The Third Party API Economy Part II: Announcing the API-First Directory (Grace Isford)

Grace Isford (Canvas Ventures) on the API-first economy and a directory of API-first companies.

Why it was kept

The passages Kyle kept on API pricing: free or trial tiers, aligning the business model with usage, and the 3 C’s of pricing.

As Kyle captured it

• The Third Party API Economy Part II: Announcing the API-First Directory by Grace Isford at Canvas Ventures #API
  • As John Musser points out, most APIs have more than one type of ROI **which makes it hard to quantify the true value in a simplistic recurring SaaS business model. **The best API-first companies not only abstract away complexity and make a function easier, but also become an integral pipe within your software ecosystem, aligning the company’s success with the success of their customers.
  • Offer a free or “trial” tier to keep time to value and adoption low and let your product shine.
  • The closer you align your business model to your customer’s success, the more successful your monetization strategy will be.
  • The 3 C’s pricing strategy provides a simple but useful framework — cost, competitors and consumers. In other words, the cost to offer the product, the competitive offering, and the value you provide to consumers with your product. #Pricing
  • What are additional platform services, features and revenue streams you can layer atop of your existing pricing model given API stickiness and set of user needs?
  • Stripe, Twilio ($TWLO) and Okta ($OKTA) are all model examples of this — beyond the core API functionality, they have all layered additional revenue-generating services like Stripe Treasury (Banking-as-a-Service) and Stripe Atlas (startup incorporation), Twilio video and email APIs, and Okta customer identity features.