Cary S's Profile

Gaurie – really interesting post and neat way to execute a network that takes advantage of the benefits of preventative health. There are many challenges to this as you’ve highlighted, but what I’m worried about is that the benefits of preventative care are created over the long term (ie spending extra on health for employees in their 20s-30s so you spend less in their 50s-60s). Given that employee tenure at companies is so low, it seems as though employees will need to bare the burden of the increased costs. How can they incentivize people to pay more for healthcare than they need to? The benefits of preventative care are well known, yet people dont do it today.

Ranime, nice read. I think they’ve create a really neat experience, and as Robert said, created something hip out of a tried and true experience in America. My concern is that others have taken advantage of the “sugar rush” in the market and offer a superior experience by allowing consumers to DIY and greater selection a la 16 Handles. Although 16 Handles in only in New York, there are copy cats in other geographies. You could argue these are better business models because the DIY allows for greater throughput and up sell because people always load up with more than they expect (by definition, every consumer is violating the golden rule of not grocery shopping when you’re hungry). I’m really interested to see how the two companies compete when both storefronts are present.

David – very interesting post. While I’ve never been, it sounds like something I’d love to do.

My only concern is the major capital investment needed and whether they need a big box location to delivery a cool/new golf experience, especially in the broader context of other cheap/accessible golf experiences coming to market. Golf simulators that allow you to play famous courses have plummeted in price and space requirement Lately. You have apartment buildings and offices installing them in 100-200 square foot locations and give the virtual experience of playing the premier golf courses in the world. Is this a threat? Or can they find a way to leverage this as add an additional product to their portfolio without cannibalizing the core. Maybe they offer the “lite” experience in airports, office buildings and other short-attention span locations and use them as a hook to draw additional traffic to their bigbox locations.

Cary