Lens family
176 analysesBusiness Model ✕
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
Vice Sold Advertisers an Audience It Didn't Own. The Bill Came Due.
Vice Media
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
DoorDash Barely Makes a Dime Moving Food. That Was Always the Plan.
DoorDash
Square Charges 2.6% and Keeps About 1.1%. The Other 1.5% Was Never the Point.
Block (Square)
Cash App's "Free" Transfers Aren't Free. They're Filed Under Marketing.
Block (Square)
Regulators Came for the Confetti. The Real Target Was the Money Machine Underneath.
Robinhood
Stripe Could Have IPO'd Years Ago. It Built a Private Liquidity Machine Instead.
Stripe
WeWork Wasn't a Money Machine. It Was a Money Machine Run in Reverse.
WeWork
Dollar General's Model Wasn't Beaten by a Recession. It Was Beaten by Itself.
Dollar General
Chewy Can't Out-Logistics Amazon. So It Made You Stop Deciding.
Chewy
Etsy's Sales Fell 6%. Its Revenue Went Up. That Gap Is the Whole Strategy.
Etsy
Wayfair Calls Itself Asset-Light. It Spent a Decade Quietly Building a Warehouse Empire.
Wayfair
Trader Joe's Makes Less Per Item Than Its Rivals. That's the Whole Plan.
Trader Joe's
Home Depot Didn't Build One Moat. It Stacked Three, Aimed at the Same Customer.
Home Depot
Broadcom Doesn't Buy Companies to Build. It Buys Them to Mine.
Broadcom
TSMC's Real Invention Wasn't a Chip. It Was a Promise to Never Build One.
TSMC
Search Doesn't Fund the Moonshots. It Funds the 17-to-1 Bet That One Day Pays.
Alphabet (Google)
Waymo Just Raised $16 Billion. The Real Story Is Who Keeps Writing the Check.
Alphabet (Google)
Samsung's Chip Division Doesn't Fund the Galaxy Phone. It's Strangling It.
Samsung
Samsung Isn't a Diversified Giant. It's a Memory Bet With a Cushion Bolted On.
Samsung
Snowflake Sells "Pay Only For What You Use." Most of Its Money Is Prepaid.
Snowflake
Apple Didn't Start With Its Own Chips. The Order It Took Them In Is the Whole Strategy.
Apple
Apple Sells the Bundle Cheap. The Discount Is the Cheapest Part of It.
Apple
Dell Got Paid Before It Paid Its Suppliers. The Trick Was Born of Being Broke.
Dell
Fortnite Gives the Game Away. The Money Is in the Currency You Buy to Spend Inside It.
Epic Games