Efficiency has been a critical concept ever since the industrial revolution. Increasing productivity and efficiency have been core assumptions and goals of the field of economics since day one. Increasing efficiency is a complex challenge and there are numerous ways to do so. Typically, efficiency can be approached at a unit-level or at a system-level. Expand
Entrepreneurship
Short-Termism in Capitalism
“Modern capitalism is plagued by short-termism and myopia.” “Shareholders are king and everyone else gets left behind.” “The public markets hurt companies more than help them.” This is the popular narrative today and to some extent it is true. It is true that modern capitalism does present numerous challenges for public companies. Quarterly reporting cycles Expand
The Future of LA Tech: Manufacturing, not Media

The city of Los Angeles has long been the global capital of film. Hollywood’s storytelling power is unmatched, and its movies have influenced cultures far and wide. But LA has a deeply diversified economy beyond Hollywood and most recently the city has rapidly emerged as a hub for technology companies. This rapid rise has a Expand
The Power of Float-Based Business Models

Markets have been core to commerce since the first day humans began transacting. In the last 10 years some of the biggest tech companies that have been created have been marketplaces intermediating new and old markets. Amazon has intermediated the market between buyers and SMB sellers of goods. Uber has intermediated the market between riders Expand
The Rental Economy

This article was originally published in The Startup. One of the determining characteristics of any economy is who owns what assets. Different economic systems (capitalism, socialism, communism) differ primarily based on who owns and who rents capital assets. Ownership of assets shifts and evolves over time thanks to technological disruption, economies of scale and shifting Expand
Death by a Thousand Cuts in SAAS

This article was originally published in The Startup. If you are a business today you are faced with a dizzying array of SAAS tools across all your core business functions: accounting, marketing, sales, payroll, recordkeeping — the list goes on. While every tool that is adopted brings benefits (time saved, better visibility etc) each tool also comes Expand
Tokens Are Equity

2017 has been a good year for all things Blockchain. It’s a talking point in every major stakeholder in society — from governments to businesses and everyone in-between. While there are diverse applications for Blockchain, the application most people are familiar with are cryptocurrencies. In the past year numerous currencies have debuted through what has come to be known Expand
Relevance, Not Volume

Funnel is a popular word in the world of tech. You can “funnelize” everything these days. Everyone has a sales funnel, a customer funnel, a talent funnel and so on. But I think we’ve failed to appreciate how the dynamics of funnels have changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Funnels have long existed but Expand
How to Start a Startup at Northeastern

Ever since its founding in 1898, Northeastern has been an unorthodox, experimental university highlighted by its acclaimed and hugely popular cooperative education model. In the world of entrepreneurship, Northeastern has continued this flare for the unorthodox and the unique and has built a complex, rich and high-paced entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today, there are over 270 active Expand
Micromoments in Conversational Commerce

This post was originally published in Chatbots Magazine. There are few industries as large, as exciting and as crucial to the economy as ecommerce. By 2020 ecommerce will be a $4 trillion dollar industry. While ecommerce is filled with giant companies, few have had the influence on ecommerce and customer acquisition that Google has. The Google Expand