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The Syndicate

Where Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists Talk Early Stage Tech Startups

Creating Healthy Consumer Brands to Feed Humanity and Solve Climate Change | Filipp Chebotarev and Polina Chebotareva

March 9, 2020 by Regine

Polina Chebotareva is a co-founder of Cambridge Companies SPG, a social mission-oriented VC firm on fixing nutrition, farming, and health worldwide. Prior to Cambridge, Polina was an Executive VP and Partner at a real estate investment firm with $350M Equity AUM.

She is a Board Member for The Laguna Art Museum, helps raise awareness and funding for environmental issues and has devoted her time and resources to The Village of Hope Rescue Mission which helps struggling parents restore stability in their lives and the lives of their children.

 

Filipp Chebotarev is COO and Managing Partner of Cambridge Companies SPG. After working with California Congressman Ed Royce to manage the relationship between business, government, community, and other constituencies, Filipp went on to corporate, later finding impact investing.

Filipp is a major donor to Harvesters – Food Bank in Orange County, the JNF, and Actively Involved with Shoes That Fit, a 501C3 empowering children in low-income areas.

The pair emigrated to the US after the USSR’s collapse, and their fund is now investors in the likes of organic and health food/product companies: Once Upon a Farm, Wild Friends Foods, Matchabar, and dozens of others.

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The Youngest Dragon’s Den Investor on Future of Ecommerce and Entrepreneurship | Michele Romanow

September 16, 2019 by Regine

Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, the youngest Dragon on Canada’s famed Dragon’s Den and one of the most badass women in tech. Before that, she co-founded SnapSaves (acquired by Groupon in 11 months), Buytopia.ca and Clearbanc (a transformational funding company to help startups avoid giving up equity). Michele is ranked on WXN’s “100 Most Powerful in Canada” and listed as the only Canadian on Forbes magazine’s “Millennial on a Mission” list. Michele is a prolific angel investor and the winner of Angel Investor of the Year award. She co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson to encourage entrepreneurship and is a director of Shad International, a transformational program that develops the entrepreneurial potential of exceptional Canadian youth.

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Facebook’s Mantra: “Join us or we will copy you” – Platforms, Marketplaces and Playing with Fires

May 6, 2018 by Regine

1_m95NBw2KhihPjDXpX9Nehg.jpeg

Originally posted on mattward.io

The internet has changed.

The world of the walled garden is here.

This creates interesting dynamics, problems and opportunities for startups. It is exciting, and terrifying. Let me explain.

My background is ecommerce and Amazon. In 2015 I invested ~$8k in product and managed to scale my “startup” to a 7 figure exit at the end of year one.

If you are scratching your heads, you should be. Building and flipping a business in a year is dumb. But my goal was just to make some quick cash selling products online, primarily via Amazon.

It worked. And through the process I built a top 3 Amazon podcast, met hundreds of FBAers (Amazon sellers), and helped 1000s build businesses on Amazon.

As I grew, I started to wisen up. What started as a personal challenge suddenly become scary. Let me explain.

Platforms are like distribution on steroids

Platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, Android and the App Store are unparalleled acquisition engines. Never before in the history of mankind could companies, let alone startups access this scale and breadth of consumer.

The world is literally there for taking.

Starting a hardware startup? Kickstarter can help.

Building an ecommerce app? Shopify’s add-on store speeds its up.

Not a developer but got a great idea? There are even UI and chatbot based platforms for creating apps.

The power and resources at founders’ fingertips are unprecedented.

And so is the speed at which startups scale. Zynga.org was a rocketship, riding on Facebook’s coattails. The social network grew and viralized distribution, allowing Marc Pincus gaming company to ~10x in under two years. 260M+ MAUs (monthly active users). That is unheard of in gaming, at least it was.

In the world of platforms, this is starting to become normalized. But there is a huge problem.

Platforms are great, until they aren’t

“Zynga, more than any other company, took advantage and built an incredible gaming business directly through the Facebook Graph API. Over time, Facebook began making changes to how developers could interact with specific data and just as quickly as Zynga grew, they fell — and fell far. There are many companies, big and small, that have suffered a similar demise. ”— Ben Schippers: TechCrunch

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And I knew of sellers who shutdown overnight, with no warning. Amazon’s a double-edged sword. All platforms and marketplaces are. When it is good, it is great. But playing on some else’s playground often ends in tears.

There are two ways this happens:

rules/algorithm changes
copy/paste competitors
Both kill startups.

The age of the algorithm

The first and most obvious example would be Google. Google indexed the world’s information and built the leading search browser, with 77–80% of worldwide searches. That makes Google powerful. SEO and organic search make and break businesses. And throughout their history, Google has done just that.

The infamous Panda updates broke the backs of many businesses. Imagine adding a wall around a local mall. The number of visitors drops drastically. Businesses collapse and the mall defaults on the mortgage.

Those are the metaphorical examples of a small algorithm change.

And they happen, even with the best of intentions. Google wanted to clean up search. They saw marketers manipulating results, creating backlinks and gaming the system to get more visitors.

So Google fights back, adding penalties for overly specific and frequent backlinks. These hurt many sites, not just the grey and black hat players. And entrepreneurs (and mom and pop sites) had NO warning and NO recourse.

Even Ebay lost 80% of it is organic search thanks to Google’s Panda 4.0 updates. This was 2014. This can happen to anyone.

But blacklisting is even worse

While losing ground in search is bad, disappearing entirely is game over. If you bet your business on a platform or marketplace, the powers that be can kick you off anytime, even accidentally.

Now you would think issues like these could be sorted out. Reasonable discussions usually work, right?

The problem with platforms is that most are too big to care.

Amazon could ban a $10M seller, and that is only 0.007% of its overall sales. That is chump change for Bezos. The same is true of Apple, Google, or Facebook. What % of their profit comes from your product?
When you are dealing with mega corporations, they don’t care and it is nearly impossible to get actual support — it is all automated or outsourced.

(Pro Tip: If you do find yourself in this situation, call customer service, not the business lines. Most platforms and marketplaces care WAY more about customer than sellers. I have pretended to be a customer just to get the right people on the phone — works much better.)

Control + V

Startups that threaten incumbents get punished. Facebook is the worst offender.

“It was common knowledge, even back then, that Facebook would just approach a company and say something to the effect of, ‘Join us or we will copy you,’” — Naveen Selvadurai — Foursquare Co-Founder

And look at Instagram ripping Snapchat Stories, pixel for pixel. Zuckerberg offered to buy Snap for $3B. Evan Spiegel said no. Anyone looked at Snap’s growth charts lately?

1_dRcjv9GfBCg1vz769tBWLQ.jpeg

And the examples go on and on and on.

Platforms are walled gardens of data. When building your product to leverage a platform, you are often handing away the most valuable part — the data. Facebook’s OpenGraph API let’s Facebook track features and user behavior. They see what works and follow suit.

And Amazon just uses 3rd party sellers to test products before creating Amazon Basics versions of the best sellers (for more on how Amazon is killing ecommerce, see this post).

Remember, no one has your back. As a startup, it is your job to realize most “partners” are looking to screw you. They use you and lose you once your value is dried up.

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Failure to plan is planning to fail

Keep this in mind:

Who are your serving?
How are you reaching them?
What are the choke points in your business?
Do you have any leverage?

Moats are the most important part of any business. Any startup without a moat is ultimately overrun. Without defensibility, you cannot protect yourself and build your business.

And there are many ways to build sustainable moats — the most common being: product, brand, IP, data, and network effects. Each add buffers to competition. But most do not work for the majority of startups. (For more on the 5 types of network effects and how to hack them, see this post.)

But platforms are powerful launching pads

The point of this article isn’t to discourage startups. It isn’t to avoid platforms either. The goal is to understand the game, their game and your end game.

How do you take advantage of platforms, and not the other way around?

There are lots of strategies — most involve stealing/acquiring customers from a platform.

An example: With Amazon there are hundreds of millions of buyers. You can build a massive business only ever serving Amazon. It is inherently risky though — all your eggs are in one basket.

