Roblox's leadership intentionally directs a larger portion of revenue back to its creator community rather than maximizing corporate profits. This strategy fosters a more engaged and innovative developer base, which in turn drives the platform's overall success and long-term defensibility.

Brands can build a powerful differentiator by offering a physical resource that solves a major customer pain point. ConvertKit’s free recording studios for creators build deep loyalty and reduce churn by providing a high-value service that goes far beyond typical software features.

Instead of charging doctors for its valuable productivity tools, Doximity offers them for free to maximize user engagement. This creates a highly concentrated, valuable audience of physicians, which is then monetized through targeted advertising from pharmaceutical companies, its primary revenue source.

While platform businesses (marketplaces) can achieve massive valuations, they are incredibly difficult and expensive to build due to the chicken-and-egg problem. For most founders, a traditional B2B SaaS model is a far safer and more direct path to success.

Big Cabal Media's CEO admits he never personally loved their "Sponsored Post" product—a dedicated, clearly marked section for press releases. Despite his feelings, the product has proven to be a surprisingly resilient and consistent revenue contributor. This highlights the value of retaining simple, effective monetization tools even if they aren't innovative or glamorous.

When a tool gets massive attention but users aren't willing to pay (like Trust MRR), pivot the business model to advertising. Create scarcity by offering a limited number of ad slots and rewarding early advertisers with lower prices. This builds FOMO and generates more reliable revenue.

To profitably scale a SaaS with paid ads (Meta, YouTube), you cannot rely on low-ticket monthly subscriptions. The customer acquisition cost will almost always be too high to be sustainable. You must have a high-ticket enterprise plan to ensure a positive return on ad spend from day one.

Instead of building a single product, build a powerful distribution engine first (e.g., SEO and video hacking tools). Once you've solved customer acquisition at scale, you can launch a suite of complementary products and cross-sell them to your existing customer base, dramatically increasing lifetime value (LTV) and proving your core thesis.