Selling a product once is good.
Selling something the customer continues to need after buying the product can fundamentally change the business.
One of the most famous examples is the printer.
The printer is the initial product.
But after buying it, the customer continues purchasing ink.
Printer → Ink → Repeat Purchase → Recurring Revenue
At
Jarbly Venture Labs, we actively look for opportunities to apply this type of thinking to businesses and products we develop.
The question isn’t only:
What can we sell?
We also ask:
What could the customer continue needing from us after the initial sale?
The Recurring-Revenue Layer
Sometimes the recurring component is obvious.
Other times, it has to be invented.
It could be:
- A consumable
- Replacement cartridges
- Filters
- Refills
- Replacement components
- Software
- Data
- Monitoring
- Maintenance
- Membership
- Content
- Upgrades
- Cloud storage
- Analytics
- Certification
- Support
- A complementary product
The important idea is that
the recurring product doesn’t necessarily exist yet.
We can design it into the business.
Easy Grill: Designing Recurring Revenue Into the Product
This is part of the thinking behind
Easy Grill, a product concept developed through Jarbly Venture Labs.
At its simplest, Easy Grill could be viewed as a compact tabletop cooking appliance.
We looked beyond the appliance itself.
What could make the product easier to use?
What could make the customer continue interacting with the brand?
What could the customer repeatedly need?
One concept is a replaceable fuel-cartridge system.
Instead of only selling the grill once:
Easy Grill → Fuel Cartridges → Reorders
The recurring component becomes part of the original product architecture rather than something bolted onto the company years later.
And additional layers could potentially emerge around accessories, replacement components, intelligent cooking functionality or other complementary products and services.
That’s a very different business from simply manufacturing a grill and hoping to sell another grill to the same customer someday.
Sometimes You Have to Invent the “Ink Cartridge”
This is where Jarbly Venture Labs can become particularly valuable.
A company might already have a good product but no obvious recurring-revenue component.
We can look at the business and ask:
What’s your ink cartridge?
If you manufacture equipment, perhaps it’s a replaceable component.
If you sell hardware, perhaps it’s software.
If you sell software, perhaps it’s proprietary data.
If you provide a service, perhaps part of the expertise can become a subscription.
If you sell a device, perhaps there’s monitoring, analytics or consumables surrounding it.
If you have customers already buying from you, perhaps there’s an entirely different complementary product they would repeatedly purchase.
The recurring component doesn’t always have to be discovered.
Sometimes it can be created.
We Look at the Entire Business Model
When Jarbly Venture Labs develops or evaluates a business, we’re not only thinking about the initial product.
We’re looking at the ecosystem surrounding it.
Initial Product
↓
What Else Does the Customer Need?
↓
Can We Create That Product or Service?
↓
Can It Become Recurring?
↓
Can It Increase Customer Lifetime Value?
↓
Can It Make the Original Product More Valuable?
That’s product development and business-model development working together.
Recurring Revenue Can Also Create a Competitive Advantage
There’s another benefit.
The right complementary product can make the original product better.
The customer isn’t necessarily buying the recurring component simply because they’re locked into something.
Ideally, they’re buying it because
the ecosystem is genuinely more convenient or valuable.
That’s an important distinction.
A recurring-revenue model should enhance the customer experience—not manufacture unnecessary friction.
What’s the “Ink Cartridge” in Your Business?
Maybe you already sell a successful product.
Maybe you’re developing something new.
Maybe your company generates revenue every time it finds a new customer, but very little after the first transaction.
That’s something worth examining.
At
Jarbly Venture Labs, we can look beyond the product you’re currently selling and explore the products, technology, services and business models that could potentially exist around it.
Because sometimes the biggest opportunity isn’t the product sitting on the shelf.
It’s what the customer will need after they buy it.
Have a product or business without recurring revenue?
Show us what you sell. We’ll look for your “ink cartridge.”
Jarbly Venture Labs
We Build Ideas Into Businesses.