brain waves

Mary Meeker's 2018 deck is out, and one statistic jumped out at me: 0% shipment growth of new smartphones in 2017. If there is a bubble, it floats on smartphone adoption. As you click through the slides, just notice how many of the screenshots appear as an elongated vertical rectangle "smartphone" screen rather than a boxier… Continue reading the sound of a bubble, popping

It made perfect sense to me when Uber announced that it would limit drivers to 12-hour shifts. The drivers who will be affected by this are already working 60+ hours per week.  It doesn't get talked about, but I know from experience that the people who are most successful and happiest with their gigs work… Continue reading the 20/60 rule of the gig economy

SoftBank's recent acquisition of Uber stock brings new urgency to the question of whether autonomous vehicles will weaken or strengthen Uber's business model.  While passenger comfort with self-driving cars will obviously play a role, Uber's greatest strength comes from what happens before a passenger gets into a car. Let's pretend I'm founding the Liz Welsh Self-Driving… Continue reading uber is valuable because data

The network effect posits that any network is only as good as the number of individuals who’ve bought into it, figuratively and in this case literally.  This recent Times piece on “crypto-bros”** elucidates the social side of cryptocurrencies.  In the context of emerging financial systems, acting socially reassures crypto purchasers of the security and growth of the… Continue reading cryptocurrencies are social networks*