Capitalism in the Age of Free Riders

LinkedIn’s recent sale to Microsoft is yet another case in point that freemium business models are a struggle to scale. LinkedIn offers excellent value to its users. Still, few are willing to pay for that value. Thus, the company faces a slowing growth curve, resulting in the decision to sell.

The truth is, on the Internet, everyone wants everything for free. Especially consumers.

And so, almost all media / content related business models are facing a wall.
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10 Small-scale Startup Ideas

In our work with entrepreneurs, it is evident that many of you are looking for small-scale startup ideas to start developing that can grow to robust $1M+ businesses.

Some of you wish to do these as side businesses, while holding onto your jobs.

Some of you just want to build a solid lifestyle business and enjoy running it.

Some of you want to get started in a bootstrapping with a paycheck mode, and then quit your day jobs.
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Future of Work: Utopia or Dystopia?

There’s a lot of discussion in every media outlet right now about the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, and over-automation. The Economist has an article titled Basically Flawed, Rethinking the Welfare State:

WORK is one of society’s most important institutions. It is the main mechanism through which spending power is allocated. It provides people with meaning, structure and identity. Yet work is a less generous, and less certain, provider of these benefits than it once was. Since 2000 economic growth across the rich world has failed to generate decent pay increases for most workers. Now there is growing fear of a more fundamental threat to the world of work: the possibility that new technologies, from machine learning to driverless cars, will cause havoc to employment.

There are two schools of thought on the subject, though.
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A Startup Idea for Marketing Unique Travel Experiences

I just returned from a two-week trip to Italy. A large part of this trip was in Sicily and the last few days were with friends in Tuscany.

We had some unique experiences that made me think of some additional travel related startup ideas beyond the last two that I published earlier, Build Me This Travel Planning App, Please! and Build Me This Travelogue App, Please!
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Startup Idea to Leverage Good Technology Writers

As I was writing the previous post, A Startup Idea To Leverage Good Writers, it occurred to me that explaining complicated technology products is a skill in great demand. The affiliate business model I proposed for e-commerce would apply just as well to, for instance, SaaS products, Cyber Security products, and many other technology products and services.

Now, I am thinking of writers becoming affiliates of a specific genre of technology products. >>>

Corporate Innovation Management: Organizational Challenges

Continuing with our discussion on corporate innovation methodology, in this piece, I want to highlight a couple of key organizational challenges: (1) How do ideas flow into execution, (2) Where are the push backs?

Let me call out another specific point from my previous article, Corporate Innovation Management – A Methodology Discussion, that addresses the first issue.

In my interview with Jim Euchner for the Research-Technology Management journal, I said:

JE: Are these same people, if it’s a go, charged with trying to make it work?

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Corporate Innovation Management: Unstructured Time

Google became a pioneer in the domain of corporate innovation some years ago by introducing the notion of 20% unstructured time in which employees could work on whatever they wanted.

Other large enterprises followed along, and started experimenting with their own interpretations of unstructured time.

Most came to the conclusion, including Google itself, that completely unstructured time is not productive, and does not yield innovative ideas or projects.
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A Startup Idea to Help Empty Nesters

Over the years, I have observed a lot of people struggle with their newfound freedom as empty nesters. With children off in college after 18 years of dedicated nurturing, many parents find themselves lost. Especially for those parents with no professional identity, this phase of life becomes particularly challenging.

Demographic trends suggest that this problem is acute in stay-at-home moms who have spent a couple of decades chauffeuring kids around, attending school events, perhaps even volunteering at the kids’ schools.

I’d like to see some entrepreneurs take this problem on, and create meaningful platforms for engagement for these women who have a lot to offer to society.
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