INTEL 🧠

The ride is over!

And what a wild ride it was 🎢

Six months of ups and downs, fast and slow moments. Now, as the first season comes to an end, here's the breakdown of events that took place.

In the final episode, ‘The Unicorn Carpet,’ we watched the finalists warm up for their final pitch by meeting and talking with 16 guest investors as part of the Longest Pitch Marathon.

Things got intense as the final presentations started. The jury carefully reviewed each pitch, ready to ask more questions.

After an in-depth discussion, we all received the winner!

Congratulations to the girls from BioHide for their well-deserved first place on the podium 🥇

Another round of congratulations to the runners-up, the sisters from ChiaDia, and the boys’ team behind CryptEarn, building Upwork for web3 gaming.

Yet, the loudest and longest applause goes to everyone: each of the 20 startups, 20 mentors, the production team, HalkBank AD Skopje—the general sponsor—and YOU, the community that enjoyed every moment, learned from each startup, followed the mentors' advice. If we inspired at least one of you to pursue your startup idea, then we've won!

In the upcoming weeks, we'll be filling this Intel section with interviews, behind-the-scenes unseen insights from episodes, and much more, until the next season starts this autumn.

Until then, all episodes are available on YouTube, and you can re-watch them anytime 🍿

LEVEL UP ⬆️

5 reasons subscription pricing works for startups

Does a steady flow of monthly income and lasting customers sound attractive to you?

That’s the power of a subscription pricing model, and here are the top 5 reasons why you should consider jumping on board.

Subscription-based model pricing is a business model where customers pay a recurring fee, usually on a monthly or annual basis, to access a product or service.

A word of caution: not all startups' products or services are suitable for this pricing model.

🟢 Some categories that can leverage this pricing model typically include SaaS (e.g., Slack, HubSpot), streaming platforms (e.g., Spotify, Netflix), gaming, news and media, health and wellness (e.g., Calm, Headspace), and others.

🔴 Some categories that typically cannot fit a subscription-based pricing model include startups offering one-time purchase products, real estate services, legal services, consultancy, event planning, and so on.

Coming back to the topic, here are the top 5 advantages of this pricing model for your product or services 👇

#1: You manage a predictable revenue stream thanks to regular subscription payments, making it easier for you to handle tight budgets and plan for future growth.

#2: You achieve higher lifetime value per customer as this model nurtures ongoing customer relationships, which you can leverage to maximize feedback, referrals, and continuous business.

#3: You scale more easily and often without a significant increase in costs or additional investments.

#4: You gain valuable data on customer insights such as preferences and behavior, which you can use to tailor and improve your offerings and overall customer satisfaction.

#5: You attract a broader audience by offering lower entry costs through various pricing tiers that cater to diverse customer needs, maximizing your startup’s flexibility and market penetration.

#Bonus: Perhaps the best thing about this model is the automatic renewals until the customer decides to cancel, leaving you worry-free about payment requests.

The subscription-based pricing model is a win-win scenario for both you and your users. Your users do not need to continually repurchase your solution and have the flexibility to cancel their subscription at any time. Meanwhile, you don’t have to constantly chase down your customer base for renewals.

Although all pricing models, including this one, can impact your business strategy and should be approached carefully, the downsides and challenges of subscriptions, as well as the different types of subscription-based pricing models, will be covered in upcoming editions.

Here are some great materials on the subscription-based pricing model 👇

🎥 Startups business models and pricing by YCombinator

🎥 The official breakdown of subscription-based pricing models by NetSuite

📖 What’s a subscription business model and how does it work? by HubSpot

STARTUP NEWS RADAR 📡

_{What’s happening these days?}

• The latest news coming from Figma includes AI upgrades and more.

• A new social app called "noplace" has reached the top spot on the App Store after launching out of invite-only mode on Wednesday. The app is like a modern version of MySpace, allowing users to customize their profiles, share personal details, and connect with others. Designed to appeal to young people, noplace aims to bring the "social" back to social media.

• Reserve your spot at the Crafting a Winning Pitch virtual event by Carta on July 17.

• Apply to the Startup - Business Angel Summit 2024 scheduled for the end of October in Sarajevo, to pitch in front of regional investors. The deadline is extended until July 10, so hurry up 🔥

• In case you missed it, here’s a link to the open call for collaboration between your startup and Brainster. Check the details on the link or schedule a call right here 🔥🔥

THE STARTUP VAULT 🗃️

• Use QR Code AI to generate a blending elegant QR design with growth-driven analytics.

• Create short video ads that sell with AI creators powered by Glato.

• Distillr to generate short summaries from articles with AI.

*Working on something that fits this category? Reply to this email to be featured.

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NOTEWORTHY TWEETS 🐦

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 🍿