And as an Amazon seller, I was constantly looking to bring buyers back to MY SITE, not Amazon. I built a Shopify store, added couponed inserts into product packaging and hoped buyers would bite. Some did.

(NOTE: This was TOTALLY against Amazon’s rules. I gambled and got lucky. It doesn’t always go so well. But with regard to risk, what choice did I have?)

And Amazon is a great way to get sales quickly. But I liken it to fast food — great in the short term but with long term consequences.

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Building back-up plans

Entrepreneurs need to think this through. What is your backup? How are you building towards that today?

For us it was Shopify and email. Acquiring emails let us remarket and upsell customers, increasing LTV (lifetime value of customer).

For you it will be different. For apps, push notifications are great. Proprietary data is even better. With content and social, it is all about emails, not followers.

Every medium has its metric.

The question to ask: if your channel disappeared overnight, what do you do? The answer needs to be acted on now. Diversification and growth is the name of the game.

When investors see omni-channel startups, red flags go up. One small change and everything is gone. For inherently risky startup investments, that is usually a non-starter.

There are so many things that can and will go wrong with a startup. Raising money is hard. Building a team is hard. Shipping and selling product is hard. It is a hard hard road. And fundraising is a constant risk-reward game. Every round is less risky, with success is becoming more and more likely — reflected in increasing valuations.

Prioritizing acquisition channels

The core problem comes down to acquiring customers. As a business, how do you do it? And better yet, where should you focus?

There are so many ways to acquire customers, each with strengths and weaknesses. And as an early stage startup, you cannot and should not try do everything.

The best strategy I have seen is a tiered approach. Focus on one channel, perfect that channel and ignore everything else. Once paid ads, SEO or XYZ platform is starting to drive real growth, scale that up.

As the team grows (typically with every round of funding) the focus should shift to diversification. Keep doing what is working but begin exploring new channels. Stick with what you know here. If you have completely exhausted FB ads, look at Google, Pinterest and Instagram ads. Many of the same skills will apply, allowing you to leverage learnings, breakeven and scale faster.

The same is true for social. Built a large, responsive Pinterest following? It is probably pretty doable to replicate on Instagram. See superb results blogging? Try converting top posts to standalone Youtube videos, infographics or SlideShare presentations — all of these amplify your assets.

I for one listed products on Ebay, Walmart and Jet.com to reduce dependence on Amazon. And to some extent it worked. At our peak, 15% of sales came via off Amazon channels.

At the same time the strategy was flawed. Rather than slowly expanding and optimizing for a channel, I sprayed and prayed. We got our products on all marketplaces quickly but didn’t have the resources or expertise to maximize the channel.

New acquisition techniques

In many situations, tangential expansion doesn’t apply. Once you have exhausted your skill set and channel, look to expand into inverse acquisition channels — ie channels with differing time and CAC requirements. For example: paid ads are almost expensive and instantaneous whereas SEO is basically free but incredibly slow.

If you can balance paid and free acquisition models, CAC slowly decreases — and the business becomes more sustainable.

And whereas paid traffic can be manufactured overnight, organic results take time. Layering these approaches allows the best of both worlds: early acquisition and testing while still building long term sustainability.

(Here are more acquisition strategies with in-depth looks at strengths and weaknesses of each, if you are interested.)

https://thesyndicate.vc/start-series-fundable-saas-business%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8aa-15-page-guide-acquiring-customers-reducing-churn/

Back to the platforms

Building on platforms is like playing with fire. Startups however have to live off risk. Cash is king and companies ONLY die when they run out of money.

To both build towards profitability and hit metrics needed for follow on funding, startups should seriously consider leveraging platforms. Marketplaces make customers accessible by aggregating demand. They win as markets grow and can help startups take off with little rocket fuel.

But with any greedy, unpredictable partner, startups should always watch their back. This dance is known as The Art of War. Founders that play it well win big, but the majority fail. Between increased competition, external pressures and the threat of extinction, marketplaces should never be the end game.

Startups need sustainable, proprietary ways to acquire and retain customers. And it almost always comes back to business moats.

