Mike MichalowiczBusiness Author & Keynote Speaker Empowering Entrepreneurs

Why Your Business Must Stay Unique

30 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:12

In this solo talk, Mike Michalowicz argues that sustainable businesses must be profitable and warns against starting with a freemium model that burns cash and forces reliance on ads. He stresses the importance of aligning a company’s incentives with the outcomes users truly want. Michalowicz illustrates how apps often lose their original unique value as they grow, citing Bumble’s shift from a women‑focused safety platform to a more generic middle‑ground offering. He then turns to small business owners, noting that their inherent agility gives them a rare chance to stay distinct in the market, but they must discipline themselves to cling to that uniqueness rather than succumbing to the pressure to become generic.

Chapters

to sustain a business, you must be profitable. So I get that. Actually, I support that, right? You need to be profitable. But if you start off with a freemium model, which means your users can use for free, how you sustain that is by using burning money that you aren't earning, right? So now you're going into debt. So now you got to start making money. So you've seen this with Twitter and all these social media platforms that charge nothing. There's more and more ads they have to incentivize, right, so that they can make money. Again, I think the solution is what is the outcome the user wants? And can you align your incentives to be exclusively with that? Also, I think it's homogenization, meaning that these apps come out and they have a unique element. I remember we were preparing for this and Kelsey said it was a Bumble that was oriented toward women. Kind of kept their safety inside. Yeah, the women's concerns, it was perfect. And sure enough, over time to sustain its business, it goes toward the general generic middle ground and it fades away. But we'll tell this, I will give you the opportunity here. You're a small business owner, it's easy to be different because as a company tries to grow and sustain, the natural tendency, we have to fight it, is to become more and more generic. So as a small business owner particularly, you have a great opportunity. That agility of yours allows you to really distinguish yourself in the market, but you also have to have the discipline then of clinging to that uniqueness.