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Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
But becoming an Aggregator can also lead you astray from your core focus and vision, and can upset the businesses that came to your platform to launch in the first place, precisely because they did not want to get aggregated down the road. The most successful businesses created on the BiaB platform could leave.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
Substack could decide, for example, to provide an app that showcases all of its writers, enabling a user to search through the newsletters, browse articles, and sign up for those they wish to. This would be analogous to the Shop app by Shopify.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
But it will face a key decision in the future on how far to go to enable its writers to grow their businesses.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
Remain a Platform, or become an Aggregator?
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
Shopify is one of the most interesting companies in the world today.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
The platform enables you to start a business.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
That is the key decision that Shopify, Substack, Teachable, Superpeer, MyVillage, Wonderschool, WeeCare, Squire, Dumpling, SmartHop, and every other BiaB platform will ultimately face.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
And, as highlighted by Shopify’s recent announcements, BiaB Platforms end up facing a key strategic decision: how do they enable businesses on their platform to grow?
Nikhil Basu Trivedi • Shopify and The Key Decision for Business-in-a-Box Platforms
There are three fundamental aspects to every BiaB platform: