Five years ago, every Venture Capitalist in the world immediately stopped listening when someone pitched them “Netflix, but for (insert industry)”. Today, VCs are equally driven to madness by the flagrant overutilization of Uber as a business model. To demonstrate how lazy this is, here are a few ideas that I came up with off the top of my head: Uber, except for lawnmowers. Uber, except for unlicensed acupuncturists. Uber, except for personal injury lawyers. App stores now overflow with systems designed to outsource labor in the most obnoxious way possible.
We’re all getting tired of hearing about the next industry to be Uberized, certainly, but let’s think back to what “Uberization” means, and why Uber worked so well in the first place.
