Building a Virtual Hotel Brand
I prefer hotels over Airbnb, especially when traveling for business — but this could change with one simple innovation. I believe many mid to high-end business travelers (myself included) might prefer an Airbnb type accommodation rather than a hotel with the advent of a “virtual hotel brand” built on top of the Airbnb platform. Several […]
Hunting for Early Adopter White Space
As an early adopter of new technologies, I am always on the hunt for apps that offer white space, or an asymmetric return on investment, for those willing to be early supporters. Tripit is an example: I travel frequently and rely on my calendar to stay on schedule. With virtually no additional overhead, Tripit grabs […]
Low Friction and Invisible Spending
Apple Pay will be a game changer. It’s by far the most interesting thing Apple has launched in a while, IMO and makes Apple a prominent player in fintech. Recall that great hardware is often simply a loss leader for the transactions it enables (think Kindle). Adoption may come slowly, but it will come. Anything removing friction […]
The Card Interface: A New Design Paradigm?
I’ve been struggling to really understand the significance of the cards design paradigm. Cards are quickly becoming a new standard in interface design. Fred Wilson and Benedict Evans have both discussed the significance of cards, but I feel like neither has been able to provide concrete examples highlighting why cards are not simply a design […]
Talent Arbitrage: Potential Over Experience
Semil Shah recently interviewed the always brilliant Keith Rabois. The conversation is wide ranging, but I particular liked Keith’s thoughts on talent: both incentivizing talent and applying talent arbitrage. First, Keith’s mentions his concern that talent is currently too fragmented in Silicon Valley. In order to build a block buster company (like the next Facebook or […]