What do Airbnb, Alibaba, and Uber all have in common (besides multibillion-dollar valuations)? None of these companies directly create the value that their users consume. They all operate with a different business model: the platform. This talk explains the platform business model and how it works. It also looks at why this phenomenon is much bigger than consumer ecommerce and is starting to disrupt more traditional enterprise markets, including everything from enterprise software and CRM systems to healthcare and finance.
This was our final Series A deck. Read more about raising the round in this blog post:
https://medium.com/@DanielleMorrill/welcome-brad-feld-to-the-mattermark-team-announcing-our-6-5m-series-a-dd9532fc1b39
The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollarsBuffer
This is the pitchdeck we used to raise half a million dollars from Angel investors. More here:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98034/The-Pitch-Deck-We-Used-To-Raise-500-000-For-Our-Startup.aspx
AppVirality - Plug & Play growth hacking toolkit for Mobile apps.
We help app developers implement Uber/Lyft like in-app referrals under 30 minutes. No coding required.
Checkout - http://appvirality.com
Stripe pitch deck designed by Zlides
Want to create a pitch deck that inspires your audience? Get your FREE presentation kit designed by Zlides: http://bit.ly/slideshare_zlides
This was our final Series A deck. Read more about raising the round in this blog post:
https://medium.com/@DanielleMorrill/welcome-brad-feld-to-the-mattermark-team-announcing-our-6-5m-series-a-dd9532fc1b39
The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollarsBuffer
This is the pitchdeck we used to raise half a million dollars from Angel investors. More here:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98034/The-Pitch-Deck-We-Used-To-Raise-500-000-For-Our-Startup.aspx
AppVirality - Plug & Play growth hacking toolkit for Mobile apps.
We help app developers implement Uber/Lyft like in-app referrals under 30 minutes. No coding required.
Checkout - http://appvirality.com
Stripe pitch deck designed by Zlides
Want to create a pitch deck that inspires your audience? Get your FREE presentation kit designed by Zlides: http://bit.ly/slideshare_zlides
Inilah pitch deck dari raksasa media digital, Buzzfeed. Bagi kamu yang memiliki model bisnis yang serupa dengan BuzzFeed, mungkin kamu dapat terinspirasi dari pitch deck ini.
A reproduction of the official pitch deck template recommended by leading VC firm Sequoia Capital.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE PITCH DECK EXAMPLES & TEMPLATES:
> Airbnb pitch deck @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/airbnb-pitch-deck
> Sequoia Capital pitch deck template @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/sequoia-capital-pitch-deck
> FREE pitch deck template download @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/free-pitch-deck-template
> Pitch deck guide with hints, tips, and a worked example @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template
NEED HELP WITH YOUR PITCH DECK?
See how I can help then book a free call @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/
MORE PITCH DECK RESOURCES @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template#resources
🔮 Want more VC/investment startup pitch decks? We’ve centralised ALL succesful investor pitch decks at: https://chagency.co.uk/getstartupfunding — check all of them out
🔮 The effort is adhering to the ideology of “The Future Of Freemium” — read more here: https://chagency.co.uk/blog/ceo/the-future-of-freemium-how-to-get-peoples-attention/
🔮 Our library of pitch decks will not have any advertisement, only a signature. We are a design agency that helps SaaS CEOs reduce user churn.
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
Here is what Square uses for their Pitch Deck, it has several good pointers on what should go in a startup pitch deck: Sourced from http://www.noise.re/duction/squares-pitch-deck/
Airbnb pitch deck redesigned by Zlides
Want to create a pitch deck that inspires your audience? Get your FREE presentation kit designed by Zlides: http://bit.ly/slideshare_zlides
The 10 most interesting slides that helped our SaaS company raise 9 millionGoCanvas
Have you ever wondered what goes into a pitch deck? Or what slides matter? Here are the 10 slides that seemed to resonate most with VCs we met with our our journey to raising our latest $9 million in funding. Be sure to check the notes for explanations of each slide.
Mapme Investor Deck.
The deck we originally used to raise our seed round of $1M. See the progress we've made at www.mapme.com. Welcome to try it out and create a map.
