Diversification Is Not Innovation & Venture Capital Is Not Private Equity

In 1955, 500 companies featured on the first “Fortune 500” list. Only 12% of those companies survive today. Sixty four years is not an eternity. We carry memories and lessons from the wars of another generation but often forget the changes that defines survival within our own. Moreover, the velocity of change has accelerated with time. A report released by “Innosight” in 2016 confirmed that

“The 33-year average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 in 1965 narrowed to 20 years in 1990 and is forecast to shrink to 14 years by 2026.”

This means that half of the companies which are on the S&P 500 today will be replaced within a decade by a new entrant.

The ability to change and adopt to new trends is not a matter of growth but that of survival and the real estate industry is slowly coming to this realisation. A new movement called “ Proptech” has become the buzz word for the industry. By definition, Proptech is the intersection of the property and technology built to propel the industry forward. But the label has now expanded to include any new changes that are seen in the traditional model of real estate investing. From Co-working spaces to photographing drones, the entire gamut of any changes to the industry is now collected within the larger context of “Proptech”. The acceptance of Proptech into the industry is a welcoming phenomenon but it has created a new dilemma. In order to achieve this acceptance and short term wins, the direction of innovation is being held back due to the bias that the industry has towards innovation.

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Not All Chatbots are Smart

In the summer of 2012, my mother sent me a text message saying it was urgent that I call her back. I was curious as to which existential crisis needed resolving and called her back.

“Tripty, what is a phone with Whatsapp called?”, she said. At which point I responded like anyone with a generation gap with someone asking this question would respond- “ An Iphone?”

“No, what is the phone actually called. I don’t want the expensive Iphones. “.  “ An Android?” , I said.  She continued to be very perturbed and asked  “ What is a smart phone then? Which is the smart one with whatsapp on it? “

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