No. 13 — Reclaiming Discovery From the Algorithms

Second, I’m reflecting on a point former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale famously made in 1995: “There are only two ways to make money in business: bundling and unbundling.” I think we’re burnt out by the fragmentation that the D2C era brought to everything. After subscribing to tons of hyper-niche content over the years, the idea of a couple brands we ... See more

In fact, I’d argue an emerging class of creators and consumer brands is actually employing curation as a business strategy. Gohar World, Ganni and Soeur have been sharing city travel guides, Ghia has been sharing Spotify playlists, and tastemakers like Olympia Gayot and Alex Eagle are joining entirely new social platforms purpose-built for discover... See more

Relying on creatives or niche experts (e.g., wine or book editors) is not a novel concept, though I do think we’re leaning on them more heavily as an antidote to algorithmic recommendations, and I know they’re working harder to produce differentiated suggestions.