.
- In the beginning, focus on the ideal first customer and make them happy with your product, then branch out to a wider group of users. This approach might mean that you make a small number of sales initially.
- By combining the attributes of your ideal first customer and early adopters, you can create a persona. This persona represents the users who are a good fit for your product, known as ideal first customers, and the users who are receptive to trying it, known as early adopters.
- Customer interviews and experiments are great ways to build an email list of prospects who are interested in your product. You can then target them with an email campaign when your product launches.
- There are many things you can do to capture your first customers. Expect this process to be manual and time consuming at first.
- To expand beyond your early customers, it's essential to develop a strong sales capability within the founding team. You also need to put in place sales pipeline tools and document sales processes.