Only 3% of the top 100 YC companies use an advertising business model as their primary way to make money. We can also see that very few advertising businesses become big winners. And so it's really important to remember that you should not use ads as your primary business model, unless you expect to be a top 10 site on the internet. Otherwise, it's too hard to monetize and build a huge scale to become a massive company.
One of the most common topics that founders ask us about is pricing and monetization. In this talk, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein outlines 9 different business models, and highlights lessons from top YC companies on how to best monetize and price your product.
Business Model Guide: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Gh-business-model-guide
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs