Lens family
324 analyses · Business Model
McDonald's Didn't Get Rich Selling Burgers. It Got Rich Being the Landlord.
McDonald's
Subway Built the Asset-Light Machine. The Franchisees Were the Asset.
Subway
Thermo Fisher Sells the Picks and Shovels. It's Just Not As Immune to the Gold Rush as You Think.
Thermo Fisher
Kodak Didn't Sell Cameras. It Sold the Habit of Buying Film Forever.
Kodak
Polaroid Built the Perfect Razor-and-Blades Machine. Then Digital Removed the Blade.
Polaroid
John Deere Wants to Be a SaaS Company. Right Now It's Mostly a Pitch Deck.
Deere (John Deere)
GE Capital Wasn't a Crutch. It Was a Shadow Bank Hiding Inside a Jet-Engine Company.
GE
Siemens Keeps Buying Software With Money It Earns Selling Hardware. That's the Whole Plan.
Siemens
Progressive's Telematics Edge Isn't the Data. It's the 28-Year Head Start Nobody Can Buy.
Progressive
State Farm Could Sell Itself Tomorrow. The Math Says Don't.
State Farm
Burberry Spent £700M Climbing the Luxury Ladder. It Still Had One Foot in the Outlet Mall.
Burberry
Gucci Called It "Premiumization." The Numbers Called It a Freefall.
Kering (Gucci)
BASF Built the World's Most Efficient Chemical Plant on Cheap Gas. Then the Gas Stopped Being Cheap.
BASF
Dow Calls Itself a Specialty Chemical Company. The Spread Cycle Disagrees.
Dow
Rio Tinto Doesn't Set Its Prices. The Whole Company Is a Bet on One Number It Can't Control.
Rio Tinto
BuzzFeed Didn't Die Because of Facebook. It Died Because It Could Only Survive on Borrowed Reach.
BuzzFeed
MoviePass Wasn't a Naive Bet. Two CEOs Pleaded Guilty to Calling It One.
MoviePass
The NYT Bundle Makes Less Money Per Subscriber on Purpose. That's the Strategy.
New York Times
Paramount+ Climbed to #4 in Streaming. That Was Never a Place You Could Stay.
Paramount
Vice Sold Advertisers an Audience It Didn't Own. The Bill Came Due.
Vice Media
Spotify Held $9.99 for Twelve Years. It Wasn't Discipline. It Was a Hostage Situation.
Spotify
The Terminal Isn't a Data Product. It's a Tax Wall Street Can't Stop Paying.
Bloomberg
Everyone Thinks Ticketmaster Is the Empire. It's Just the Tollbooth on the Real Asset.
Live Nation
The Stream Pays Two-Thirds to the Music. Most of That Stops at Universal.
Universal Music
Netflix Didn't Crack Down on Password Sharing. It Ran a Two-Year A/B Test.
Netflix
Lyft Didn't Kill Surge Pricing. It Turned Hating It Into a Brand.
Lyft
DoorDash Barely Makes a Dime Moving Food. That Was Always the Plan.
DoorDash
DoorDash Gives Away Margin on Purpose. That's the Flywheel.
DoorDash
Amex Charges Merchants More So It Can Pay Cardholders More. The Loop Is the Whole Trick.
American Express
Visa Pays One Side and Bills the Other. That Asymmetry Is the Flywheel.
Visa