Lens family
26 analyses · Business ModelThe Loss Leader
The First Kindle Sold at a Premium $399 — the Razor Amazon Gives Away Is on Your Phone
Amazon Kindle
Bezos Priced the Kindle at 'Roughly Breakeven' — Each Device Is a Storefront in Your Home
Amazon
Block Books Free Cash App Transfers as Marketing, Then Earns $5.24B on Speed and Credit
Block (Square)
The $1 Brownie of 1900: Kodak Ran Razor-and-Blades Before Gillette
Kodak
Ryanair's Cheap Seat Is a Volume Pump: Fares Are 68% of Revenue and Cover Their Costs
Ryanair
The Hermès Scarf's Real Job: Make $500 Feel Like a Bargain Next to a Birkin
Hermes
Even at $1.50, Costco's Hot Dog Factory Turns a Profit — and Makes the $60 Membership Feel Free
Costco
Robinhood's Free Trades Pay Twice: Order Flow, Plus $1.1 Billion in Interest on Parked Cash
Robinhood
Rolex's Famous Queue Is a Myth, and the Scarcity Behind It Outearns Any Marketing Trick
Rolex
Intuitive Profits on the da Vinci Itself; a Use-Counting Chip Holds 9,902 Hospitals
Intuitive Surgical
GEICO's Trade: Agent Commissions Out, $1 Billion a Year of Ads In
Geico
Schwab Made Trades Free, Then Bought Its Wounded Rival 54 Days Later for $26 Billion
Charles Schwab
Epic Sued Apple Over 7% of Fortnite's Revenue to Break Open Platform Economics
Epic Games
Robinhood's 5:11 A.M. Collateral Call Showed Whose Side Free Trading Was On
Robinhood
Ferrari Has No Loss Leader. The €30 Keychain Pays Like the €300,000 Car.
Ferrari
Fidelity Took Fees to Zero. Vanguard Already Won the War Years Ago.
Vanguard
Rolex's 'Cheap' Watch Costs $6,200 — And It Isn't There to Make Money on Its Own.
Rolex
Temu Paid You About $30 to Shop. It Was Renting a Habit on a Clock.
Temu
Epic Gave Away $2.2 Billion in Games to Build a Store Where Nobody Buys
Epic Games
Amazon Sold Alexa at a Loss to Win a Sale That Never Came
Amazon
Apple Sells the Bundle Cheap. The Discount Is the Cheapest Part of It.
Apple
Square Sells the Reader at a Loss. You Are the Product It's Buying.
Block (Square)
Polaroid Built the Perfect Razor-and-Blades Machine. Then Digital Removed the Blade.
Polaroid
Roku Loses Money on Every Box It Sells. That's the Plan, and It's Working.
Roku
The Printer Is the Bait: How HP Sells Hardware at a Loss to Win the Ink War
HP
Thinking Machines Gave Away Inkling. Tinker Is How It Gets Paid.
Thinking Machines Lab