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A glasses company with a website does not a tech company make.

by mattj 15y ago

daydream 15y ago
Honest question: why not? What's the line between a tech company, and a company that makes their own glasses and sells them online?
- brown9-2 15y ago
  Does software produced by this company have a significant impact on their financials? Do you need a significant amount of software engineers to make this company run?
  - jlmendezbonini 15y ago
    There are many areas of technology other than software. Tech companies != software companies.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- wickedchicken 15y ago
  Removing the 'technical' aspect leaves the company mainly intact. Warby Parker uses the internet as a method to drive down costs. If it used mail-order catalogs it would be virtually the same company. Same for Amazon (ignoring AWS), Netflix (ignoring instant watch) and Groupon. All of these could have worked perfectly fine as mail or telephone-order companies but would have not been as efficient. Foursquare, Basho and Broadcom, on the other hand, become relatively meaningless without their core technologies.
  - iamgoat 15y ago
    That's a good way to put it, but technology is still a very important part of any ecommerce business. Be it marketing, acquisition, fulfillment, accounting, CRM. It's just not the shiny object you see up front with Foursquare. And sure, pretty much all of these components can be provided by third-party, but if you did that, then your goods and customer service need to be amazing to make up for the technology costs.
    - wickedchicken 15y ago
      I'm not arguing that technology somehow isn't important for these companies. Of course it is. Pepsi Bottling Group has an immense IT infrastructure with annual spending that could swallow many startups. It couldn't operate in the modern market without this infrastructure. But it's a soda company, not a tech company, even if it delivered you soda from the internet. If PBG opened a large NY plant the WSJ headline wouldn't be "Tech Boom Hits New York."

A glasses company with a website does not a tech company make.

by mattj 15y ago

A glasses company with a website does not a tech company make.

Honest question: why not? What's the line between a tech company, and a company that makes their own glasses and sells them online?

brown9-2 15y ago
Does software produced by this company have a significant impact on their financials? Do you need a significant amount of software engineers to make this company run?
- jlmendezbonini 15y ago
  There are many areas of technology other than software. Tech companies != software companies.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
wickedchicken 15y ago
Removing the 'technical' aspect leaves the company mainly intact. Warby Parker uses the internet as a method to drive down costs. If it used mail-order catalogs it would be virtually the same company. Same for Amazon (ignoring AWS), Netflix (ignoring instant watch) and Groupon. All of these could have worked perfectly fine as mail or telephone-order companies but would have not been as efficient. Foursquare, Basho and Broadcom, on the other hand, become relatively meaningless without their core technologies.
- iamgoat 15y ago
  That's a good way to put it, but technology is still a very important part of any ecommerce business. Be it marketing, acquisition, fulfillment, accounting, CRM. It's just not the shiny object you see up front with Foursquare. And sure, pretty much all of these components can be provided by third-party, but if you did that, then your goods and customer service need to be amazing to make up for the technology costs.
  - wickedchicken 15y ago
    I'm not arguing that technology somehow isn't important for these companies. Of course it is. Pepsi Bottling Group has an immense IT infrastructure with annual spending that could swallow many startups. It couldn't operate in the modern market without this infrastructure. But it's a soda company, not a tech company, even if it delivered you soda from the internet. If PBG opened a large NY plant the WSJ headline wouldn't be "Tech Boom Hits New York."