How to compare business models without copying the surface

Draw the transaction before naming the model

Begin with one completed customer transaction. Identify who receives the benefit, who makes the buying decision, who pays and when cash arrives. These can be different people. A subscription label says little about whether the customer gets continuing value or merely spreads payment over time.

For each case, draw the movement of money, work and risk. Include refunds, support and any partner that must participate. This exposes differences hidden by broad labels such as marketplace, platform or direct-to-consumer.

Compare the unit of value and the unit of cost

Choose a comparable unit: one order, one active customer month or one completed project. Record revenue and the costs that change when that unit grows. Keep fixed investment separate. Do not compare a company’s gross sales with another company’s net commission as though they were equivalent.

If the case does not disclose costs, mark them unknown. Use a range for your own planning assumption and show which input changes the decision. A precise spreadsheet built from invented inputs is less useful than an honest sensitivity table.

List the conditions that make the model work

Look for conditions such as repeat purchase, concentrated demand, low fulfillment variability or access to trusted distribution. Ask whether they are consequences of the model or advantages the company already possessed. A strategy that relies on an existing audience is not automatically available to a new entrant.

Use a counterexample with similar customers but a different outcome. Examine what broke: acquisition cost, willingness to pay, service reliability or working capital. The purpose is to locate a fragile condition you can test.

Test one mechanism before redesigning the company

In an illustrative service business, a subscription might reduce purchase friction but increase unpredictable support demand. Test a bounded offer with a clear service limit before changing every customer contract. Track repeated use and the work required to deliver it.

Conclude with an adaptation, not a clone: which mechanism you will borrow, which conditions differ and what result would make you stop. Revisit the comparison when the cost or customer evidence changes.

Use this worksheet for your decision

Copy this into your notes. Leave unknowns visible instead of filling gaps with guesses.

Customer and payer:
Completed transaction:
Unit of value:
Revenue basis:
Variable costs and unknowns:
Necessary conditions:
Counterexample:
Small test:
Stop condition:

Find evidence in the archives

Choose a supporting case and a counterexample with a different outcome. Read their sources and check whether their conditions match yours.

• startups.center
• change.archi
• mistake.club

Cases to practice with (read and check the underlying sources):

• Naver launches its first subscription service at 4,900 won to lock in commerce users
• Dealt pivoted from a freelancer marketplace to retail services SaaS and raised €6M