Any questions? I'm at ben@mapme.com
Lean Startup Basics - Evidence Based EntrepreneurshipKelly Schwedland
Introduction and overview to the lean process for startups. An evidence based approach to validate early hypothesis and develop a solid Business Model before launch. Involving Customer Development, Hypothesis testing, Minimum Viable Product, (MVP) to get to Product/ Market fit and ultimately A replicable scalable business model. This simple but disciplined approach takes the guess work out of taking an idea and turning it into a viable company.
Based on Eric Reis, Steve Blank and Alex Osterwald's work with Lean Startup, Lean launchpad, customer development and Business Model Canvas. Now in practice by multiple Incubators, Accelerators, Universities and now the National Science Foundation through ICorp to validate business ideas with before investing.
Essentials of a platform business modelValueCoders
A platform business model connects buyers and suppliers who can then transact with ease. This model is being seen as the latest trend in businesses of today.
How did Airbnb beat Craigslist? What's special about the Medium blogging platform? How did LinkedIn eat Monster for lunch? How do Youtube and Vimeo coexist? Why was Mint.com so successful? Using the Platform Stack framework, this deck explains 10 startup business puzzles and creates a framework to solve many more.
Inilah pitch deck dari raksasa media digital, Buzzfeed. Bagi kamu yang memiliki model bisnis yang serupa dengan BuzzFeed, mungkin kamu dapat terinspirasi dari pitch deck ini.
A reproduction of the official pitch deck template recommended by leading VC firm Sequoia Capital.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE PITCH DECK EXAMPLES & TEMPLATES:
> Airbnb pitch deck @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/airbnb-pitch-deck
> Sequoia Capital pitch deck template @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/sequoia-capital-pitch-deck
> FREE pitch deck template download @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/free-pitch-deck-template
> Pitch deck guide with hints, tips, and a worked example @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template
NEED HELP WITH YOUR PITCH DECK?
See how I can help then book a free call @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/
MORE PITCH DECK RESOURCES @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template#resources
🔮 Want more VC/investment startup pitch decks? We’ve centralised ALL succesful investor pitch decks at: https://chagency.co.uk/getstartupfunding — check all of them out
🔮 The effort is adhering to the ideology of “The Future Of Freemium” — read more here: https://chagency.co.uk/blog/ceo/the-future-of-freemium-how-to-get-peoples-attention/
🔮 Our library of pitch decks will not have any advertisement, only a signature. We are a design agency that helps SaaS CEOs reduce user churn.
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
Here is what Square uses for their Pitch Deck, it has several good pointers on what should go in a startup pitch deck: Sourced from http://www.noise.re/duction/squares-pitch-deck/
Airbnb pitch deck redesigned by Zlides
Want to create a pitch deck that inspires your audience? Get your FREE presentation kit designed by Zlides: http://bit.ly/slideshare_zlides
The 10 most interesting slides that helped our SaaS company raise 9 millionGoCanvas
Have you ever wondered what goes into a pitch deck? Or what slides matter? Here are the 10 slides that seemed to resonate most with VCs we met with our our journey to raising our latest $9 million in funding. Be sure to check the notes for explanations of each slide.
Mapme Investor Deck.
The deck we originally used to raise our seed round of $1M. See the progress we've made at www.mapme.com. Welcome to try it out and create a map.
Any questions? I'm at ben@mapme.com
Lean Startup Basics - Evidence Based EntrepreneurshipKelly Schwedland
Introduction and overview to the lean process for startups. An evidence based approach to validate early hypothesis and develop a solid Business Model before launch. Involving Customer Development, Hypothesis testing, Minimum Viable Product, (MVP) to get to Product/ Market fit and ultimately A replicable scalable business model. This simple but disciplined approach takes the guess work out of taking an idea and turning it into a viable company.
Based on Eric Reis, Steve Blank and Alex Osterwald's work with Lean Startup, Lean launchpad, customer development and Business Model Canvas. Now in practice by multiple Incubators, Accelerators, Universities and now the National Science Foundation through ICorp to validate business ideas with before investing.
Essentials of a platform business modelValueCoders
A platform business model connects buyers and suppliers who can then transact with ease. This model is being seen as the latest trend in businesses of today.
How did Airbnb beat Craigslist? What's special about the Medium blogging platform? How did LinkedIn eat Monster for lunch? How do Youtube and Vimeo coexist? Why was Mint.com so successful? Using the Platform Stack framework, this deck explains 10 startup business puzzles and creates a framework to solve many more.
