Andrew Cone's Profile

I love this post – and I love Harry’s! Thanks for spotlighting it.

Nice post! I enjoyed reading about some of the data and details behind Uber’s user-friendly interface and experience. While it might be tempting to create a consistent product across geographies, I think it’s really key that Uber gives some level of autonomy to each city’s management team. In Hong Kong, for example, where taxis are plentiful and inexpensive, there isn’t an UberX option because there simply wouldn’t be sufficient demand. Instead, it partnered with taxi drivers to tap into their fleet, even paying them fees on top of their commissions to prioritize picking up Uber customers. I agree that Uber’s operating and business models are generally aligned and I’m also quite optimistic about the company’s longterm prospects, but it will continue to fight tough legals battle in almost all its geographies across a number of issues. From drivers-cum-employees class actions to lawsuits from abused passengers, as well as local governments cornered by taxi unions, Uber certainly has a first-mover burden as well as advantage.

Nice post! It’s interesting to think about scaling a business whose differentiator is its products’ uniqueness and/or small quantity. I’m also reminded of the two-tiered pricing strategy we saw in Cox Automotive’s Autotrader site. I wonder if there’s any similar negative sentiment about monetarily promoted products on Etsy? Or if there are alternative to generate other Seller Services-based revenue? I’m also curious what kinds of additional pressures and/or constraints the company will face now that it’s public. I’m sure there are other revenue streams available (off-line, retail partnerships etc.) but these would drastically shift the operating model you detailed, and seem out of step with the global focus of the company.

Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of Yoobi, and their growth is pretty impressive for such a young company in such an established product category. Plus it seems they’ve figured out sourcing solutions to meet to their demands. I’m mostly curious how their cause impacts consumers’ actual purchasing decision in-store: if consumers are aware of it at first purchase, if they’ve sought it out deliberately, if they buy repeatedly for the mission as well as product quality. I’ll be interested to watch their growth in the coming years.