But we have danced around the topic enough. It is time to share your thoughts on the article and the future of platforms and marketplaces. If you were a startup founder, would you touch Facebook, Amazon, Apple, or Google? Any, All? Why or why not?

What do you think, is the risk worth the reward?

Originally posted on mattward.io

Product to Platform — Inside Amazon’s Dominance

April 29, 2018 by Regine

How to Build a Powerful, Profitable Platform from Scratch

Originally posted on mattward.io

Bezos builds businesses like no one else — and arguably better than anyone. Each of Amazon’s 5 major divisions would be multi-multi billion dollar businesses on its own.

And each followed exactly the strategy.

Let me explain.

Platforms

Amazon is a platform company. They want a small (but ever increasing) piece of all commerce. And to date, things are going according to plan.

(For more on Amazon’s entire business, see this post).

But platforms are pretty damn hard to build — you need to aggregate a ton of users and/or customers. That takes time. And often money, lots of it.

You can’t set out to build a platform. That cannot be your first “product.”

Selling books

In 1994 Amazon launched not to build a platform, instead to build a better, online bookstore. It was super niche, super targeted.

But this wasn’t the end-all-be-all, it was phase one. It was a product, a battering ram into the hearts, minds and homes of consumers. And it worked. It was easy to understand, affordable and offered a better selection than any library or bookstore.

If customers can’t explain what you do in a sentence or two, they won’t try. This is key for any business.

And as you acquire customers and market share, expansion opportunities present themselves. But in the early days Amazon sold everything — ensuring great quality and customer service — their main differentiators today.

That wasn’t scalable.

Amazon couldn’t afford to offer (ie own) everything. That is way too much capital. It was either compromise on growth (and grow very slowly with only Amazon branded products) or open up the platform (likely the original plan)

So in 2000 Amazon started allowing 3rd party sellers to sell on their site — it worked wonderfully. Fast forward to today, there are over 2M 3rd party sellers on Amazon accounting for anywhere from ~79–90% of the total products listed on Amazon as of 2015 (Source, Source).

Building infrastructure

As Amazon grew, so too did its infrastructure needs. The bandwidth and storage required to host and display images and information across Amazon.com ballooned as the marketplace grew.

Bezos bet big on in-house and decided Amazon ought to own the infrastructure. Better still, why not follow the existing Amazon.com strategy — internal and then sell externally?

AWS was born out of an internal need and an incredibly well orchestrated, easy to use cloud infrastructure.

That is how Amazon thinks.

Solve it once, then sell it — productization 101.

Today AWS is far and away the largest cloud service provider powering ~42% of the web — more than double Microsoft, Google and IBM (combined) and bringing in upwards of $4B per quarter.

Source: Geekwire

Alexa

The way we interact with technology is changing. Amazon (along with many others) wants to own the space/interface.

Today Amazon is winning BIG. Alexa is a cross-functional voice assistant/interface which in typical Amazon fashion is compatible with everything. If you are building a voice enabled device, Amazon wants it to be powered by Alexa — an “open” ecosystem — even if it canabalizes hardware sales.

Amazon gets it — the platform IS the product.

Voice may well be the next search, but it may mean even more. By owning the interaction, accumulating data and controlling the customer experience, Amazon is inserting themselves into each and every value-chain (a little piece of every pie).

In this instance Amazon broke its own rule — they built the platform before the product. And that was okay. Consumers already trusted Amazon’s brand (as did developers), meaning buy-in from both major parties.

In the case of the Amazon Echo and other Amazon branded Alexa products, the goal is attention, not profit. Amazon is crushing Google in terms of smart speakers shipped through a combination of rock bottom pricing and aggressive marketing and PR — flexing their ecommerce (and Whole Foods) muscle to ensure an Alexa device in every home…

The 2nd stage of platforms

As platforms grow and expand, their values and needs change. Google, Apple, and Facebook needed 3rd party developers to build the core experience and “hook” for the platform.

But as we discussed here, building on platforms is like playing with fire…

Eventually platforms reach scale and existing network effects act as a buffer to competition and value add to existing users. This point platforms no longer “need” you like so many startups, clone your product and push it to their user base.

