Blazing a new disruption

I find that many start-ups go after “cost inefficiencies.”

That is, they are trying to cut out the middle-man.

And when the middleman is an unregulated rent seeker, that is good business model to try and optimize.

The problem comes when start-ups go after cutting out the middleman (by making themselves a lower priced middleman), but the cost inefficiencies and the friction built in to the business model are mandated by legislation.

And that legislation is usually backed by powerful lobbying interests.

Those start-ups, if they can disrupt the business model and reduce the friction and cost inefficiencies, can change an entire industry.

But those start-ups are unicorns, and what they are building is an unassailable position.

The crux of the problem is that other start-ups come along and try to duplicate that success, usually without any success at all, because they are not trying to disrupt anything, they are just copycatting the trailblazer.

Those are the start-ups I won’t get involved with.