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Every entrepreneur faces a fundamental choice: Build everything from scratch, or create something others want to build upon. Now, the smartest founders are discovering a third option that’s accelerating their growth faster than either traditional approach.
They’re building ecosystems — business models where multiple players contribute to and benefit from the same infrastructure. Instead of just selling to customers or licensing to partners, they’re creating systems where everyone involved has skin in the game.
Related: 3 Business Models That Will Shape the Future of Entrepreneurship in 2025 and Beyond
From platform to ecosystem
Most entrepreneurs understand platforms. Apple’s App Store is a platform — developers build apps, Apple takes a cut, and everyone benefits. Shopify is a platform — merchants sell products, and Shopify provides the infrastructure and takes fees.
Ecosystems go deeper. Instead of just allowing others to use your infrastructure, you give them a stake in its development and success. The difference is ownership versus participation.
Take Airbnb’s evolution. It started as a simple booking platform. Property owners list spaces, travelers book them, and Airbnb takes a cut. However, over time, Airbnb shifted toward an ecosystem mindset.
Super Host programs give top performers special benefits and advisory roles. Host advisory boards let property owners influence platform decisions. Community centers provide local support. The more invested hosts become in Airbnb’s success, the better the service gets for everyone.
The Web3 revolution in business thinking
Web3 may sound like tech jargon at times, but it represents a fundamental shift in how businesses operate. Traditional web businesses are centralized, meaning one company owns the platform, makes all the decisions and retains most of the profits.
Web3 flips this by distributing ownership and decision-making among users. Instead of Uber owning everything, imagine if the most active drivers and frequent riders had voting rights on new features and shared in the company’s profits based on their contributions.
Companies are already using Web3 principles without the technical complexity. Patagonia‘s “1% for the Planet” program empowers customers and suppliers to have a voice in environmental decisions. REI’s co-op model gives members actual ownership stakes and voting rights.
The core insight: When people feel like co-owners rather than just customers, they become your biggest advocates and contributors.
DePIN: Infrastructure without the infrastructure costs
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) represent one of the most practical applications of ecosystem thinking. Instead of building massive infrastructure yourself, you coordinate individuals and businesses to provide pieces of a larger system.
Here’s how it works in practice: Instead of a telecom company spending billions on cell towers, a DePIN approach would incentivize individuals to install small cell equipment on their buildings. Contributors get paid based on the data they help transmit. The network grows organically without massive upfront investment.
Spacecoin demonstrates this model. Rather than building traditional satellite internet infrastructure like SpaceX’s Starlink, Spacecoin is creating a decentralized network using blockchain technology built on Creditcoin. They coordinate small, cheap satellites to provide global internet coverage of up to 5G.
Individual contributors can participate by running network nodes, and the blockchain automatically manages payments, governance and data transmission. The result: Internet access for underserved regions at just $1-2 per month, compared to traditional satellite internet that costs hundreds of dollars per month.
The same principle of coordinating distributed infrastructure applies beyond tech, though with different levels of decentralization. Airbnb coordinates property owners to provide rooms, and DoorDash coordinates drivers for delivery. However, these remain centralized platforms that control payments and governance. They can set commission rates unilaterally, change terms of service, suspend participants and retain all decision-making power about features and policies.
This creates dependency where contributors have little say despite providing the actual service. True DePIN goes further by also decentralizing the payment systems and decision-making. Participants vote on network changes, fees are determined by consensus rather than corporate decree, and blockchains automatically distribute payments based on contribution rather than a company taking a predetermined cut. This removes the need for a central company to take fees and make all the rules.
When every new user makes the system better
Traditional businesses often struggle with scale — more customers mean more complexity, higher costs and operational headaches. Ecosystems flip this dynamic. In a well-designed ecosystem, each new participant makes the system more valuable for everyone else. The key is designing systems where growth creates value for existing participants, not just the company at the center.
Building your ecosystem
Creating an ecosystem requires rethinking how your business creates and shares value. Here’s how to approach it:
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Start with interdependence: Look for situations where your success depends on others’ success. If you’re a software company, your success depends on customers getting results. If you’re a service business, your success depends on suppliers delivering high-quality products and services. These dependencies are opportunities for ecosystem thinking.
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Make participation profitable: Don’t ask people to contribute for free while promising future rewards. Early ecosystem participants need immediate value — whether that’s revenue, cost savings or competitive advantage.
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Design for contribution: Traditional businesses are designed for consumption — customers buy products and leave. Ecosystems are designed for contribution — participants improve the system through their involvement.
Related: How AI Ecosystems Are Transforming the Future of Business
The competitive advantage
Ecosystems are becoming a competitive necessity in today’s business landscape. Customer acquisition costs are rising. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective. Markets are becoming more fragmented.
In this environment, businesses that can turn customers into advocates, suppliers into partners and even competitors into collaborators have a massive advantage. They have lower marketing costs, better market intelligence, faster innovation and more resilient business models.
The shift from traditional business to ecosystem thinking requires a fundamental mindset change. Instead of asking “How do we capture more value?” the question becomes “How do we create more value for everyone involved?” It means recognizing that sustainable growth comes from making everyone in your system more successful, not just your own company.
The entrepreneurs who master this approach are movements — and movements scale faster than companies ever could.
