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5 CRITICAL QUESTIONS HELP STARTUP FOUNDERS CHOOSE THE MOST PROFITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL

To create a successful startup, the idea itself is not enough. Even the best idea will fade out by time. As reported by Bill Gross – an American investor, fund manager, and philanthropist, there are five elements which decide the success of the company: idea, team, business model, funding and timing. 

What is a business model? 

Michael Lewis – an American author and financial journalist has defined the term Business model as “All it really meant was how you planned to make money”. For example, the “business model” for Microsoft was to sell software for 120 bucks a pop that cost fifty cents to manufacture … The business model of most Internet companies was to attract huge crowds of people to a Web site, and then sell others the chance to advertise products to the crowds. It was still not clear that the model made sense.” 

The answer for these 5 crucial questions may help you get a better direction for you to turn the idea into helpful products for the customer, while creating profitable and sustainable business. 

1. Define target market

Before you kick start your business, it is necessary for you to challenge your assumption about your idea. This is the chance for you to test whether or not your idea is viable. Conducting market research is needed to examine if there are some needs of the customers that can satisfy your products or services. 

2. Make a list of your competitor 

The analysis is crucial to understand the competition extends beyond the existing rivals and will detect the risk of entering the market. In agreement with Michael E. Porter – an American academic known for his theories on economics, business strategy, and social causes, there are 5 forces that shape the industry competition: Threat of New Entrants, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Threat of Substitute Products or Services and Rivalry among existing Competitors. Awareness of the competition in the industry helps startups stake out a position which is more profitable and less vulnerable to attack.

3. Identify your ideal customers 

In order to build a solid foundation for your startup, it is necessary to identify your typical customer and tailor your marketing strategy accordingly. Thinking about who exactly you want to serve based on their demographic, psychological behavior, interests, their challenges and life-time goals. Once you have a clear customer profile, it is easier for you to define a suitable way to approach them. 


4. Visualize your revenue stream 

Exploring the possibility of the source of your revenue. Is there any different way for you to sell products? It is dangerous if your revenue stream only comes from one source. Creating the revenue stream helps you identify various sources from which business can earn money from in the long term.

5. Clarify the value that you bring to the market

You cannot serve what you do not have. That is the reason why you should be clear about the benefits of your product or service that add value to your customers life. You can think of how much value your products or services offer for the customers in their life. 

Customers are the lifeblood of every business, understanding their wants and needs will help you allocate effort and resources to satisfy them. 

If you are struggling with identifying the business model, here are some examples for you to have a look. 

 

  • Product/Service Model (Hook & Bait)

This model can be explained simply as creating whatever products or services and selling it through marketing channels. This model when executed correctly may give you a huge and sustainable return on your investment. 

The advantage of this business model is the flexibility because you have the freedom to design your product and then sell them as a physical or digital version.
However, the main drawback comes from the product creation process itself, it takes time, money and resources to build up this model. 

  • Ad-based model  

This business model requires you to have a large customer base or audience which means they have customer information about their habit, interest and behavior. These ad-base startups gain profit from advertising services that they offer for the company such as Facebook. 

 

  • Subscription-Based Model


    Instead of offering the products or services as one-off purchases, this business model can recurring revenue in forms of period (monthly, annual or life-time) payments. One of the prime examples for this business model is Netflix. Netflix provides customers with a high quality filming service to keep them continuously renew their subscription. 

 

  • On-demand


    This business model comes from the need for instant gratification in the world dominated by technological advancement. Customers can easily have all the information and purchase products within their fingerprints. 

Some of the great examples for this new business model are Grab and Airbnb. 

You can see that they offer customer on-demand which is very convenient by applying new technology in business operation activities. 

  • Maket Place 

The Market place business model provides a platform where buyers and sellers can engage with each other to make transactions. The market place company will handle their transaction and ensure personal security. They earn profits as commission for every transaction. 

The two most well-known examples for this type of business are eBay & Alibaba. 

  • Freemium


    This business model is a good way to approach the need of free products for the customers, while having some certain features for premium users only. Freemium startups allow customers to experience their products without any risk and then make a payment if they want to use more functions. 

Vimeo is an example of this business model. Vimeo allows you to make video freely, however they limit the amount of data which you can upload weekly. They provide 4 different payment plans to explain features usages such as: password protection, collaboration,… 

  • The Ecosystem 

Those who reach to the stage of a giant build their own ecosystem to support their customer better and create wider impact like Google, Amazon or Apple…

In conclusion, choosing which business model to adopt takes time and effort because it is the process. All you can do is to analyse and research carefully before making a decision. Hopefully this information may give you some hints for you to create a business model which helps you turn your idea into profit in a sustainable way.

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2019 Vietnam startup investment look back

Just some of my random notes about world startup investment and Vietnam so please make sure that you double check when I use my article.

Six years ago, Aileen Lee – founder of Cowboy Venture created the term “Unicorn” to illustrate the start-up companies which have the value of over $1 billions. 

At this time there were not many companies which were worth a billion dollars. Thus “Unicorn” was the dream name for many start-up since this term was introduced. However, the industry landscape has changed dramatically. The world of venture capital has been blooming, there has been a huge amount of money invested in the start-up company. 

In recent years, the number of “Unicorn” has increased exponentially. Total investment in the unicorn companies is up to 1.1 thousand of dollars. 

 

An analysis about 326 unicorns in the world

  • Overview about “Unicorn” in 2019

According to CB Insights of Unicorn of Unicorn Tracker – the company does research about the unicorn according to their industry, valuation and country. 

ByteDance is currently the largest unicorn with the valuation of 75 billion dollars. The China-based company operates many products such as: Vigo, Toutiao, TopBuzz and more, but the most special raising platform which is currently used by many millennia’s: TikTok. ByteDance uses AI to adjust the content to fit with the customer behavior. 

Source: Pixabay

Expert estimates that in 2019, there are more than 100 unicorns will conduct IPO – (The Initial Public Offering), including Uber and AirBnb. Recently, Lyft and Pinterest have conducted IPO. Another Unicorn is Zoom Video – an online video call platform is also in the IPO process, with the stock price increasing at 120% since its impressive release in the middle of April. 

  • Unicorn start-up by industry 

Internet Software and Service and E-commerce are the most popular industries with many potential start-up. On-demand services such as Uber, Didi  Chuxing and DoorDash attract more investors to invest in this area. 

  • Unicorn start-up by geography 

Over a half of unicorns come from the USA, but China has many start-up companies which have high value. While most of the unicorns come from 6 countries: USA, China, UK, India, Germany and Korea, other countries in the world have 32 unicorns approximately 10% of total unicorn in the world.

  • Unicorn by the valuation
    Uber, Wework, AirBnB and ByteDance have the largest amount up to 30% of total unicorn worldwide.  

According to the pyramid, there are 280 unicorns at the bottom – unicorns which have value from 1-5 billion dollars. The sum of those are 461 billion dollars, as 43% of the total unicorns. 

  • Vietnam Startup Investment Overview vs world investment

In 2019, the amount of capital flowing into technology startups in Vietnam accounts for 18% of all of Southeast Asia, while that of Singapore is 17%. However, as a whole, the remaining startups only raised US $ 670M, much less than in 2018 (nearly US $ 890M). This fact shows that the start-up race has entered the stage of refinement, many emerging industries have also led to the recession of many old and expensive businesses of investors.

In January 2019, Momo successfully raised funds  in the Series C 100 USD from Warburg Pincus funding. Momo is the first payment-app with more than 12 million users in Vietnam. 

In January 2019, Lefair – an ecommerce site which sells boutiques, has called for $7 million in the Series B from GSShop and Belt Road Capital Management. This success has helped the company total investment round to 12M USD. However, they just announced to quit the Vietnam market on 2020.

In February 2019, Elsa has raised fund successfully $7M USD Series A from Gradient Ventures – the specialized fund for AI of Google. Now, the total investment for the company is $12M. 

In March 2019, Tiki raised $75M from NorthStar Group and are the top 2 players in the e-commerce Vietnam market. Tiki is on its way to focus on increasing its service quality and user experiences. 

In April 2019, Jio Health has raised $5M Series A from Monk’s Hill Venture. 

In May 2019, Uber has failed since its first stock issues, which causes the loss of $6.5B. 

In June 2019, Logivan – 4.0 logistic service, which connects the shipper and the empty returned truck nationwide, raised successfully $5.5M from Matrix Partners, David Su and Alpha JWC Ventures. 

In August 2019, Wework – the largest co-working space US-based, which has an unpredictable fate. Although Softbank has invested $10B in Wework, they have stopped working with each other. 

In August 2019, KiotViet – a start-up providing software solutions for POS managing, announced receiving $6M Series A from Jungle Venture.  

In September 2019, Compass – a real-estate buy and sell start losing its direction, although Softbank has invested $450M and later fundraising $775M.  

In October 2019, Scommerce – logistic provider with 4 business units: GHN Express, Ahamove, GHN Logistic and GIDO has received $100M from Temasek – Singapore government investment fund. 

In November 2019, Softbank poured $500M into Fair – a car leasing company which is revolutionizing the car-as-a-service concept. However, Fair has failed and cut 40% of employees in the not “Fair” way. 

Also in November, Sendo announced its raising fund successfully with total investment in Series C is $61M from EV Growth, Kasikornbank, SBI Group, BEENOS, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Daiwa PI Partners and Digital Garage. 

This month, Lozi has also raised $10M+ from Smilegate Korea. 

Vnlife – mother company of VNPAY has become the second unicorn in Vietnam after VNG with $300M investment of Softbank Vision Fund and GIC Singapore 

In December 2019, Telio – Vietnam’s first B2B platform has raised $25M Series A from Tiger Global, Sequoia India, GGV Capital, and RTP Global.

In January 2020, OYO – a hotel booking start-up received $1.5B from Softbank has lost 65000 rooms and cut off 3000 employees. 

The world 2019 economic climate has significant slowdown, however Vietnam’s economy is growing.

Vietnam economic growth is projected to decrease in 2020

Collected from many sources:  Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist, WEF, May 2019, ESP Capital