You never know when the ground will shift.

Building a better wedge

You need a use case — “a compelling, have to have this” type use case to build a successful platform. Companies without this will struggle — high CAC (cost of acquiring a customer) and high churn.

Startups seeking funding (as well as investors) need to understand these dynamics.

It isn’t about the destination, it is about the journey. And for platform businesses specifically, planning the “correct” path is the key to success.

So how do you do it?

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The 2+ step rule

It takes at least two steps to build a platform from scratch. Even Amazon with Alexa needed both hardware (Step 1) and software (Step 2) to succeed — the Amazon Echo plus 3rd party developer support.

And even then they seeded Alexa with a set of “skills” designed to kickstart the customer experience (Step 2.5).

You only have one chance at a first impression.

If Amazon takes 2.5 steps, startups should take note.

NOTE: This is true whether you are building a social media site like Facebook or an IoT, connected home platform — it always takes longer and requires multiple hops.

This is all well and good in theory but in practice, how does it work?

Part 1: Determine end goal (i.e., build the operating system/platform of VR)

Part 2: Determine everything that needs to happen to achieve scale…

  • X number of VR glasses sold worldwide
  • Run your software/OS on Y number of glasses worldwide (where Y > ¼ of X)
  • Get Z number of apps built-in/usable on your platform

Part 3: Create a logical plan to get from point A to point B

  • Example #1: Design OS. Kickstart VR goggles. Begin ecommerce sales. Design enough apps/games. Market like crazy→ owning platform
  • Example #2: Design OS. Trial & partner with existing manufacturers (open ecosystem or open source). Build developer support with 3rd party app/game marketplace → owning platform
  • Example #3: Kickstart VR goggles. Partner with OS provider. Begin ecommerce sales. Design enough apps/games + onboard new devs. Market like crazy. Design new OS to replace existing one and boot existing OS from your headsets → owning platform
  • Example #4: Design OS. Kickstart VR goggles. Begin ecommerce sales. Design enough apps/games. Launch new VR products: gloves, haptics, foot sensors etc… and force compatibility between all→ owning platform

Part 4: Execute and iterate as necessary

This isn’t an exhaustive list but it illustrates the point. There are a lot of ways to achieve market domination and no perfect path to get there. You have to be able to reach, delight and retain customers/users to build a profitable, defensible platform business.

Each market is different but by-in-large, this strategy works across industries and should be emphasized when strategizing your business.

(Happy to chat more on the topic if you need help, just visit thesyndicate.vc or shoot me an email: matt@thesyndicate.vc and lets chat.)

Common platform failures

According to the Harvard Business Review, there are 6 primary reasons that platforms fail. Rather than summarizing a well written article, you can check it out here.

1. Failure to optimize “openness” — Twitter pulled their APIs and busted profitable businesses

2. Failure to engage developers — means having to build all the apps and usage in-house

3. Failure to share the surplus — being too greedy (like Facebook is today)

4. Failure to launch the right side — who matters more: buyers or sellers

5. Failure to put critical mass ahead of money — when do you start advertising or monetizing?

6. Failure of imagination — not realizing that the platform > the products

The 7th platform problem

Remember Google+? It was all the rage for a while. But G+ was inherently a boring Facebook copycat. There was no unique value, it was only inferior in every way.

The seventh platform problem is competition. You need to be 5–10x better than existing product to get consumers/users to switch.

G+ never got off the ground. The same is true of any platform without sufficient differentiation and value add. It has to feel organic, not forced. And usually, but not always, copycats feel pretty forced…

Source: Business Insider

Remember, platforms are networks. Network effects matter. For more on the 5 types of network effects and how to hack them, see this post.

Closing thoughts

Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google — today’s most valuable companies are all platforms. That is no coincidence. Platforms have pricing power and aggregate the majority of value.

And while many debate the merits and morals of such a monopolistic system, it is the world we are working with.

For a more in-depth analysis on each of above companies, see Gods of the Valley, a series of highly technical, highly researched articles on GAFA’s strengths, weaknesses, future ambitions and likely acquisitions.

