Author: bijansabet

A great deal of important and interesting things happened in the technology space in 2020. Certainly yesterdays FTC decision to sue Facebook and seek the breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp is on that list. Maybe top of that list in some ways.

My friend Fred Wilson has an interesting take on how to deal with tech monopolies. He argues for “opening up” instead of “breaking up”. Its a very insightful post for sure.

I really like this approach a lot. In cases where platforms opened up, good things happen for the platform owner and the customer. So many examples, but notably the iOS App store, AppleTV App store and of course our beloved Internet.

Closed platforms and devices just seem to whither or at the very least never seem to get more interesting.

I have written about regulating tech leaders in the past (here and here). And I feel similarly today. There is just too many creative people building great things to assume yesterdays leaders will always stay dominant.

In the consumer space, consider Discord, Tik Tok, Snapchat and even those apps left for the dead like Hangout are roaring back to life. Facebook and Google tried their best to clone these products and yet to no avail. And every week I see new consumer startups with new ideas for new experiences.

While Amazon is has grown massively, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair and others have built very powerful and important ecommerce companies.

In enterprise, we have massive new entrants like Zoom, Slack, Snowflake as well as countless others while Microsoft and Google try to use their market power to no avail.

I have no idea if the government will be able to win their case against Facebook or Google. It’s not a straight forward legal case by any means. But as someone who has eternal optimism in david vs goliath, I am not counting on it for the innovation in front of us.

The day after Trump was sworn into office, our family joined hundreds of thousands of other protestors at the Women’s March in Washington DC on January 21, 2017. According to Wikipedia, it was the largest single day protest in American History.

It was inspiring to participate in such a huge diverse gathering of people standing shoulder to shoulder in unity. And since that day, we have witnessed something so powerful. We have seen community organizers, donors, activists, and every day citizens stand up and stand tall creating a massive Blue Wave in the 2018 mid terms and carrying this energy and commitment to the Presidential 2020 election.

This week has been so intense to say the least. I don’t have the words to fully capture what I’m feeling. I cried when Biden was declared the President-elect yesterday morning. I watched as a proud American when Vice President-elect Harris and President-elect Biden’s gave their heartfelt speeches in Delaware last night. I am super confident that a Biden/Harris administration will help build our country back morally, ethically, economically and compassionately.

Last night I slept more than I did the prior 4 days combined. And today, I am just happy.

As most folks know, when iPhone first shipped there were only apps created by Apple. The App Store wouldn’t arrive until about a year later. And even then, apps that directly competed with Apple’s apps were far and few between. And users had to deal with either poorly implemented web apps or Apple’s apps for critical things like email.

By 2011 or so, a new app called Sparrow launched on the Mac and then iPhone. Sparrow was a thoughtful, beautiful app that delivered a powerful and yet simple approach to mail. Like so many others, I was taken with Sparrow and it quickly became my default client. Eventually, Google acquired Sparrow and the app was no more.

Earlier this year I was introduced to Dom Leca, the creator of Sparrow. Dom told us about his vision for a new app called Beam. A few weeks later, my partners and I made an offer to lead the seed round in the company. Dom and Sebastian Metrot have been working on building the initial team and the first version of Beam. While they aren’t ready to fully disclose the product today, you can read about their vision in their paper and join the beta.

I’m really excited about Beam and can’t wait for you all to try it.

Chet Faker is back! Turn it up.