From 2017

Startups and the Future of Affordable Housing in Hackernoon (with Daniel Wu) — A review of 140+ startups and their innovations in making land and construction cheaper.

From 2016

Subverting the Communications Decency Act: J.S. v. Village Voice Media Holdings in the California Law Review (Online Edition) — A look at a Washington Supreme Court case involving the safe harbor provision of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996.

From 2015

The Murder of Henry Liu: A Tale of Espionage, Dissidence and the American Torts System in the Asian American Law Journal — Gang members, the Taiwanese intelligence community and a tort case (forgive the typos and lengthy sentences in this one— the case itself remains a singularly remarkable one).

From 2014

Sino-American Lessons for the P5+1 Talks with Iran in The Diplomat — What can negotiators learn from the Sino-American rapprochement?

The Rise of Global Health Crowdfunding Platforms in Global Health Governance — A look at platforms Catapult, Samahope and Watsi in their quest to deliver healthcare to communities in need.

A great thing about Philly is how tight-knit and vibrant the city’s startup community is — though admittedly, I still have a lot to learn about this group of businesses and people. The startup events I attended in October were particularly good, and I thought I would recap some of them here.

Adult Science Fair

Hosted by the popup beer garden on 36th Street, this science fair brought together a cool group of thinkers, inventors, and scientists interested in urban sustainability. There was a sizable crowd going from table to table to chat with the presenters, and that made me feel good about the future of urban sustainability. People out there are willing to give up 1–2 hours of their Sunday to think about how we can make cities better. Some of the things I learned:

• Graywater is “clean” waste water generated by household activities like washing hands and clothes. American households could upcycle this water for toilet use or maybe even watering lawns.
• People are really interested in owning hydroponic gardens. Orchard, a Philly company specializing in this area, was one of the companies that won the “popular vote” at the science fair. FYI, Janerette’s fungi, an eco-friendly fertilizer, won the official jury vote.
• We could be putting wind turbines on everything — lamp posts, flag poles, you name it — to create clean energy for our cities.

Born and Raised in Philadelphia — Raising Startup Capital

This event had a really stellar roster of VCs, from Robin Hood Venture’s Ellen Weber to ff Venture Capital’s Alex Katz. It was a great overview for anyone interested in entrepreneurship in Philly, covering things like what investors are looking for in a startup to community resources like Philly Startup Leaders. Harold Epps, Philly’s Director of Commerce, was also there, fresh from submitting the city’s Amazon proposal and eager to emphasize the mayor’s support for startups.

1776 Challenge Cup

Probably my favorite event of the three, the 1776 Challenge Cup is a worldwide startup competition. The event I attended at the Pennovation Center was to determine which startup would represent Philly. The company I was pulling for, roundtrip, bested 10 other companies to take that honor — a really remarkable feat given how impressive all of them were. One of the companies already does $7m in business! But ultimately, I think roundtrip, by creating an on-demand medical trip scheduling platform, is providing a much needed service. Everyday, there are countless patients who miss critical medical appointments because they don’t have access to transportation. With roundtrip’s help, these patients can receive the treatments they need to get healthy or to keep chronic conditions under control.

Scaling in the gig economy: Loftium, Cover, KASITA, and Montainer

Gig-to-riches stories often involve workers who successfully scale their efforts — like the Airbnb entrepreneur who manages 6+ properties. But assets like homes and cars are expensive, an issue that some new startups are targeting.

For those interested in first time homeownership and in renting out space, Loftium is a Seattle-based startup that helps people do both. It gives as much as $50k to put towards a down payment. In return? Recipients agree to Airbnb a spare room for 1 to 3 years and to share the profits. Other companies make backyard units that are ideal for expanding existing properties and for listing on Airbnb. Cover, Montainer, and KASITA are just a few examples.

Keeping customers happy: Urban Bellhop, Hosty Club, and Cargo

Ratings matter in the gig economy. A few companies focus on making and keeping that 5-star rating. Urban Bellhop is one of several Airbnb-centric companies that provide cleaning, check-in, and other management services. Hosty Club taps into the Airbnb market in a different way, offering luxe individual toiletry boxes for guests. A similar company exists for the ridesharing market. Cargo lets drivers install mini vending machines in their cars.

Managing finances: Even, Hurdlr, SherpaShare, and MileIQ

Compared to a salaried job, gig work can translate into inconsistent earnings. Even is a savings app that uses artificial intelligence to address this drawback. By analyzing a user’s bills and income, Even distributes the burdens of paying bills and saving money equally across paychecks. This keeps checking balances more consistent. Where this approach isn’t enough, the app provides “pay protection” — a thoughtful feature that spots you the difference between your average paycheck and current one.

Gig work also lends itself to more complicated taxes, which in turn may translate into reduced income if not properly handled. As independent contractors, workers should keep detailed record of business expenses for tax deduction purposes. Hurdlr, a D.C.-based company, is one of several apps on the market that automate this task (see also SherpaShare and MileIQ). It can also provide a real-time snapshot of profitability and finances and has a companion website called 99deducations that provides intelligible tax information.

Connecting within the gig economy: SherpaShare

Staying informed about the industry and connecting with peers are important aspects of any business success story. But without the traditional water cooler environment, sharing and connecting can be challenges. SherpaShare’s Pulse offers workers a remedy: an online community and with it, opportunities to connect with like-minded workers. The conversations on Pulse run the gamut, from shoot-the-breeze type questions to discussions of emerging trends and recent incidents. Similar conversations can be found on Facebook, which hosts groups tailored to specific 1099 companies, regions, and gender.

If the gig economy is to continue growing and in a sustainable way that provides the majority of its workers — not the select few — with steady income, we need more of these tools (along with fundamental changes of course). Better yet, we need gig economy platforms to support these tools and workers’ access to them — as Uber has done with Betterment, a financial advisor, and as Postmates and TaskRabbit have done with Stride, a health insurance company.

The gig economy has many synonyms: the 1099 economy, platform economy, and sharing economy to name a few. The basic principle is that it’s a new type of economy fueled by on-demand services originating from the Internet. It’s abundantly clear that the gig economy is ascendant in the U.S. But what about the rest of the world? Sure, major on-demand companies like Uber and Airbnb operate around the globe, but there are countries with far stricter employment laws — laws that I thought would dampen gig economy growth.

Turns out, the gig economy is already a major part of the economies of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The United Kingdom has the most precise statistics I’ve seen yet on the topic and pegs the number of gig workers in the U.K. at 4% (other statistics don’t separate out on-demand work from general self-employment or independent contractor work). On-demand work is becoming more popular in China and India as well. According to a research report affiliated with Alibaba Group Holdings, up to 400 million people in China may become members of the gig economy by 2036. For reference, the World Bank estimates that the number of Chinese citizens between the ages of 15 and 64 in the same year will be just over 900 million. In countries like South Korea and Japan however, on-demand work is not as popular, though it’s not clear how long that will remain the case. Companies like Zehitomo, a freelance platform backed by 500 Startups, are jostling to popularize the gig economy in Japan.

For the most part, these countries appear to face the same issues that the U.S. has with the gig economy — not to mention the lawsuits that come with them (see Canada and Brazil). Despite benefits to gig work like flexibility and opportunities for people previously excluded from the labor market, there are serious drawbacks to this new model of work. Gig workers tend to be underpaid — not just monetarily but socially as well, losing out on important benefits like unemployment insurance. In France, the tension between the gig economy’s pros and cons bled into the presidential campaign, finally erupting into protests when months later, food delivery company Deliveroo instituted pay cuts.

These countries also struggle with the same legislative reluctance of the United States to address the gig economy’s drawbacks. Techcrunch reported earlier this summer that a federal U.S. bill to make employment benefits portable had been introduced in the Senate and the House. But those bills have languished since their introduction and stand just a 1% chance of being passed according to Skopos Lab. Nor has anything panned out at the state levels.

Among the countries I looked at in detail (the EU member states, UK, China, Japan, and Canada), the EU appears to be the closest to crafting legislative solutions. That’s saying something because it’s really not very close at all. Earlier this fall, the EU published the European Pillar of Social Rights. Backed by “overwhelming” support, this charter advocates for the extension of social protections, like unemployment benefits, to all workers. But the charter is more goal-setting than actual change, and so far, there are no legislative proposals on the table, just calls for debate. At the very least, the adoption of the charter has been less equivocal than the United Kingdom’s recent study. Despite initial optimism, the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices has been criticized for being too timid and business-friendly.

TL;DR The rise of the gig economy in the U.S. and its problematic implications are mirrored across the world.

Sidenote: I only looked at the top performing economies but some other studies, like this one from McKinsey Global Inst and another from The Atlantic, look at a more diverse set of countries.