06 Entire Stories Guest Lecture

business model decides…

… which problems you will have

• not the market or the industry

entire stories business model

sustainable brands curated by the administrative team → entire stories marketplace → conscious shoppers

• commision on each sale as a revenue lever

GMV

gross merchandise value: total sold on the platform

take-rate

commision as a percentage of the GMV

contribution margin

€ amount left per order after all costs

CAC & CLTV

customer acquisition cost & customer lifetime value

• cost to win a buyer and when it returns

conversion rate

visitors who actually buy

AOV

average order value

flywheel of matchmaker platforms

• more sellers → more choice → more buyers → more sales → more sellers

• supply onboards itself

entire stories business model problems

• gatekeeping supply by curating sellers

• capping growth by filtering for sustainable suppliers

  • brand were small and weren’t ready to scale

• creating a bottleneck by tagging products manually

• investing time upfront without guaranteed returns

• creating content instead of scaling

• reducing the margin to zero by paying every fee

toern business model

B2B SaaS returns portal (software subscription) → D2C brands paying the B2B customers

MRR / ARR

monthly/annualy recurring revenue (predictable income)

churn rate

% of customers that leave each period

net revenue retention

growth within existing accounts

advantages SaaS (Software as a Service)

• sells on savings (stronger selling proposition)

  • software onboards the next customer at almost no cost

key features marketplace (entire stories)

(who pays, revenue model, predictability, scaling engine, margin, main risk)

who pays: both sides - commission per sale

revenue model: commission, tied to sales cycles & conjunction

predictability: low, volatile

scaling engine: self-serve supply + netword effects

margin: thin - fees eat it

main risk: liquidity on both sides, capital-hungry

key features SaaS (toern)

(who pays, revenue model, predictability, scaling engine, margin, main risk)

who pays: one side - B2B subscription

revenue model: recurring MRR/ARR

predictability: high, plannable

scaling engine: software + low-onboarding cost

margin: healthy - scales with code

main risk: churn (losing customers), staying market-close

personal benefits for the founder

• positioning as an expert pays off long after the build

• investors bet on founders not on traction

• network stays

• visibility as an asset

• expanded expertise in the market

recommendations

• love the problem, not the idea

• start with the model’s metrics + capital logic, before the mission

• sell the savings, not the story - a number beats a bet