Greg’s Weekly Recap (August 26, 2018)
There is so much high-quality original content tweeted by entrepreneurs, investors, and interesting people. So here’s an experiment:
✨✨ A Twitter weekly recap for those who don’t check Twitter ✨✨
Note: I won’t be sending a newsletter next week. I will be at Burning Man, gathering inspiration for an extra special edition when I return :)
Articles:
The colorful story how Wistia (video hosting) started a decade ago and recently raised $17 million in debt to buy out their investors and employees to run the company profitably. Link.
The gig economy has been underway for at least 40 years, according to this op-ed. Technology isn’t the cause, but rather the lean corporate movement of the 1970’s. Link.
12 characteristics of the “Perfect Business”: (1) Sells to the world, (2) inelastic demand, (3) not easily copied, (4) minimal labor, (5) low overhead, (6) no big cash outlays, (7) cash billings, (8) minimal regulations, (9) easily movable, (10) satisfies your intellectual needs, (11+12) income is not limited to your personal input and time. Helpful heuristics to consider when starting or investing in a business. Link.
Company of the week:
Imagine you're an 20-something who just moved to NYC, you don’t know many locals, and you’re looking for an affordable place to live. Enter Bungalow, a platform that provides housing rentals to a group of handpicked roommates. The platform makes it a lot more affordable for young professionals to live in cities, while providing a sense of community among roommates. The lease term minimum is 4 months and the apartments come fully furnished. Meanwhile the platform allows homeowners to monetize their properties in new ways.
I like the concept behind this business a lot (so do investors who just poured $14 million into it) since it provides community + affordable living to a generation that needs it. Plus, communal living (with the right kind of people) sounds pretty rad. I could envision the platform drawing community-minded individuals, and create a new market for urban dwelling.
But I have some hesitations around Bungalow’s ability to scale. For example (1) will a significant portion of the tenants be loners seeking friends (I don’t mean to be harsh), (2) how will they handle roommate quality control. I.e. What if you don’t like some of your roommates or rather you are a bad roommate — do they kick you off the platform?, (3) does the platform provide as much value in more affordable markets, (4) there is natural churn built into the platform since many 20-somethings eventually meet a partner or find close friends to live with.
Other companies in the space include WeLive, Ollie, and Common.
What do you think? Would you use this platform when you were fresh out of college and in a new city?
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