La Singolarità Tecnologica - David OrbanDavid Orban
La Singolarità Tecnologica è un punto nello sviluppo di una civilizzazione, dove il progresso tecnologico accelera oltre la capacità di comprensione e previsione umane ed è più specificamente caratterizzata dall'avvento di una intelligenza superiore a quella umana. Questo seminario tenuto presso l'Università di Milano percorre le premesse che portano alla Singolarità e ne analizza promesse e pericoli.
Vedi anche il video su http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5106796733443499066
Presentation at the University of Milan introduces the concept of Technological Singularity, and analyses the opportunities and dangers it presents. See also the video on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5106796733443499066
“Software is eating the world” said Netscape founder Marc Andreessen in his Wall Street Journal 2011 op-ed to describe how digital technology has transformed the world of business. We divide the disruption into two stages; efficient pipelines disrupting inefficient pipelines and platforms disrupting pipelines. Most Internet applications during the 1990s involved the creation of highly efficient pipelines—online systems for distributing goods and services that out-competed incumbent industries. Online pipelines tended to have very low marginal costs of distribution—sometimes as low as zero. This allowed them to target and serve large markets with much smaller investment. We are now in stage two where platforms disrupt pipelines. They bring news sources of supply to market, change value consumption by facilitating new forms of consumer behavior, change quality control through crowd sourced curation, and bring new market middlemen by aggregating fragmented markets.
Content: (1) How the core interaction defines a platform (2) How a traditional (pipeline) value chain differs from a platform value matrix (3) What's inside and what's outside the platform
These slides provide complimentary course materials for the Ch 3 of Platform Revolution - How Network Markets are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You. Final slides provide reading supplements and links to other chapters for industry and academia.
The Platform Manifesto - 16 principles for digital transformationSangeet Paul Choudary
The Platform Manifesto is a collection of principles that succinctly defines how different aspects of business transform in a world of digital platforms.
Platform Revolution - Ch 01 Intro: How Platforms are Changing CommerceMarshall Van Alstyne
Content: (1) Evidence platforms beat products in value, recognition, speed (2) Platform definition (3) Firm implications
These slides provide complimentary course materials for the Ch 1 of Platform Revolution - How Network Markets are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You. Final slides provide reading supplements and links to other chapters for industry and academia.
This lecture describes the Platform model or Two-sided Markets. Platforms serve multiple customer groups and benefit from network effects that take place with and between those groups. Businesses based on Platforms are able to adopt innovative pricing structures in which one side subsidizes another. When the marginal costs are near zero it can be practical to drop the subsidized price all the way to zero.
Platform Revolution - Ch 02 Network Effects: Power of the PlatformGeoff Parker
Contents: (1) Two sided market definitions (2) How demand- and supply-side economies of scale differ (3) Free goods: when and why to subsidize one side or the other (4) How switching and homing costs affect winner take all outcomes.
These slides provide course materials that complement the second chapter of Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You. The final slides provide additional reading suggestions for industry and academia.
Multi-sided platforms are the superior way of doing business today. This content will help you define a marketplace business with the network effect. All network orchestrators must perform well at least 4 functions listed in this presentation.
Becoming platforms: Harnessing the power of communities, beyond crowd-sourcin...Simone Cicero
Becoming platforms: Harnessing the power of communities, beyond crowd-sourcing and openness.
This lecture was given on request to the Chamber of Commerce of Forlì-Cesena.
The original topic was "crowdsourcing" but it's now pretty obvious that there's no such thing as crowdsourcing anymore.
Indeed crowdsourcing is still an old-fashioned way of looking at peers and producers (exploitation): the switch that all businesses and organizations must undertake now is that towards 100% collaborative organization, which relates with peers and users in a co-creative way, becoming an "enabler". For those interested you should look into this post http://bit.ly/PostCapitalismAndPlatforms
Be On Time with Digital Transformation: build platforms, access ecosystems, t...Simone Cicero
This presentation explains in a few slides how the convergence of new technologies and new habits and expectations is changing what the user expects from the firm and therefore the firm itself: this is digital transformation.
Firms are therefore evolving into post-industrial platforms, and to enable this transformation you need to move forward as an organization along three layers: technology platforms supporting your strategy, organizational design principles and building new innovation capabilities.
Plus: this presentation will link you to a new tool that we're about to release (as OCT 2015) - The Platform Design Toolkit 2.0 - see www.platformdesigntoolkit.com
Building Business Platforms Using API Driven MarketplacesWSO2
This slide deck will look at how API platforms play a role in digital innovation through concepts such as API management, rate limiting, security, monetization, analytics and social feedback.