Part 1 :

Amazon: The Company Consuming Consumers

Part 2 :

Google: The God of the Internet?

Part 3 :

Facebook: The King of Communication

Part 4:

Apple: The Fading Star?

To succeed in a platform world, you need to avoid and/or understand the big boys. Hope this helps.

Originally posted on mattward.io

The Law of Small Numbers, Power Law Investing and Picking Unicorn Startups with Daniel Gulati of Comcast Ventures

April 20, 2018 by Matt

daniel gulatti angel investor

Daniel Gulati is partner at Comcast Ventures, a corporate venture firm focused on early stage consumer internet companies. Prior to becoming a VC, Daniel founded FashionStake an indie online designer marketplace which was later acquired by Fab.com. He also an author, prior consultant and blockchain enthusiast.

Listen and Learn:

  1. How ecommerce has evolved and continues to change
  2. Why Daniel focuses on consumer investing
  3. How Harvard Business School helped Daniel
  4. The EIR route into venture
  5. How fund size affects investment thesis
  6. Is indexing as effective as traditional venture capital?
  7. How much of a role does luck play in investing
  8. Why network is never overrated
  9. What Daniel thinks about crypto and blockchainContinue Reading …
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Blockchain, Business, Politics and Angel Investing with Matt Ward of The Syndicate

April 6, 2018 by Matt

matt ward syndicate lead angel investor

Today’s an interesting episode where Matthew Le Merle interviews The Syndicate podcast host Matt Ward, sharing his story, lessons learned and controversial/contrarian opinions to make the podcast more interesting and informative overall.

Previously, Matt built and sold #1 crowdfunding podcast, artofthekickstart.com and transitioned into own products business. Here he turned $8k investment into a 7 figure exit in 12 months with home and garden ecommerce brand primarily using Amazon and other channels. In parallel Matt started the FBA ALLSTARS podcast and community of 6-8k Amazon sellers, helping ecommerce companies follow in my footsteps (monetized via consulting and affiliate and/sponsored recommendations).

Matt has done all this while traveling the world, living in Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain and the USA on boot string budgets to build and scale his businesses.

Listen and Learn:

  1. How Matt initially got involved with startups
  2. The purpose of The Syndicate podcast and what to expect
  3. Why Matt moved to Southeast Asia
  4. Which companies and startups are in the best position for a paradigm shift
  5. The benefits of syndicates over angel groups or VCs
  6. The top tech trends to observe and invest in
  7. Problems with politics and immigration
  8. Why Matt is bullish and wary of blockchainContinue Reading …
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Gods of the Valley — Part 3: Facebook — Zuckerberg’s Friends with $$ Benefits

March 15, 2018 by Matt

Originally posted on mattward.io

We are entering an era of unparalleled tech dominance where companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple control ever larger portions of our lives. This is the 3rd in a series of in-depth articles on the future of the tech giants — including a breakdown of their business models, biggest threats, future plans and probable acquisitions. Today’s topic is of course Facebook.

(In case you are interested, here is what you NEED to know about the future of Amazon and Google, and who ultimately wins…)

The Big 4 – Part One: Amazon – The Company that Consumes the World
The Big 4 – Part 2: The Future of Google

Focusing on Facebook

You probably know the story of Facebook, we have all seen the Social Network. In case you haven’t, Facebook launched at Harvard University in the beginning of 2004 to bring the experience of college (and dating/sex) online. And while its origins are innocent enough, the company quickly become embroiled in controversy as the network spread.

Court cases and hurt feelings aside, Facebook found what the world was waiting for — an easy way to stay connected with those around you while also increasing your influence and circle of friends. And with a ridiculous NPS (net promoter score) and viral referral loop/network effect, it spread like wildfire (or a disease :). (For more on the 5 types of network effects and how to hack them, see this post).

The 5 Types of Network Effects and How to Hack Them
Fast forward to today — Facebook is synonymous with social media and owns our digital identities. As of June 2017, Facebook hit an unprecedented 2B MAUs (monthly active users). That is nearly ⅓ of the population.

But that is just the basics. To really understand the behemoth and see where it is headed, we need to dive deeper. Let the games begin.

