INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Startups, both infamous and unheard of, are shutting their doors
bit of malaise underway in the startup world, a sense that possibilities are closing, that everything that will be built has been built,
that tech itself is under an excruciating microscope by the public that makes innovation impossible.All of that may well be true
And yet, there remains so, so much more to get done.Whole sectors of the economy still need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up
Healthcare is barely digital, never personalized and based on almost no evidence or data whatsoever
Construction costs for housing and infrastructure have skyrocketed, with almost no real benefit to the end user whatsoever
change itself is going to eat away at more and more of the planet, just as several billion more people come online, join the industrial and
knowledge economies and demand the same amenities offered in the developed world
How do we offer air conditioning, housing, transportation, healthcare and more to every human on the planet? We need to 100x the global GDP
while cutting carbon emissions, and billions of people are counting on us.Within organizations, we are still just beginning to figure out
how design, data and decisions work together to drive product innovation and growth
Yes, the tools are getting better, but what would happen if a million more people could effortlessly design? Or what would happen if
billions of people had access to no-code platforms more broadly? What could we empower them to create?Or just take our general experience
Our phones are faster, the photos they take are at exquisite resolutions and their svelte materiality remains superb
But do they really offer a seamless experience? I am still syncing files, tracking emails, attempting to connect a lunch meeting to my
calendar and not dropping the details while flicking my fingers back and forth
The mundane nature of our daily software usage belies the reality that we use ridiculously elementary tools compared to what is possible
The data revolution in business, entertainment, government and more is barely in its infancy
Data may be slushing around large enterprises, but it hardly makes a dent on decision-making, even today
best patterns for exploring data were readily available to every single person on Earth? What if we could instantly and easily build
best-of-breed AI models to solve even our simplest decision-making problems?I could go on for pages and pages
From specific markets, to the dynamics within communities, and societies and companies, to the end users and the products they are offered,
we are nowhere near the end of the innovation cycle
awe at the gap between what we know to do and what we know we need to do
There are so many unsolved challenges today worth exploring that could not only help the lives of tens of millions of people, but that could
also be multi-billion-dollar economies themselves.And so we need to bifurcate our sentiments
We do need to memorialize the failed startups, the ambitions that never quite made it
We need to recognize when mistakes are made, and have empathy for those affected by them
avalanche of negative news and critical analysis is vital
You have to keep your eye on the future, on the change, on the power that still rests with all of us to make a difference right now
So much needs to be done, and the day is still young.
