Here Lies Our [Predefined] Revenue Model

In Africa, ceremonies of death are much more of a celebration than a period of mourning. We celebrate because it is a blessing to have one of ours pass into the spirit realm where they are closer to the universal source of vitality.

If you are in the process of developing “webware” and you have or are trying to develop a revenue model, here’s the best advice: kill it and bury it. You will forever celebrate that decision.

During the development of Gosabi we posted up our project onto the best venture capital platform we could find: VC4Africa.biz. A few investors have taken interest, and during meet-ups or discussions we inevitably reach that question that makes us chuckle: “How are you going to make money from this?”

Before we tell you our answer…

Three reasons why you should/need not predefine a revenue model...

1. Unpredictability: Webware is all too unpredictable. Your project starts off as your brainchild, but its success depends on how well you can turn it into the brainchild of your target audience, i.e. how well you respond to feedback and forge it into a product suitable for your user-base. This is the organic nature of the web. You will find that the idea you started with often morphs into something quite different, possibly rendering your revenue model obsolete.
2. Time-consuming: Coming up with a predefined revenue model is time-consuming. This is related to the fact that your webware still has a very unpredictable future. You will find yourself trying to figure out cash-in and cash-out flowcharts, imagining how they will change when you’re a big hit, and building that whole fantasy into your system. Once on-field realities sink in and changes have to be made to your webware, you’ll have a lot more infrastructure to deal with as well. Oops.
3. Distortion: Focusing on a revenue model may distort the true vision behind your project. What is the solution you are trying to deliver? Focus on that. We don’t have to point you to websites that offer plenty of advertising space but are deficient in core content and purpose. That's a failure recipe if ever you saw one. So don’t quest for revenue, quest for resourcefulness. Revenue follows resourcefulness by default – even in the dictionary.

Q: “How are you going to make money from this?”

A: We haven’t put a great deal of thought into that yet.

Give people something that is of value to them and they’ll compensate you for it. We’re not building castles in the sky no matter how popular clouds are becoming ;) We want to be sure that the people have a search tool that is relevant and useful to them. Once we succeed in terms of resourcefulness there will probably be several ways we can succeed in terms of revenue. But there will certainly be no revenue if there is no resourcefulness.

We killed and buried our [predefined] revenue model when we realized it was bringing us more problems than solutions. As sure as the cycle of life continues, the revenue model will be reincarnated when it's time is due.