Purpose
Take an unstructured description of a business or initiative and return a rigorous classification against established digital business model archetypes — naming the primary and secondary models, the specific value creation and capture mechanisms at work, the moat type, and the strategic implications that follow from the model. Replaces hand-wavy "it's a platform" labeling with a defensible diagnosis that drives strategy decisions.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Classify what kind of digital business model a venture or product uses
- Diagnose a competitor's business model and where it captures value
- Decide which archetype a transformation initiative or new product should adopt
- Evaluate whether a business is a true platform/marketplace or something else (linear, reseller, SaaS)
- Assess the defensibility, network effects, or moat of a digital business
- Compare two or more business models side by side for an investment or partnership decision
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Business description: 3–6 sentences on what the business does, for whom, and how it makes money
- Customer/user types: Who participates — buyers, sellers, end users, advertisers, developers
- Revenue mechanism: How money is collected today (if known) — subscription, take rate, ad, license, transaction
- Stage: Idea / early / scaling / mature
- Industry/category: The market it operates in
- Comparable companies: Any "it's like X" reference points the user has in mind
- Decision at hand: What the classification is feeding — investment, build/buy, repositioning, competitive response
If revenue mechanism or comparables are missing, infer from the description and flag the inference explicitly.
Instructions
Step 1: Identify Participant Structure
Determine whether the business is linear (single value chain: produce → sell → consume) or multi-sided (connects two or more distinct participant groups who need each other). This single distinction separates true platforms from everything else and prevents the most common misclassification.
- Count the distinct participant groups and what each gives and gets
- Identify which groups, if any, create value for each other (the signature of a platform)
- Note any group that subsidizes another (the "money side" vs. "subsidy side")
Step 2: Match Against the 9 Archetypes
Score the business against each archetype. Name the primary model and up to two secondary/hybrid models.
1 — Platform / Marketplace: Connects two+ participant groups; value created by the participants, not the operator; revenue via take rate or transaction fee. Network effects are the core moat. (Airbnb, Uber, Etsy)
2 — SaaS: Software delivered as an ongoing service; value from the tool's utility; revenue via per-seat or usage subscription. Moat is switching cost and embedded workflow. (Salesforce, Figma)
3 — Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): Linear; owns product and customer relationship by cutting intermediaries; revenue via product margin. Moat is brand and first-party data. (Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club)
4 — Aggregator: Owns demand by controlling discovery/distribution; commoditizes supply; revenue via ad or transaction. Moat is demand-side scale that forces supply to come to it. (Google, Booking.com)
5 — Data Monetization: Core value is data collected as a byproduct of another activity, sold or activated into ad targeting, insights, or risk products. Moat is proprietary data depth. (credit bureaus, ad networks)
6 — Freemium: Free tier drives acquisition and self-serve adoption; revenue from conversion to paid tiers. Moat is funnel efficiency plus product virality. (Dropbox, Slack)
7 — Subscription (non-SaaS): Recurring access to content, product, or membership; revenue via predictable recurring fees. Moat is retention economics and catalog/access value. (Netflix, Amazon Prime)
8 — Marketplace-enabled Services / Managed Network: Platform that takes on more of the transaction (vetting, quality, fulfillment) than a pure marketplace; higher take rate, lower scale. Moat is trust and service quality. (Care.com managed, vertical labor marketplaces)
9 — Open / Developer Platform (Ecosystem): Provides infrastructure or APIs others build on; revenue via usage, rev-share, or marketplace tax. Moat is the ecosystem of complementors. (AWS, Stripe, Shopify)
For the primary match, state in one sentence why it fits and what would have to be true for a different archetype to be the better fit.
Step 3: Map Value Creation and Value Capture Separately
These are distinct and frequently confused. Address each explicitly:
- Value creation: What unmet need is solved and who creates the value — the operator, the participants, or the data? Name the mechanism (matching, aggregation, tooling, curation, access).
- Value capture: How the business converts created value into revenue, and what fraction it can defensibly take. Flag any gap where the business creates more value than it captures (a strategic vulnerability or upside).
Step 4: Assess Network Effects and Moat Type
Classify the defensibility:
- Network effect type: None / Direct (same-side) / Indirect (cross-side) / Data network effect / Social network effect — and whether they are local or global
- Moat type: Network effects / Switching costs / Brand / Economies of scale / Proprietary data / Counter-positioning / Process power
- Multi-homing risk: How easily can participants use competitors simultaneously? High multi-homing weakens platform moats severely.
Step 5: Flag Strategic Implications
Translate the classification into 4–6 implications the decision-maker must act on. Each implication ties to the archetype:
- The single hardest thing this model must get right to win (e.g., chicken-and-egg for marketplaces, churn for SaaS, CAC payback for DTC)
- The metric that most predicts success for this archetype
- The most likely failure mode given the stage
- One non-obvious strategic move the model enables or demands
Output Format
- Structure: Classification verdict up front, then five labeled analysis sections, then a ranked implications list
- Length: 700–1,000 words
- Format: Structured document — short prose sections with a value creation/capture comparison and a numbered implications list
- Sections: Verdict (primary + secondary models) → Participant Structure → Archetype Rationale → Value Creation vs. Value Capture → Network Effects & Moat → Strategic Implications
- Tone: Strategy consultant — precise, taxonomy-disciplined, willing to commit to a classification rather than hedge across all archetypes
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] A single primary archetype is named (not a list of "could be any of these")
- [ ] Linear vs. multi-sided structure is explicitly determined before the archetype is assigned
- [ ] Value creation and value capture are addressed as two separate items, not merged
- [ ] Network effect type and moat type are each named from the defined options — not described vaguely
- [ ] Strategic implications are tied to the specific archetype, not generic business advice
- [ ] Any inference made from missing inputs is flagged as an assumption
Notes
- The most common error is calling any digital business a "platform" — reserve that label for genuinely multi-sided models where participants create value for each other; a SaaS tool with an API is not automatically a platform.
- Hybrid models are real and expected (e.g., freemium SaaS, DTC with a marketplace layer); name the dominant model first, then the secondary layer, rather than forcing a single label.
- When the value-creation/value-capture gap is large, that gap is the strategy conversation — surface it prominently.
- For early-stage ventures, weight the classification toward the model the business is building toward, but note the model it operates as today if they differ.
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills