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Most business models require companies to sell more products consistently. At best, this forces businesses to constantly develop and market new products to new customers — rather than making the experience for existing customers the best it can be. Pharmaceutical companies are great examples of this: They need to keep selling more stuff to stay above water, so they have no incentive to focus on long-term value for those who have already made a purchase.

While subscriptions may seem like a membership, not all subscriptions are memberships; in fact, the two can have wildly different incentive structures. Membership implies that there will be an ongoing three-way relationship between the member, the company, and its community, where the member’s participation helps the product and community continuously evolve and improve. Most subscriptions are generally a one-way relationship where customers pay to receive a service or product. It’s mostly a transactional relationship.

The membership model makes it so that we have no incentive to sell more stuff, nor are we incentivized to sell less stuff. We have no reason to push specific products more than others because they’re higher-margin. We can honestly recommend different things for different people (value for them!) while still making the same money (value for us!).