Jason Calacanis warns founders to stop dodging the question "How will you make money?" There are only a handful of proven internet revenue models: selling products, advertising, subscriptions, e-commerce, and white-label software. Answer with one word or a short phrase, not elaborate justifications.
Team. I wanted to say one more thing about team. There is nothing worse than when you meet with a team or a founder and you ask them a question and they don't listen to your question and they don't answer your question. Or they argue. Yeah, I mean, you can have an intelligent argument, but I can't tell you the number of times I've said to a founder, How do you plan on making money? And they answer some question that I didn't answer. And all I want to hear is advertising, subscription, e-commerce, or affiliate links. Because there's only like 5 ways people have ever made money on the internet. You either sell shit, you advertise shit, people subscribe to it, or you help somebody else sell something. There's very few models other than that. And listen, you're not going to invent some new one. Elon Musk has not invented a new way to make money. He sells a car, or he sells you passage on a rocket going to space. He's either selling you a ticket or he's selling you a car. That's it. So don't feel like you have to answer that question in any way other than a word. Subscriptions. How is Insight going to make money? Advertising and white-labeled solutions. That's it. White-label software, advertising. We're done. Thank you. Bye.
