The Nexum Grant · Cycle 1 is open · $50,000 for 15 founding places · 15 remainNexum Grant · $50,000 · 15 places left

The instrument

Draw your business model

Choose how the business earns, enter its numbers, and see what it rests on and where it breaks. About five minutes. No account.

Nothing from your drawing reaches the house; the link holds it. This page sets no cookie of its own. Cloudflare, which protects the site, may set one for its security checks.

An example drawing

A software subscription for small freight brokerages

Eleven brokerages pay about $1,840 a month each, and almost all of them stay. The three largest bring 61% of the revenue.

The drawing shows its parts, what moves between them, and the one part everything rests on, lit in gold. Under it, the arithmetic.

About five minutes

Where does this one break?

Drag the slider and watch the drawing.

0%

At 0%, the monthly result is $2,683Holds

Holds while losses stay under 13.3% of revenue. The three largest carry 61%. Losing them would break it.

Other examples: , , ,

Example

Subscription

Schematic · As filedkeystone
New customers arrivingCustomers coming backTied togetherThe keystoneFlow shows direction; still under reduced motion

Parts

  • Customer — Small freight brokerages. 11 customers.
  • Channel — Referrals from other brokerages. $2,500 to win one.
  • The offer — Dispatch, rating and settlement in one ledger.
  • Concentration — the keystone — Three largest brokerages. 61% from the top three.
  • Delivery — A founder-week on site. $1,500 to go live.
  • Revenue — Per-truck subscription. $20,240 a month.
  • Retention — Brokerages stay. 96% stay a year.
  • Cost to serve — Hosting, support, data feeds. $310 per customer a month.

Links

  • Acquisition (solid): Small freight brokerages → Referrals from other brokerages; Referrals from other brokerages → Dispatch, rating and settlement in one ledger; Dispatch, rating and settlement in one ledger → A founder-week on site; A founder-week on site → Per-truck subscription
  • Retention (dashed): Per-truck subscription → Brokerages stay; Brokerages stay → Per-truck subscription
  • Structure (dotted): Per-truck subscription ↔ Three largest brokerages; A founder-week on site ↔ Hosting, support, data feeds

Keystone: Concentration — Three largest brokerages.

How to read the drawing

Each box is a part of the business: who pays, how they arrive, what they buy, what it costs.

The lines are what moves between parts, such as new customers arriving or customers coming back. The house calls them engines. Each kind has its own line, so the drawing reads without colour.

The part lit in gold is the keystone: the one part everything rests on. If it fails, the business as drawn stops working.

The reading

Arithmetic on the numbers in the drawing. It is not the house’s finding.

Monthly result
$2,683
After $147 a month to replace customers who leave
Revenue per customer
$1,840
a month
Margin per customer
$1,530
a month, 83.2% of what they pay
One customer over five years
$84,744
in margin, counting those who leave
Months to earn back winning one
2.6 months
$4,000 to win and get live
Carried by the three largest
$12,346
a month, 61% of revenue