Sell It Once or Get Paid for Years? Choosing the Right Technology Business Model

Recurring revenue sounds great. Build something once. Charge monthly. Keep the customer for years. But at Jarbly Venture Labs, we don’t believe every product or technology should automatically become a subscription. Sometimes the better business decision is: Build it. Sell it. Get paid. Move on. Other times, the real opportunity is maintaining the technology and becoming an ongoing part of the customer’s operation. The key is understanding which model fits the product.

Sometimes We’d Rather Sell It and Be Done

Recurring revenue comes with recurring responsibility. If you’re charging a customer every month, they’re going to expect something every month. Maintenance. Hosting. Support. Updates. Security. New features. Integrations. Troubleshooting. Customer service. Training. Infrastructure. If you don’t want to build an organization capable of providing those things, a large one-time sale can sometimes be far more attractive. Get paid for the asset and transfer the responsibility. That’s particularly relevant to certain inventions and intellectual property. We may develop something where the better outcome is: CREATE → PROTECT → SELL or: CREATE → LICENSE IP → COLLECT ROYALTIES rather than building an entire operating company around it.

But Maintenance Can Also Be the Opportunity

Now consider a different situation. You’ve developed software that the customer relies on every day. It needs to be hosted. It needs to stay operational. It needs updates. The customer’s workflows are built around it. New employees need access. Forms change. Integrations change. Features need to evolve. Now maintenance isn’t necessarily a burden. Maintenance is part of the product. And that can create a very different business model. Instead of: BUILD → SELL → GOODBYE you might have: SETUP → LICENSE → MAINTAIN → SUPPORT → IMPROVE → RENEW That’s where we like recurring technology relationships.

The Bloomberg Philosophy

Bloomberg is a useful example of the broader principle. The value isn’t simply handing a customer a piece of software. Customers receive continuing access to an evolving technology, data and information ecosystem. That creates an ongoing relationship. At Jarbly Venture Labs, we look for situations where a similar philosophy makes sense on a much different scale: Don’t necessarily sell the underlying engine. Provide continuing access to the engine and continue making it valuable. But only when we’re willing and able to support what we’ve created.

EZ Offer Is a Good Example

This is part of the philosophy behind EZ Offer. A brokerage doesn’t necessarily need to hire its own development team and spend significant time creating and maintaining proprietary real estate workflow technology. We can provide the underlying technology. The brokerage can have its own customized experience. Its forms. Its workflows. Its branding. Its agents. Its configurations. We can handle the technology setup and continue maintaining the underlying system. That creates an ongoing relationship. The brokerage can focus on selling real estate. We can focus on keeping the technology working and improving. That’s valuable to both sides. And because the customer continues relying on the technology to operate an important part of its business, Jarbly isn’t simply a vendor that completed a project two years ago. We become an ongoing technology partner.

TaskChat Has Similar Potential

We also see this philosophy in the future potential of TaskChat. We’re evaluating ways the underlying platform could potentially support customized business environments, workflows, automation and other functionality. Instead of rebuilding an entirely new system for every company, the opportunity could be: CORE PLATFORM ↓ CUSTOMIZED IMPLEMENTATION ↓ ONGOING LICENSING ↓ MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT ↓ ADDITIONAL FEATURES ↓ LONG-TERM TECHNOLOGY RELATIONSHIP We have additional ideas around this model currently in development that we’re not ready to detail publicly. But the principle is something we’re actively exploring.

Reliance Can Be Valuable—If You Earn It

One of the most attractive positions in business is providing something a customer genuinely doesn’t want to operate without. Not because you’ve artificially made it difficult for them to leave. Because the product is valuable. Their team knows it. Their workflows run through it. It saves them time. It solves problems. It keeps improving. And they trust you to maintain it. That’s a much stronger relationship than constantly having to find another customer for another one-time project. You become part of the infrastructure surrounding their business.

The Question Is: Do You Want to Service It?

This is an important question for any company considering recurring revenue. Do you actually want the ongoing relationship? If the answer is no, sell the product. If the answer is yes, then build the infrastructure necessary to support it. A company with a strong maintenance, technology or customer-success operation may be able to create tremendous value through: Software licensing. Maintenance agreements. Hosting. Support. Usage fees. Per-user pricing. Enterprise agreements. Updates. Additional modules. Managed services. White-label technology. Now you’re not merely selling software. You’re building a recurring service ecosystem around the technology.

We Look at Both Paths

At Jarbly Venture Labs, we don’t automatically force every opportunity into SaaS. We ask: How valuable is the upfront sale? How much maintenance will this require? Do we want to provide that maintenance? How critical will the technology become to the customer? Can we provide continuing value? Does retaining the underlying IP create strategic value? Can the same core platform serve multiple customers? Is recurring revenue worth the ongoing responsibility? Then we determine the model. Sometimes: BUILD → SELL → EXIT Other times: BUILD → LICENSE → MAINTAIN → COMPOUND And sometimes: BUILD → LICENSE THE IP → ROYALTIES There isn’t one correct answer.

We Like Being the Technology Partner When It Makes Sense

With platforms such as EZ Offer, and potentially TaskChat and other technologies we’re developing, we’re particularly interested in situations where we can provide the underlying technology while customers build their operations around it. We handle the technology. We maintain it. We improve it. They continue receiving value from it. And instead of starting at zero every month looking for another project, we build a base of long-term relationships and recurring revenue. That’s a business model we like.

Have Technology That Could Create an Ongoing Customer Relationship?

Maybe you’re currently selling something once that could support maintenance, licensing, software or another recurring component. Or maybe your company needs technology but doesn’t want to build and maintain it internally. Bring the opportunity to Jarbly Venture Labs. We’ll look at both sides: Should you sell it once and move on—or build something customers will want you to maintain for years? Jarbly Venture Labs We Build Ideas Into Businesses.