Lets talk about Frequency.
There are a few business characteristics that translate across industry and across business model. One of those is frequency — the level of occurrence at which transactions happen within a business. Frequency is a term that is very closely associated with the marketplace business, perhaps most famously illustrated by Bill Gurley in his 10 factor test:
“All things being equal, a higher frequency is obviously better. Yelp, GrubHub, OpenTable, 1stdibs (for the designer) and Uber are all high frequency use cases, where the consumers can rely on the marketplace as a utility. …
A new generation of experience businesses.
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NEW YORK -- Earlier this week, The Information’s Cory Weinberg did a nice job covering Airbnb’s experiences business. It’s clear that this is a business line being taken very seriously at the company.
While top-line metrics pale in comparison to the core home sharing product, I too believe experiences will be a major driver as the company marches towards IPO.
There is a major societal trend at play here. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a surge in the number of experiential brands and marketplaces. And this is no coincidence either: Millennials…
NEW YORK — You’ve no doubt been seeing and hearing a lot about APIs, Application Programming Interfaces, and there’s a reason for that. It may not be immediately apparent, but APIs are poised to have a powerful, global effect on commerce — and in our transactions with the brands we love, and interactions with our peers.
Simply put, APIs enable applications to communicate and share data with each other. Logging into an application using your Facebook account? That’s Facebook’s API at work. Integrating payments on your platform? That’s likely Stripe’s or Paypal’s API too.
NEW YORK — Over the last two years, e-commerce sales, as a percentage of total retail sales in the US, have risen from just seven percent to an underwhelming nine percent. Certainly, with the onslaught of digitally-native brands, not to mention the ongoing demise of legacy retailers, one would’ve thought that e-commerce would be in a far greater position today.
Amazon alone represents four percent of this total, and is of course a major force in overall e-commerce growth. …
A brilliant young investor once walked me through his “pick and shovel” investment thesis. To give you a sense of portfolio, we are talking Stripe, Twitch and Unity, to name a few.
If you’re unfamiliar, “pick and shovel” refers to the California gold rush, where proprietors of the physical tools were often more prosperous than those who searched for gold itself.
The picks and shovels are the less obvious winners of the gold scenario. On the surface, gold is gold, what can be more valuable? …
I thought it would be prudent to develop at least a glimmer of an investment track record prior to blogging about my experiences. I also do not think you can “force” a blog, therefore, I have waited for something personal to coincide with my professional life in an attempt for my writing to flow from the heart. In hindsight, investment track record or not, I should have started earlier. For better or for worse, this is my first blog post:
1920’s and 30’s, Bensonhurst/Brownsville section of Brooklyn:
After emigrating from Europe, my great great grandfather, Isaac Garber, starts Garber Mizrahi…
Solly Garber
Investing early stage @ Strada Holdings
