Unicornomy.com | Analyzing the World of Unicorns (StartUps)

WholeFoods Business Model, Analyzing Whole Foods Stock & How does it Make Money

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Whole Foods Stock, Analyzing WholeFoods Business Model & How does WholeFoods Make Money

Well everyone knows what Amazon is! It needs no explanation. What needs an explanation is why a ZERO INVENTORY E-RETAIL company will buy out (in all cash) a 100% inventory driven PHYSICAL-RETAIL company like Whole Foods Inc.

For your surprise, I was shocked to read this as well. I have examined the terms of the deal as well as WholeFoods Business Model and Whole Foods Stock performance, read on to find out about the real reason why Amazon bought over Whole Foods.

About WholeFoods, Founder, Stock and Facts

Whole Foods Market Inc. is an American supermarket chain exclusively retailing (online-offline) food items without any sort of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and fats.

Well, that’s interesting! A Whole Business model around Whole Foods only, who could’ve thought this business also has the potential to do over $10 Billion a year in Revenues!

It is the United States’ first certified organic grocer i.e organic integrity of the products from the time they reach stores until they are placed in a shopping cart is maintained without the use of artificial chemicals/agents.

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B2C/Media and Entertainment/Tech StartUps/US Unicorn StartUps

Netflix Business Strategy & Netflix Unit Economics

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Netflix Business Strategy

I have previously written about Netflix business model, this article is in continuation to the earlier one and is about the behind the scenes kind of business strategy that Netflix adopts and its consequential unit economics!

The actual board room kind of stuff 🙂 ! In case you are really interested in Netflix strategy analysis, then this is for you… P.S. If you haven’t realized, I was working on creating a new series of posts dedicated to business strategy and thus they delay in posting! This post marks the beginning of a new business strategy series of posts, it may or may not include posts that I have wrote earlier.

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B2B/B2C/HealthCare/Tech StartUps/US Unicorn StartUps

[23andMe Valuation] – 23andMe Business Model & How it makes Money

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 1 Comment

23andMe Valuation, 23andMe Business Model & How 23andMe makes Money

I have been lately too much involved in HealthCare startups, because I have a feeling that health is gonna be at the top of the priority list for every one, and this is one thing that people spend on without blinking an eye! Thus wanted to explore some unconventional business models and here it is – 23andMe Business Model!

About 23andMe, Founders, Funders & Facts

At one side of the equation is Con StartUps like Theranos who duped investors of their money for something that did not exist and at the other side are some tech startups that call themselves as HealthCare startups but are Vanilla Software startups like Practo – 23andMe is actually between both! The reason I say that is because they started with Genetic Code Mapping (Ancestry Testing) for Individual customers like you and me but when they realized this is just a one time fun thing for many and they may not be able to pull off another Con story like Theranos they pivoted into a full blow research and services company along with drug discovery pipeline focusing on developing health tests (like Theranos!)

23andMe Founders: Well this is not a startup per se, it’s already a decade plus old. It was founded in 2006. 23andMe Founders are Anne Wojcicki (She is the Ex-wife of Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin), Linda Avey (Left and Started Up), Paul Cusenza (Left and Joined Work Force Back).

23andMe Funders: Google Ventures, NEA, Sergey Brin & GenenTech.

23andMe Valuation: Valuation as of June 2017, appx $2 Billion.

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B2C/Health & Beauty/HealthCare

Depression Treatment – Scam of The Multi Billion Dollar Industry’s Business Model

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 11 Comments

The Multi-Billion Dollar Depression Treatment Industry

What is the Business Model behind Depression Treatment?

Or is there even a slight amount of money to be made by Health Care Companies / Hospitals / Doctors by Depression Treatment?

No! This is not some crappy health tips post! This is the BADA-BAAP / Grandfather of all the business models examples that you could ever have heard or read about. So Grab a cup of coffee/beer and sit with your reading glasses on, because this is gonna be one hell of a read that you have had lately (and 30 minutes long read as well).

