GOLD MINES & SELF-TERMINATING BUSINESS MODELS

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

This founder built backyard houses until he realized his fatal flaw - customers only need one house. Silicon Valley trains you to worship recurring revenue, but his business was a "gold mine" where you sell once and never again. Worse, every sale depletes your market. First customers are eager early adopters, later ones need convincing. Casper discovered this by selling mattresses that lasted 10 years, Sunrun when solar got so cheap people stopped needing loans. Most founders don't realize they're mining gold until they've already subsidized growth like a SaaS company.