Le platform sono destinate a ridisegnare tutte le industrie ad alta intensità informativa.
Diversi fattori spingono verso l’adozione di platform nel settore sanitario
Digital Evolutions: Startups, Platforms and EcosystemsSimone Cicero
This presentation was first released as Lecture in two Startup Accelerators lately. The presentation recaps on several digital trends and correlates them with Platform Design, previously covered in the record breaking "Future Proof Design" presentation available here: http://www.slideshare.net/Meedabyte/future-proof-design-and-the-platform-design-canvas.
In search for new ideas to frame Platform Design as a discipline in a more global discourse regarding the digital market, I went in search of complementary theories: most of this research have been consolidated in this lecture
In parallel, the Platform Design canvas is transforming into a more comprehensive Toolkit. See context here: http://wp.me/plmpp-uG
Vivaldi explores the rising influence of platforms and the four perspectives on platforms that have led to its definition today.
Enquire about Vivaldi's leading platform strategy expertise and offerings by visiting vivaldigroup.com or emailing to hello@vivaldigroup.com to connect with one of our experts.
Design Strategies to galvanize EcosystemsSimone Cicero
Crafting a power "Shaping Strategy" and galvanize an entire ecosystem to join a platform for collaborative value creation is the new strategy to transform markets in the XXIst century.
Networked business models are transforming markets, communities and production through network effects.
Presentation given in Aalborg University for the BizMedia2016 Event
Your company’s annual user conference: Boon or Bust for UX?Mary Raven
Slides from a Panel discussion that I proposed and moderated at the 2016 Boston User Experience Professional's Association Conference (UXPA). Other panelists were: Serena Doyle, Joanne Hubbard, Chauncey Wilson
Similar to Beyond Uber: How the Platform Business Model Connects the World (20)
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
2. “Software alone is a commodity. There is nothing
stopping anyone from copying the feature set,
making it better, cheaper and faster.”
FRED WILSON, FOUNDER OF USV
3. a multi-sided business model focused on creating value by facilitating
transactions between two or more interdependent groups (usually consumers
and producers).
PLATFORM: (n)
4.
5. OTHER USES OF ”PLATFORM”
COMPUTING PLATFORMS PRODUCT FAMILY
PLATFORMS
INDUSTRY PLATFORMS PLATFORM AS A SERVICE
6. Linear Business
• Sells a product or service to a
consumer
• Owns one side of the transaction
• Products have inherent value
“I derive value from my use of a
product.”
Platform Businesses
• Facilitates a transaction between
multiple parties
• Owns infrastructure that facilitates the
transaction
• Platforms add network value
“I derive value from other people’s use
of the platform.”
14. IDENTIFYING PLATFORM OPPORTUNITIES
Reduce high transaction costs or remove gatekeepers ZocDoc
Underserved groups that need each other GrubHub
Potential Complements iOS
Latent supply Airbnb
Large, fragmented supply Rubicon
15. C H E C K O U T
MODERN MONOPOLIES
May, 2016 (Macmillan)
http://amzn.to/1PpXgGz
Applico:
http://www.applicoinc.com
Good afternoon everyone. I’m here today to talk to you about platforms.
Now when I say that, most of you probably think I’m full of it. Or at best, you aren’t really sure what I mean. But if you give me a few minutes of your time, I think I can change your mind.
So the legendary Venture capitalist Fred Wilson has a story he likes to tell to explain his investment thesis.
For those who aren’t familiar, Fred is the founder of Union Square Ventures, which has invested in many successful businesses, including Twitter, Etsy, Lending Club, Tumblr, Foursquare, Soundcloud and Kickstarter.
He tells what he calls the “dentist office software story.”
When the story begins, an entrepreneur comes up with the idea for a brand new category of enterprise software. He’s tired of long waits at the dentist’s office, so he designs and builds a dentist office management system.
He goes out and invests in a salesforce to build the market and sell hissoftware for 25,000 a year. It’s expensive, but dentists realize significant cost savings after deploying the system. The company, called Dentasoft, grows quickly to $200 million in revenue and goes public at a billion dollar valuation.