About Depression, Founders, Funders and Facts

I finished my last read which was an awesome business strategy book named Understanding Michael Porter, the tools required for the understanding of the industry that this book gave was fabulous! A must read! So post this I was looking for my next read for which I needed something that gives me a broader perspective of the HIDDEN business value in an industry (something I call in my own train of thought patterns as BASTARDIZATION of the Business Model, more explanation later in this post as well) and this is when I uncovered a truly Unique, Ruthless & powerful, even more than the Prostitution & Begging Industry, Business Model……

Any Guesses!

……

….

Yes, You did get that right!

It’s the Depression Treatment Industry! Let’s get on to its business model now.

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Ad-Tech/Illegal/Media and Entertainment

How PirateBay Makes Money, Understanding How illegal Torrent/Streaming sites make Money

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Evaluating PirateBay Business Model & How does PirateBay make Money – UE Analysis

Disclaimer: The author or this blog does not support or encourage piracy in any form or manner what so ever. Please use this information at your own risk and proceeding further from this point you are indemnifying the author and the blog for any liability arising out of using this information.

ThePirateBay, TPB, as it is fondly known in the torrenting fraternity, is the king of online piracy websites. They are staunch supporters of “content for all” philosophy and that all torrenting users need not be criminals. Torrents can be used legitimately for downloading content in countries where there is strict control over freedom of speech etc. It can be used to transfer large file sizes privately to other users etc. Thus I have no clue why governments (bribed by Large Media houses) have problems with illegal torrent site business models or how piratebay makes money etc.

About PirateBay, Funders, Founders and Facts

TPB has been the subject of love and hate of almost everyone on the internet. Media houses hate TPB for stealing their content and infringing on copyrights, governments hate TPB for spreading revolutionary thoughts amongst youth etc. Please understand that The Pirate Bay is not a download LOCATION/SITE, it is merely an online index (directory) of content and its location on the internet (let’s say Google Maps of Media Industry). Content comprises of entertainment media and software. Swedish think tank Piratbyrån (was the company behind TPB), here visitors can search, download and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.

PirateBay Founders: Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm – All 3 have served Jail time for illegal distribution of copyrighted content.

PirateBay Funding: NONE, They operate as a non-profit and all the money that comes in goes towards funding the expenses and keeping TPB alive on the internet.

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Cloud / Telephony/Europe Unicorn StartUps/SaaS/Tech StartUps

How does TrueCaller make Money & Evaluating TrueCaller Business Model

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Evaluating TrueCaller Business Model & How does TrueCaller make Money – UE Analysis

Fools day calls for a Foolish business model. So here it is! Truecaller is a Swedish internet company which has developed a crowdsourced global telephone directory. Truecaller provides a dynamic, real-time updated phone directory using the users and the internet scrapped (crawled) phone books thus providing high data integrity. The real reason for which everyone is interested in TrueCaller Business Model or How TrueCaller makes Money is because it gives away all caller information for FREE!

About TrueCaller, Funders, Founders and Facts

It was initially launched on BlackBerry in 2009 (yes it’s that old). After a good response by BB users, it launched for Symbian (Nokia) and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It was released for Android & Apple iPhone in 2010 (it is only after the smartphone revolution in 2011 that Truecaller really pulled off (but rather not quite), As of today TrueCaller has 100 million users worldwide.

TrueCaller really gained traction when it became crowdsourced, originally when it was just stealing user contact directory it was just collating data from elsewhere as well. But due to low numbers, it could not pull off as expected, only when they really started to scan everyone’s phone book and put a name to almost all numbers, it really went on to that famous J-curve.

TrueCaller Founders: Truecaller was developed by True Software Scandinavia AB, a privately held company in Stockholm, Sweden founded by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam.

TrueCaller Funding: $150 million from Sequoia and KPCB (Kleiner Perkins).

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Ad-Tech/B2B/Classifieds/E-Commerce / Marketplace / Aggregators/Large Companies

Evaluating Groupon Business Model & How does Groupon make Money

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Evaluating Groupon Business Model & How does Groupon make Money – UE Analysis

Groupon Inc. is, well another dinosaur after eBay. It was once as famous as FaceBook and Amazon but everything went down the toilet. 🙂 This is an e-commerce marketplace running deals & discounts thereby connecting millions of subscribers with local (nearby) merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in more than 28 countries.

