Startup Business Models and Pricing | Startup School 

Read the business model guide here: www.ycombinator.com/library/Gh-business-model-guide Which of the nine models does your startup use?

"Pricing is not permanent". I needed to be taught this.

The Y Combinator channel is one of the most valuable channels on youtube IMO and this video has been one of the best ones that I have seen not only on this channel but anywhere. Love this and thank you for sharing.

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:13 - Outline 00:42 - 9 business models that build billion-dollar companies 02:28 - Leaning from the top 100 YC companies 04:19 - Marketplaces 06:13 - Transactional businesses 07:55 - SaaS companies 08:30 - Advertising businesses 09:42 - Overall lessons 09:46 - What's not in the top 100 11:24 - Recurring revenue consistently creates winners 13:24 - Defensible moats 15:36 - Recap - Best businesses 16:06 - 5 pricing insights from top YC companies 16:33 - 1. You should charge 19:40 - 2. Pricing on value, not cost 23:13 - 3. Most startups are undercharging 26:41 - 4. Pricing isn't permanent 28:19 - 5. Keep it simple 29:15 - Story of Segment - How to charge for your product 32:00 - Wrap-up - 5 key pricing insights

This is 100% spot on excellence: content, delivery, clarity, tone, and storytelling. Thank you 🎉

Now, that's what we call "Highly Valuable". Thanks for sharing!

I lost myself for all those 32:33 minutes. Thank you is not enough for such a presentation. Well done.

33 minutes absolutely flew by! Brilliant speaker and insights, thank you!

I watch all of the y combinator channel videos and never comment, but for this one I have to make an exception. That was an extremely informative video and helped me a lot-- thank you!

Amazing you put this public. 🙏🏼I've done b2b pricing for a few startups. It's difficult. My feeling is the biggest thing you need are real customers to work on pricing with. Pricing ultimately is what the market will bear so you have to start doing deals to understand what the market will bear. All startups seem to come down to one basic principle - know your customer (and their problems) well. The hardest part is getting out and finding customers but ultimately it's the only thing that matters. Do it early and often (advice I'm giving myself!).

Funny how for the only business model focused on hardware the short description is basically a negative/risk statement rather than an actual description.

I really enjoyed this video! Everything was succinct, clear, and actionable! And it provided enough context for the usual advice that one receives.

This one wowed me. Great. Lessons learned. Thanks YC. Thumbs up Aaron.

Exactly as we’ve been struggling with this issue, YC comes through. Thank you!!

This would easily qualify as having high value content. I needed this video so much!

Thank you SO much!!! It is incredible, super relevant, concise, and comprehensive 💥

I was trying to figure out how to show my business model on my investor pitch deck. Your video comes like a savior for me. Law of attraction 😅

This content is such valuable why most people watching something else as of today I can start my own startup

fantastic content!!! I hope everyone understands how valuable this information is.

Thanks Y Combinator for sharing those valuable lessons

Very clear explanation! We believe that all employees of the company should be oriented in how the business works and develop their business acumen. We have already advised our team members to take a look!

Incredibly good content. No-nonsense. Excellent presenter

Awesome teaching. Very insightful.

Fantastic advice. Thank you for putting so much thought into this video.

direct to points. very useful video. I wanted to do a video exactly like this

This was very informative and helpful. Thanks

This is perfect. I will be rewatching this video along with the ones by thiel and graham

This was so valuable - thank you for sharing!

The best channel on RU-vid. Contents galore

Man this was the most useful thing I ever heard about business and I heard it in the perfect time while im writing down my business model and plan

This video is priceless. Thank you so much.

Great video. Incredibly insightful. Thanks!!

Some great valuable lessons, thanks YC team!

Incredible insights ❤❤❤🎉 thank you!

These business models primarily apply to high growth high investment companies aiming for Billions or 100 mills which makes perfect sense for Y-C but for other entrepreneurs who just want to have several 100k or millions businesses take this list and also learn other things about small/medium businesses. Your plumber or plumbing company makes great money with a simple: build trust, do good work, advertise , hire good employees and send an invoice.

Thank you, very informative

Really enjoyed watching this...great insight.

That is phenomenally useful. Thankyou.

Excellent talk! more please!

Thank you for sharing this knowledge!

Wow, that was an amazing piece of content, thanks!

Fantastic explanation!

Awesome info! Thanks.

Very enlightening. Thank you

extremly valuable , thank you man ❤

Great work! Thank you

wow! its amazing and insightful, thanks!