A few years later two young college kids get funded Y Combinator. They believe they can make a more modern version of Dentasoft and sell it as a software as a service solution and charge $100 a month. They go out and do that and the big company now has a low end competitor, Dent.io, that’s undercutting its pricing. Dentasoft stock crashes as Dent.io raises a growth round.
However, the story doesn’t end there. Around this time, an open source community crops put to build an open source version of dental office software. This project is called DentOps. One user creates a hosted version called DentHub and offers it free.
Dentasoft is forced to file for bankruptcy and restructure its debt. Dent.io’s board fires its CEO and tries to pivot.
The point of this story is that software alone is a commodity.
There’s nothing to stop a competitor from coming along and copying your features and doing it better cheaper or faster.
However, Wilson has an addendum to his story.
Finally, a young Dentist called Hoff Reidman decides to create a network where he can connect with other dentists. He builds a site and calls its Dentristy.com.
After some hustling, he builds a large network of dentists and raises a $1 million seed round. His platform also includes a mobile app that connects doctors with patients. Dentistry.com ultimately grows into a $1bn revenue company and goes public with a market cap of $7.5 billion. Wall Street analysts love the company, citing its market power and defensible network effects.
This is Wilson’s point. Software gets commoditized. Networks don’t. Features are easy to copy. Networks aren’t.
If you want to chase a big opportunity, look for networks.There has to be something other than the software that the enterprise is buying. They’re not just buying the functionality and workflow, they’re buying something they couldnt get anywhere else.
Wilson’s story is fictional, a morality play of sorts. But it actually mirrors the evolution of enterprise software markets quite well. If you look at the healthcare market, in the early 2000’s a number of backend software solutions for doctors started to emerge. A half decade later, more modern SaaS solutions began replacing them. Today market penetration for these systems is about 80%,
With this installed base in place, you’re starting to see networks emerge. Networks that bring patients into the equation are the low hanging fruit. ZocDoc, a booking platform for doctor appointments is one example. Another is been the explosion of telemedicine platforms like doctor on demand or teladoc. They let you get advice from a doctor over the Internet.
The evolution of CRM software has followed a similar trajectory. It started with complicated enterprise software systems hosted on large local servers. Then Salesforce came along and offered it as cloud software. However, it wasn’t long before its big competitors replicated its offering. So what did salesforce do? It built a development platform, connecting its customers with a network of third party software developers. (Other examples: Opentable, AWS)
As Wilson’s story and these examples suggest, networks represent both the largest and most defensible opportunity.
However, growing and maintaining a network is no simple task. In fact, it requires an entirely different business model to get it right.
That biz model is the platform. It is the business model of the 21st century. A platform is a business model that facilitates transactions between two or more interdependent groups. Usually consumers and producers.
Been around for thousands of years, all the way back to the roman auction house or the bazaar.
But today because of connected technology platforms can grow and support networks that are unprecedented in size.
Think of Facebook’s 1.4 billion users or Alibaba’s tens of millions of small businesses.
To be clear, A platform is a business model, the way that a company generates and captures value. It’s not just a piece of technology. As we’ll see in a minute, this is an important distinction.
Here are a few examples of platform companies that you’ve probably heard of.
The most common use, or I would suggest misuse, of the term platform is to describe what’s actually an integrated suite of software products. This is really just the use of the word platform as a marketing term. However, there are four other uses that are common, especially in a technology context.
Computing platform: underlying system on which computer programs can run
Product family platforms: Core product or component around which other products are built, such as car body
Industry platform: core piece of technology around which other companies in the industry build, e.,g Intel’s chipset in the personal computing industry
Platform as a service: essentially a computing platform available through the cloud
All of these uses of the term platform describe just a piece of technology, not a business model. They don’t have the same advantages and structure as platform businesses do. They’re products, not networks.
So if platforms are the business model of the 21st century, then what was the business model of the last century? Linear business
Linear business owns one side of the transaction. It controls the supply. They create a good or service and push it out to consumers.
Platforms facilitate transactions. And create infrastructure that allows transactions to happen.
Platforms add network value. I derive value from other people’s use of platform
Examples:
*Uber drivers and passengers
*iOS developers and consumers
Example : ABC vs. YouTube.
ABC creates, acquires or develops content. It owns the supply of content on its channel.
In contrast, YouTube is a network that allows anyone to upload a video for you to watch. Everything from cat videos and clips of justin bieber to educational videos and presidential debates.