About Groupon, Funders, Founders and Facts

The company should be credited with one thing, reaching billion dollar sales value in fastest possible time (still holds today) of 16 months since inception. The company was formed as The Point, based on the book Tipping Point (Another Entrepreneur must read along with Outliers) to which the founder thought of the buying power of groups and rest became Groupon!

Groupon Founders: Andrew Mason (was fired post-IPO), Eric Lefkofsky, Brad Keywell.

Groupon Funding: $1 million by Andrew’s ex-boss. Today Groupon is a listed entity with $8 billion market capitalization.

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B2C/Classifieds/E-Commerce / Marketplace / Aggregators/Large Companies

Evaluating OLX Business Model & How does OLX make Money

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 1 Comment

Evaluating OLX Business Model & How does OLX make Money – UE Analysis

OLX (Used goods Marketplace – as it prefers to call itself) was incorporated OLX Inc. and was founded in 2006, operating in 45 countries, and is the largest online classified ads company in India, Brazil, Pakistan and Poland.

About OLX, Funders, Founders and Facts

OLX Founders: Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford founded the company for the world outside of the United States catering to a segment owned by Craigslist in the USA.

OLX Funding: Prior to being acquired OLX was funded by Bigwigs in VC space like Nexus Venture Partners, The Founders Fund, DN Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Total funding raised till date $30 million. South African media group Naspers (African Equivalent of Tiger Global), acquired a majority stake in OLX in 2010 & up to 95% of the company in 2014.

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Not For Profit

How does Wikipedia make Money via Free Wikipedia Business Model

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 0 Comment

Evaluating Wikipedia Business Model & How does Wikipedia make Money – UE Analysis

Wikipedia, the God-Father of World Knowledge! They are the only internet company which does not require earned money/VC money to survive. It survives because the people that gain knowledge (well few of them) from Wikipedia actually care enough to donate few cups of coffee worth of cash to Wikimedia Foundation (the charity/not for profit that runs Wiki Properties of Wikipedia, Wikianswers, Wiktionary etc.). I love their story, seriously! Read more on their story here.

This post is really about the core principle as I outlined in DuoLingo Business Model – that education should essentially be free for all. If you do not intend to read philosophical thoughts, I suggest you click here. 🙂

About Wikipedia, Funders, Founders and Facts

Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, There was only the English language version initially, but it quickly developed similar versions in other languages, which differ in content and in editing practices. With 5 million+ articles, the English Wikipedia is the largest of the more than 290 Wikipedia encyclopedias. Overall, Wikipedia consists of more than 40 million articles in more than 250 different languages and, as of 2014, it had 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month.

Wikipedia Founders: Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Sanger coined its name.

Wikipedia Funding: It was always a Non-Profit. It is funded by charities and fund -aisers done by Wikimedia Foundation who owns the Trade Mark of Wiki.

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B2B/Ed-Tech/SaaS/US Unicorn StartUps

How does DuoLingo make Money & Understanding DuoLingo Business Model

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Unicorn Economy / 4 Comments

Evaluating DuoLingo Business Model & How does DuoLingo make Money – UE Analysis

DuoLingo is one of my favorite apps on the phone. I don’t have many apps, but I have DuoLingo (that says it enough)! It is based on one of the foremost principles that I stand by through, Free Education for All! No one should have to pay for any basic level education and DuoLingo Business Model just nails it right through the chest with this principle.

About DuoLingo, Funders, Founders and Facts

Duolingo is a free platform that includes a language-learning website and app, as well as a digital language proficiency assessment exam. Duolingo offers all its language courses free of charge. As of 2016, the website and app offer language courses across 23 languages. The app is available on iOS, Android and Windows 8 and 10 platforms with about 200 million registered users across the world.

DuoLingo Founders: Luis von Ahn (he is damn famous and irritating at the same time – read more below about him) and Severin Hacker (Luis’s student).

DuoLingo Funding: Close to about $80 Million in multiple tranches from Union Square Ventures, Ashton Kutcher’s firm, A-Grade Investments and Kleiner Caufield & Byers and the last Series D round of investment led by Google Capital.

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