Unscaled

A venture capitalist who helped launch businesses including Warby Parker and Snapchat captures the zeitgeist of a new generation of upstarts who unscale--"renting" technology platforms to grow big without the bloated organizations of corporate giants.
How did Warby Parker become the world's hottest maker of designer-style eyeglasses and upend the business model of Luxottica, the giant of the global eyewear industry? Luxottica spent decades and billions of dollars scaling up--building factories, buying a distribution company, cutting licensing deals with designer labels, making acquisitions. Warby Parker, in contrast, used the economies of "unscale." It rented the technology platforms it needed to cheaply and easily start a small company, build a better product, and become a global competitor in no time.

Hemant Taneja describes this new generation of upstarts who are using the internet, mobile networks, social media, digital-payment systems, cloud computing, open-source software, global contract manufacturers, and artificial intelligence to make better products for niche markets. The unscale economy is the guiding principle behind Taneja's genius as a venture capitalist, finding and investing in companies where lucrative opportunities result from focusing on specific customer needs--in industries from finance to energy, media, consumer goods, healthcare, and education. In sector after sector, demand once aggregated by big companies is getting unbundled and addressed by small companies--which sometimes get big.

Scale is becoming cheaper and easier to rent, and software and data generate insights that allow the constant reinvention of products. This cycle of taking apart and rebundling a market in an innovative way is happening faster and faster. The unscale economy has implications far beyond the business sector, as the model can be used to solve some of the world's great problems, including climate change and soaring healthcare costs, potentially reversing many of the ills brought on by mass industrialization.

Un capitalist de risc care a ajutat la lansarea afacerilor, inclusiv Warby Parker si Snapchat, surprinde zeitgeistul unei noi generatii de parveniti care dezechilibreaza - „inchiriaza” platforme tehnologice pentru a se dezvolta fara organizatiile umflate ale gigantilor corporativi. Cum a devenit Warby Parker cel mai tare producator de ochelari in stil de designer din lume si a sustinut modelul de afaceri al Luxottica, gigantul industriei globale de ochelari?