But here the users provide the supply, so YouTube doesn’t control it directly. It simply provides the infrastructure and the network to allow those interactions to happen.
Now, linear businesses have long had an established blueprint for how to succeed.
Chief among these tools is the value chain, created by Michael porter, competitive advantage 1985.
Value chain used to assess a business holistically and understand where it could create and advantage versus its competitors.
However, this template doesn’t work very well for platforms.
For one thing, a chain isn’t a very good metaphor for described how value flows in a network. Additionally, a platform requires coordination and facilitation of a decentralized network, not ownership, management or control.
Through our research and work with lots of platform companies, we created the value ecosystem. This is the blueprint for how to build a platform business.
Like the value chain, it breaks down into two segments.
The first segment is the core transaction. You can think of this as the primary activity. It’s the set of actions you need users to take in order for transactions to happen.
Create: you need a producer to create inventory and put it into the platform
Connect: You need a consumer to connect to that inventory
Consume: So that they can consume that value. This can be as simple making a purchase on a listing or downloading an app.
Compensate. Finally, the consumer creates value that they give to the producer in exchange for what they consumed. This doesn’t have to be money. There are many other kinds of value. Can include Shares, likes, reputation, attention.
These four steps are actions that you need users to take. The platform doesn’t control each step, but it builds the infrastructure to support and incentivize these actions.
The old saying that you can drag a horse to the water but you can’t make him drink applies well here.
You can’t make the horse drink but you can bring it to water. And you can set up the trough so that it can easily satisfy the horse’s thirst.
The platform does this through its four core functions. These are the ‘secondary activities that support and frame the actions you need users to take in the core transaction.
These four functions are: Audience building, matchmaking, creating rules and standards, providing key tools and services
Audience building: getting users into the platform and creating a large enough network that supply and demand will overlap and transactions will start to happen
Matchmaking: Once you get those users in the door, you need matchmaking to match the right consumer with the right producer, otherwise your users will be searching for a needle in a haystack.
Rules and standards: You need to create the rules that lay out what is explicitly allowed or forbidden as well as the standards that establish what kind of behavior is encouraged or discouraged.
This takes two primary forms: curating access and usage. Access is about who gets to join, who doesn’t and why. Usage is about maintaining the quality of transactions over time using data and user feedback, If you don’t do this right, quality will diminish as the network grows.
Last but not least, you have providing key tools and services. You need to provide the technology that supports each step of the core transaction.
Tools are self-service and plug and play for users.
Services are things the platform centralizes and handles itself. Common examples include insurance, for marketplaces, or customer support.
Combined, this gives you a holistic sense of how a platform works. And if you’re looking to build a platform, this gives you a blueprint of the specific things you need to do in order to be successful.
At this point, you might be wondering why you should care so much about platforms.
Well, to put it simply, they make more money.
Platforms have better profit margins, offer better return on investment and are valued more highly by investors.
If you look at the S&P 500, platforms are valued at a revenue multiple of about 8.5. In contrast, linear businesses fall between 2-6x depending on the industry.
And Platforms are growing much faster than other businesses, even other technology businesses.
Platform businesses have been joining the S&P 500 index at an increasing rate in the last decade, with even more to come. At the same time, within the S&P 500, platforms as a category have experienced net income growth of about 330%, compared to a 16% increase for the overall S&P 500.
If you draw this out as a trendline for 25 years – an admittedly dangerous exercise – platforms will make up 50% of the S&P 500’s net revenue by 2040.
However, if you look at what’s happening in the startup world, this prediction doesn’t look so crazy.
The advantages of platforms are even more pronounced when you consider the next wave of billion dollar public companies.
If you look at today’s unicorn companies, startups with $1 billion or more valuations, platform make up a a much higher percentage of them.
This is even more true in china and india, where the infrastructure of commerce isn’t as well established as it is in the U.S.
(cite numbers: 44% US, above 80% in china and india)
However, quantity doesn’t tell the whole story. Here too, platforms get better valuations from investors.
Their average valuation is nearly 2x that of linear businesses, and they raise more than 2x the funding on average.
They also get better terms from investors, as reflected in the % of valuation they’ve received in funding.
On average, platforms give away less equity to get more money.
So It’s clear that platforms offer the largest opportunity if youre building a new business today.
However, you can’t just copy what and Uber or Facebook has done and expect to be successful. The time to build a social network was in the mid to late 2000’s. And the time to start building a services marketplace like Uber was 3-4 years ago.
