CHAPTER 7
Not long ago, the term ‘business model’ was not exactly on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Then, in the early to mid-1990s, ‘business model’ became a catchphrase that described how a company makes money or saves money.
—Marc Ostrofsky
Strength in Agility
An idea is only good if it’s executable, with a repeatable and scalable business model behind it. Many first-time entrepreneurs do not get it right when they go out on their own and try to build a business. When Bill Gates was in high school, he launched one of his first ventures, Traf-O-Data, a traffic counter. The target market was local government. Unfortunately, the company failed when the state of Washington started offering counters to cities for free, wiping out his business.
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