The Subscription Commerce War Chest Challenge

by Scott

The heart-warming response and support from friends yesterday after opening the kimono on a sacred part of my life was pretty awesome. I’m really grateful to be surrounded by such a supportive ecosystem.

However, I couldn’t help but wonder about the conversion rate. That is, how many people would actually read that article and take the leap to start talking to the homeless. Far too many people read things, get excited, then take no action.  

One of the product lessons I’ve learned that mirrors offline behavior is how challenging it is to effect behavioral change. On the web, this is best done by providing a far enhanced user experience with minimal switching costs.

Within the real world scenario of …
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Subscription Commerce is Not Plug and Play

by Scott

Just because you can put cool items people want inside of a box does not mean a viable subscription commerce business exists. After the success of Birchbox, so many people are trying to find ways to emulate the coveted subscription commerce model. Why? My guess is because it’s an attractive, easy to understand model.

Over the past 8 months, I’ve heard the “Birchbox” for x countless times. The problem is that this model is not plug and play. I feel comfortable saying this because I tried to start a subscription commerce company not too long ago. 

Like many, I gravitated toward the idea of emulating Birchbox in another vertical. From the sidelines, the model just seemed so attractive. So …
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