The opporuntity is real, but timing matters. So where should you be looking to next? Here I have four big suggestions where you can start to see this shift toward platforms happening.
Education
First is education. Education hasn’t evolved all that much in the last half century. This is starting to change. Platforms like Udemy, EdX or Coursera are starting to open up higher education to a much larger audience. At the same time, platforms like Skillshare, Udacity and x are opening up learning on a micro scale with classes or lessons oriented around specific skills, such as coding, design, photography or even learning a language. Online platforms are creating new supply by supporting new teachers while also democratizing access to education for consumers.
Finance: Next is finance.
Finance is an industry that most people associate with large banks or money management firms. However, a host of platform startups have started to open up the industry to new kinds of consumers who haven’t had access to sophisticated investment products before.
In the startup realm, you have platforms like AngelList and Funders Club enabling people to invest in startups on a small scale. Many of these investors now have access to deals they never would have gotten in the past. Peer to peer lending is also big. Lending Club was the early success story in this area, but other more industry specific competitors have emerged over the last couple of years. One example is SoFi, which focuses on peer to peer lending for student loans.
Healthcare:
Third is healthcare, which I touched on earlier. Here you have platforms connecting doctors and patients in new ways, like Doctor on Demand or ZocDoc. But you also have platforms that are strictly focused on the enterprise market, such as Figure1, which is essentially Instagram but for doctors. It connects doctors with other doctors who may have more expertise about a particular issue.
IOT:
Finally, is the Internet of Things. This is the one that’s furthest out in terms of timeline. The idea of an internet of things is where machines communicate directly with other of machines rather than people. This idea has been hyped but not really solved. Security and privacy remain big issues.
There’s a popular Twitter account whose name is unrepeatable in this context. it’s called Internet of “bleep.” It’s tagline is: “Have all of your best appliances ruined by putting the Internet in them!”
One tweet jokes “Wait endlessly why your toilet does software updates!”
However, assuming these issues get ironed out, the industry has big potential. And wherever the Internet of Things is successful you’ll find platforms at the center of it.
You have development platforms moving into the connected car and the connected home. This will have a big impact that spreads beyond just the platforms themselves. You already have insurance companies who are starting to offer better rates based around your ability to drive effectively, or their ability to monitor your home. And the potential in the industrial sector of the economy to improve efficiency is huge.
I’m sure you’ve seen some industry report predicting some astronomical number. So I won’t belabor the point here.
So that’s what’s happening now. But what should you look for to spot future platform opportunities? I’ve got five major suggestions for you here. Some industries will have more than one that apply. The more of them that you can find in one area, the better.
Look to where technology can remove gatekeepers or reduce high transaction costs. E.g., ZocDoc making it easy to book with a doctor and see reviews.
Look for underserved groups that need each other. The stronger the attraction that your consumers and producers have, the more valuable your network will be. Food delivery platform Grubhub hit the jackpot here by connecting hungry diners who don’t want to get off the couch with restaurants that want more business.
Look for potential complements. These may not exist at the time, just as mobile apps on a large scale did not exist before iOS and the App Store. But look to where potential complements can add value around your core business.
Look for latent supply. Airbnb did this by allow you to rent out unused home or apartment space – or even just your couch. The more untapped supply you have, the more value you can offer to your users by opening it up.
Finally, look for large, fragmented sources of supply. You want it to be large, because small industries often don’t have enough scale to justify building a network. And you want it to be fragmented because the supply in consolidated industries won’t see any need for you. Uber is a great example here, but my personal favorite example is Rubicon Global.
When you were growing up, you may dug for treasure in your backyard. If you were like me, this made your parents very angry. But you can now tell them that you weren’t wrong, you were just looking in the wrong place. You should have been looking in your garbage.
Rubicon is a platform that connects residents and local businesses with waste collectors. Waste collection in the U.S. is a $100 billion a year industry dominated by 2 major companies. But there are also 20,000 local waste collectors, many of them in urban areas, where the industry is much more fragmented. Rubicon lets these small players bid on portions of national contracts from large chain stores like 7-11. The collectors get new business and the consumers get better rates. Everyone wins.
If you found my talk interesting, I highly suggest you check out my book Modern Monopolies, where I explore all of these topics in much greater depth.
And if you’re interested in Applico, you can find us at the link at the bottom.
Thank you!
