Strategy: Business models
Showing 435 articles for Strategy: Business models.
26 fast-growing business ideas backed by Google search data
Noah Kagan
June 10, 2020
Niche selection
8
Business models
6
- All 26 ideas are validated by real Google Trends search growth.
- Piggybacking on platforms like Shopify, Webflow, or TikTok beats creating demand.
- The strongest opportunities serve people spending more time and money at home.
How to start a side business while keeping your day job
Noah Kagan
June 5, 2020
Business models
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Customer discovery
5
- Stay employed until your side project earns real money first.
- Expect zero meaningful profit for at least one year.
- Ask what people with money spend time or money on — then do that.
How SpaceX disrupted the aerospace industry with vertical integration
Acquired
May 26, 2020
Business models
10
Case studies
9
Competitive analysis
7
- SpaceX nearly went bankrupt on its fourth and final funded launch attempt.
- Vertical integration cut rocket costs to one-tenth of NASA's own estimates.
- A $1.6B NASA contract on Christmas Eve 2008 saved the company and changed spaceflight.
A masterclass in crowdsourcing with Duolingo's Luis von Ahn
Masters of Scale
May 26, 2020
Business models
9
Customer discovery
7
Growth hacking
6
- Perfect mission alignment between company and crowd turns free labor into sustainable scale.
- Crowdsourcing solves problems easy for humans, hard for computers—reCAPTCHA digitized books in seconds.
- Duolingo's 50,000 volunteer course creators prove shared purpose outperforms paid teams.
How Panera pivoted its business model during the COVID-19 lockdown
Masters of Scale
April 30, 2020
Pivoting
9
Business models
6
Management
6
- Panera launched a grocery business from idea to live in 14 days.
- Half a billion in pre-crisis digital investment made the fast pivot possible.
- Values-first leadership turned furloughs and food banks into community action.
Four productized services freelance copywriters can sell today
Joanna Wiebe
April 29, 2020
Business models
8
Sales systems & CRM
7
Conversion rate optimisation
5
- Adding a buy button beats invoicing — clients must pay online at purchase
- Split any service under $1,000 to dramatically improve conversion rates
- Copy School templates let you deliver four services without starting from scratch
11 New Jobs Created by the Shift to Remote Work
Noah Kagan
April 20, 2020
Business models
8
Case studies
6
- Behaviour change creates immediate service gaps anyone can monetise first.
- Virtual graduation coordinators earn ~$5,000 per ceremony for technical setup.
- Digital products on Gumroad and AppSumo need no inventory or shipping.
15+ business ideas to start during a crisis
Noah Kagan
March 24, 2020
Pivoting
9
Business models
7
- Pivot existing assets — skills, spaces, customers — into new formats fast.
- Closed venues become packaging hubs, studios, or remote-service launchpads.
- Cost-cutting consulting and DIY kits are among the highest-leverage moves.
How to diagnose and fix stalled business growth
Bill Gallagher
February 26, 2020
Business models
9
Management
8
Pivoting
6
- Four internal dynamics — not external forces — kill most growth.
- Misalignment is self-reinforcing: unfixed, it cascades into total decline.
- CEO humility is the single strongest predictor of a successful turnaround.
Be a platform: building virtuous cycles for scale
Masters of Scale
February 13, 2020
Business models
9
Case studies
7
Culture building
5
- Open your business to third-party developers and watch everyone win together
- Shopify waited nine years before developers earned more than the platform itself
- Silicon Valley underestimated retail, giving Shopify years to build unnoticed
Long-term planning
Podcast
How Bill Gates identified and accelerated computing's inflection points
Masters of Scale
November 7, 2019
Long-term planning
9
Case studies
7
Business models
6
- Spotting an inflection point is worthless without actively accelerating it
- IBM's brutal quality standards made Microsoft — pick your toughest customers
- The internet nearly killed Windows; Gates pivoted by burning his own standards
Warren Buffett's 54 Years of Shareholder Letters: Core Lessons
Founders
September 8, 2019
Business models
9
Pricing strategy
7
Identity & self-belief
6
- Why wonderful businesses at fair prices beat bargains at bad ones
- Operating from strength — never weakness — is Berkshire's unbroken rule
- Buffett's biggest mistakes came from ignoring his own principles
Buy Then Build: Acquisition Entrepreneurship as a Growth Strategy
Bill Gallagher
August 8, 2019
Business models
10
Fundraising & VC
7
Scaling infrastructure
6
- Buying beats building: 75% of VC startups fail; acquisitions offer built-in margins of safety.
- $10 trillion in Boomer-owned businesses will change hands over the next 19 years.
- Know your skills first — the right business is one your strengths transform.
How to evaluate a startup idea: problem, solution, and unfair advantage
Y Combinator
July 25, 2019
Business models
9
Product-market fit
7
Fundraising & VC
5
- A startup idea is a hypothesis about why you'll grow quickly.
- Without one clear unfair advantage, investors have no reason to pick you.
- Starting with technology instead of a problem makes growth far harder.
Henry Ford's core business principles from "Today and Tomorrow"
Founders
July 14, 2019
Business models
9
Deep work & focus
7
Processes & SOPs
5
- An underpaid worker is a customer you destroyed — wages and demand are linked.
- Debt divides allegiance: businesses that borrow serve financiers, not customers.
- Purpose before method: know what you're building before choosing how to build it.