5 ms·

could never be overcome by the little guy [...] airbnb [...] Uber Yep. These two companies, valued at $13B and $40B respectively, employing 800 and 2000 people

by moe 12y ago

could never be overcome by the little guy [...] airbnb [...] Uber Yep. These two companies, valued at $13B and $40B respectively, employing 800 and 2000 people respectively, are the definition of "little guy". It doesn't get more underdog than that. /s

padobson 12y ago
Ugh. I'm the little guy. Airbnb and Uber are the automation that enables my apartments to compete with the Holiday Inn and Marriott less than a mile away.
- moe 12y ago
  I'm the little guy. Just the average 'little guy' with 3 spare apartments... I'd wager the guess most $8/hr burger flippers (or $12/hr Uber drivers) might disagree with your self-assessment.
  - padobson 12y ago
    Well I was making $9/hr as a telemarketer 5 years ago. If you want to discuss via email, I'd be happy to explain how I went from being a little guy to a marginally bigger little guy. In the end, I'm simply advocating for the decisions that got me from there to here.
- sudioStudio64 12y ago
  Isn't Uber's value really just that they are skirting the negotiated system that taxi drivers have built in their respective cities over the years. I know that no one likes Taxis, but seriously, aren't they just another form of regulatory arbitrage?
Tinyyy 12y ago
Well then by your definition, nobody can be ‘overcome by the little guy’, because by the time the little guy is considered to have overcame the big guy, he would not - by definition - be that small anymore.
- moe 12y ago
  Well then by your definition, nobody can be ‘overcome by the little guy’ That was not my point, the big guy can of course always be overcome. It's just not a very interesting case to debate because only 0.000001% of our burger flippers will ever get that lucky. My point was that most of his praised "automation and globalization" actually works against the remaining 99.99999% of burger flippers. These trends remove the very inefficiencies from markets that previously gave breathing room to independent actors. You don't realistically buy a grill anymore, you join a franchise, on the terms of a "big guy".
  - padobson 12y ago
    It's wrong to assume that the only result of taking an entrepreneurial risk is transcendent wealth 1/1,000,000 of the time or financial catastrophe the other 999,999.

by moe 12y ago

padobson 12y ago

Ugh. I'm the little guy. Airbnb and Uber are the automation that enables my apartments to compete with the Holiday Inn and Marriott less than a mile away.

moe 12y ago
I'm the little guy. Just the average 'little guy' with 3 spare apartments... I'd wager the guess most $8/hr burger flippers (or $12/hr Uber drivers) might disagree with your self-assessment.
- padobson 12y ago
  Well I was making $9/hr as a telemarketer 5 years ago. If you want to discuss via email, I'd be happy to explain how I went from being a little guy to a marginally bigger little guy. In the end, I'm simply advocating for the decisions that got me from there to here.
sudioStudio64 12y ago
Isn't Uber's value really just that they are skirting the negotiated system that taxi drivers have built in their respective cities over the years. I know that no one likes Taxis, but seriously, aren't they just another form of regulatory arbitrage?

Tinyyy 12y ago

Well then by your definition, nobody can be ‘overcome by the little guy’, because by the time the little guy is considered to have overcame the big guy, he would not - by definition - be that small anymore.

moe 12y ago
Well then by your definition, nobody can be ‘overcome by the little guy’ That was not my point, the big guy can of course always be overcome. It's just not a very interesting case to debate because only 0.000001% of our burger flippers will ever get that lucky. My point was that most of his praised "automation and globalization" actually works against the remaining 99.99999% of burger flippers. These trends remove the very inefficiencies from markets that previously gave breathing room to independent actors. You don't realistically buy a grill anymore, you join a franchise, on the terms of a "big guy".
- padobson 12y ago
  It's wrong to assume that the only result of taking an entrepreneurial risk is transcendent wealth 1/1,000,000 of the time or financial catastrophe the other 999,999.