If competition in business benefits customers, can the ultimate pricing - the zero price - benefit the seller and the buyer? The Mind Share Market explores aiming for adoption and revenue, how to monetize free products and their role in society. Three models enable these strategies. Tying relies on selling two indissociable offerings. Freemium makes a product or service available at no cost while others are monetized. Two-sided markets, or multi-sided markets, create a platform of interaction between distinct and complementary users. Pujol presents methods to monetize free products and the challenges in making this work commercially. Through the domains of open source, education and technology, Mind Share Markets play a central role in business and in life. In economics, they turn classic marketing based on messaging into productive marketing based on value sharing. There, mindshare becomes a currency. In life, they reduce scarcity by making the essential available and affordable to all, enabling everyone the same access, no matter their financial wealth. ************************************** "Pujol unearths the secret sauce fueling today's dot com darlings and shows how these business models can be applied to virtually any industry" -- Apruva Pratap, vice president of Global Strategy, InterContinental Hotels Group "For anyone new to free versus paid business strategies, not reading this book would be like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute" -- Marc Fleury, founder of JBoss and OpenRemote "Pujol presents a radical way of looking at pre-sales: Marketing is fragile unless it is productive. Marketers can gain robustness by simply adding value - before anything is sold, to their message" -- Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems and former CEO of MySQL "A masterful work turning a practitioner's experience into actionable business logic, and just great story telling" -- Marshall Van Alstyne, professor at Boston University & researcher at MIT "I have long been a believer that "Free is a great way to get paid." Pujol demonstrates exactly how this works in The Mind Share Market." -- Fred Wilson, venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures "Hitting on the topic from strategic to practical, The Mind Share Market belongs on the desk of all Web entrepreneurs and online marketing professionals." -- Sam Niccolls, lead online marketing strategist at Foundry Interactive "The Mind Share Market is a blueprint for entrepreneurs to build, serve and monetize business communities, a place where both free users and paying customers are kings." -- Patrik Backman, CEO, Open Ocean Capital "Insightful and captivating - a Must Read for anyone launching or managing free and paid products." -- Mark Burton, Chairman of the Board at Zend Technologies, Board Member at Infobright, Mulesoft and Jaspersoft "My company makes money using the Freemium model. I can directly relate to the ideas that Pujol presents in The Mind Share Market and see immediate opportunities to improve our business." -- Rohit Nadhani, founder and CEO, Webyog "We are in the middle of a Strategic Inflection Point that is profoundly changing how products are priced and sold. The Mind Share Market will help you understand all aspects of this SIP so you can craft a strategy to compete effectively in the brave new world that is unfolding as you read these words. " -- John Doggett, senior lecturer at the McCombs School of Business "Pujol has put together a framework for the new economy which is both engaging and educational. It's the first publication I've encountered that both shares the stories of, and explains the science behind, what's becoming the founding principle of so many new enterprises." -- James Farmer, founder and CEO, Edublogs
Nicolas Pujol is a technologist, investor, and writer. His works explore how groups, societies, and individuals can find and help others find the resilience to produce, and to live with joy. The Mind Share Market (2011) provides an economic blueprint on freemium business models, allowing companies to become more competitive while removing scarcity and unaffordability in markets. Robustness (2017) delivers on a philosophical essay for living in a random world, learning from populations and individuals showing - on large samples and at the personal level, how to develop lasting enthusiasm and strength.
