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Artify was an american company founded around the idea that businesses and individuals could enjoy renting artworks on-demand to display at venues, homes etc. In 2012, it received funding from Peter Thiel in an oversubscribed round and was a great topic for excitement in SV, but was shut down a year later; This sparked me to wonder : why the sudden... See more

Like everything else, this concept is being tested brutally by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rent the Runway, the fashion rental service, has had to rethink its plans as fewer Americans commute to offices or attend fancy events. Joymode, which rented out thousands of products, from electronics to margarita machines, closed. Uber rides — which were suppose... See more

Here, bike and scooter sharing is a cautionary tale. Both bike and scooter sharing and ultrafast delivery are capital-intensive industries with no customer loyalty, low switching costs, and limited network effects. The unit economics are unproven, and while optically high, growth could be short-lived.

We explore some inconvenient questions. Retail as a Service is great for brands to test ideas. But are they going to make venture-scale money? Most of these companies run on VC dollars.