Wow, that’s a lot of good info! Maybe I don’t really don’t need to get an MBA after all. Just subscribe to this channel!

Dude 🤓 thank you so much to this team

This is amazing!

Great insights 🎉

Wow really great value!

Thanks for a great video

It's funny that basically great web design was one of Stripe's differentiators for years. There are a number of times I suggested/chose Stripe just because the docs were so nice. It did save a ton of dev time. Before modern payments APIs, to setup payments on your website you had to dial a number and it made internet noises for a while, then some guy answered and was like "hello?"

This is a very valuable vid

Great insights

Thank you so much YC

This video, like a lot of YC videos is pure gold for founders.

marketplace or transactional tldr 15:50 20:00 cost pricing 21:50 one of four things 2230 complain but stilll pay 23:00 price can't be your only moat 24:00 pricing implies values, and why 26:10 well recognized logo, lock in

Incredible content.

this was gold 🤝

Really like your videos. Really wish you could condense them in to 10 minutes or send links to full articles. Your target market for these videos often doesn't have the time to watch 30+ minutes of RU-vid with everything else going on

amazing content well done

Amazing Video!

11:45 recurring revenue 14:10 enterprise, churn is a lot lower 15:11 organic distribution

Guys, I'm applying to YC for my startup this year. Wish me luck!!

Fantastic!!!

This video is incredibly packed of essential information. Thanks for sharing! 🙏

hello! thank you very much. where is the business model guide link?

Thank you

thank you!

Very insightful. Please upload more about oricing techniques.

O melhor a explicar sobre startup business no mercado

This is by far the best video I watched from YC.

Better described than my mba class

Thank you! Very informative and very well presented... very grateful! However, at the same time very uninspiring... I know these are hard strategies but would I work with somebody just trying to get a biz model right..? Nah.. though these are critically important they are as inspiring as reptiles!

If i got this before, may be I can earn more money. Really nice video.

Awesome 👌

BRILLIANT

What is the business model of Apple according to the nine business models?

This video was great. Love the idea about pricing models and charging instead of going free. But I also feel that for some startups having a free / basic options with limited functionality is a good way attract new customers. If they need and love the product sooner or later they signup for premium account.

How do the 9 business models apply to Healthcare Services companies? e.g. if it's a healthcare provider like Caron Health / Parsley / One Medical?

Gold !

What type of business model does apple have according to the nine business models explained in the video?

Awesome

Great 👍

Considering that this is the half-year old video and Gitlab at that time has been charging $19 (screenshots in the video), but as we can see now on their website it is $29 for the same plan... they have watched this video too!

Very useful information and great thank you for that. At the same time video have horrible sound - speaker deafeningly loud at the first letter of sentence and then quiet to be heard in the end of the sentence. Maybe at least editor should google about how to use the sound compressor.

I didn't understand the part you were talking about lowering price in exchange for your first user, logo etc. What do you mean by that?

Would like to see the SaaS model updated to also consider the other ‘as-a-service’ models like TaaS: Transportation-as-a-Service (ours!)

5:11 Marketplace Takeaways

3:24 - I wonder if this is partially due to Y Combinator's preference for these types of companies?

Can you guide food business comes in which category?

What about launching a product for a 2 weeks frío trial and then let customers know that it I am going to charge with either transaction fee or by subscription? Is this a good idea to approach on a small size mobile app product? More specifically a marketplace to bring supplier and consumer into the app itself

the high frequencies of the audio here is strangely abrasive

Education comes under which Business Model?

Can you guys figure out the whole audio situation? Love the videos but the audio is really difficult to hear (says the old guy).

Let's say a company helps it's customers invest, now would this be a marketplace because they are providing investments options or a transactional business because they make their revenue as a percentage of the investments?

What is the difference between transactional and e-commerce companies?

00:07 Key business model types for successful startups 02:17 SAS, transactional, and marketplaces make up 67% of the top 100 YC companies. 07:00 Transactional businesses are critical infrastructure for companies and have consistent revenue. 09:20 Avoid using ads as primary business model unless a top 10 site on the internet. 13:52 The best businesses have recurring revenue and defensible moats 16:10 Use pricing as a tool to learn faster 20:01 Avoid Cost Plus pricing and focus on capturing the perceived value of your product. 21:53 Find your value proposition and ideal pricing strategy. 25:39 Consider offering lower pricing in exchange for specific benefits 27:31 Adding enough value into the product can support price increase and growth. 31:22 Startups should charge for their product and pricing should be based on value, not cost.