The business of Facebook

While there are several divisions within Facebook (thanks to a few successful acquisitions), Facebook is at its core a social media and communications company. Their business model is predicated on eyeballs and attention — and they have optimized the hell out of it.

Today the implications are starting to affect individuals and governments today (more on this later). But first, the business…

Continue Reading …

Gods of the Valley — Part 2: Google — The All Knowing Alphabet

March 8, 2018 by Matt

google is god

Originally posted on mattward.io

We are entering into an era of unparalleled tech dominance. Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple control more and more of our everyday lives — owning our data and everything around it. The inherent network effects and flywheels these companies built are unprecedented — both in their scope and ability to stave off competition.

This is the second in a series of articles breaking down not just the strengths and weaknesses of today’s top companies, but also speculating on future opportunities and acquisitions to help startups and investors plan accordingly.

Previously we dove into Amazon and came away with some pretty interesting conclusions and future predictions. Think Amazon will be the 1st trillion dollar company? I recommend checking out this article.

But today we are talking Google, and this one is going to get dirty. So grab your coffee, take a seat and let’s go.

Google is god

In 1998 the world changed forever when two crazy nerds in a garage rewrote our idea of the internet. What was once a disorganized mess of information suddenly had structure — imagine a library without a filing system. That was more or less the state of affairs.

Google revolutionized search, bringing reputation based ranking to the results. And while the algorithm was anything but perfect, the network effects and perpetual tweaks continuously improved the results, resulting in the internet of today.

Now you ask Google (ie god) a question, and you get an answer. It is your go to source for information and one of the few universally recognized words (and verbs).

 Just Google it.

Understanding Google

To understand Google and see where the company is headed, it is important to understand the constantly morphing and expanding organizational structure.

In 2015, Google officially became Alphabet, an overarching entity to let the many business units move faster and more freely to speed innovation.

Continue Reading …

Uber is Going to 0, and Benchmark Knows It!

February 12, 2018 by Regine

Originally posted on mattward.io

“Moving first is a tactic, not a goal….It’s much better to be a last mover.” — Peter Thiel

On the surface this seems contrarian. When is being last better than being first?

Steve Jobs understood this. Apple didn’t make the 1st MP3 player or the 1st smartphone. Yet in consumer tech, Apple is synonymous with both.

Uber being one of the most known startups has called for plenty of media coverage over it’s success and faults but while that’s been going on a big problem has arisen. Drivers and riders have NO LOYALTY. The reason I use Uber or Lyft or any one of a dozen services is a result of price, availability, and marketing. A better offer from ANY competitor and I’m gone. Initially of course this was not an issue when they had 100% market share of the ride sharing platform, obviously that’s changed as the markets gotten saturated hence why they are in for trouble.

Closing thoughts

What do you think? Is Uber screwed? Would you rather run Uber or Airbnb? Can Dara save Uber from itself and its business model?

These questions are not considered enough by the tech community. Uber is arguably the greatest hit in history of VC (at least of pre-IPOs).

The bigger they are, the harder they fall… and the bigger their appetite. I’m bearish on Uber and incredibly bullish on Airbnb.

Thoughts?…

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Originally posted on mattward.io

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Gods of the Valley — Part 1: Amazon — The Company that Consumes the World

February 3, 2018 by Matt

jeff bezos trillion dollar amazon ecommerce empire

Originally posted on mattward.io

Bezos is a bulldozer

Today Amazon feels unstoppable. The company Bezos built to sell books online is now arguably the most dominant and diversified company on earth, and the odds on favorite to crack the $1T market cap first.

This seems to be the consensus, at least among technologists. But the majority are often very wrong, so let’s dive deeper.

Understanding the empire

Unlike most of the Fortune 500, Amazon is very diverse. It isn’t one or two products that drive their success, it is an army. Amazon’s business is made up of five primary divisions: Amazon.com, AWS, Alexa, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Prime.

Each on its own would be an impressive business. Combined they create the world’s largest flywheel.

To better understand the behemoth, let’s look at and analyze each of Amazon’s divisions.

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