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In 1999, during the frenzy of the dot com bubble, practically every company built a website, and any company that added “.com” to their name soared in value. One 2001 study in The Journal of Finance found that companies that added “.com,” “.net,” or “Internet” to their name saw their stock prices increase 74% in the days following the name change.

But centralization absolutely does limit the number of big ‘winners.’ The omnipresent power law skews value relentlessly to the top. We see this across top companies, investors, creators, influencers and beyond. The more centralized the platform or business, the more this tendency proves true.

Masterclass is selling the LeBron James poster we put on our bedroom wall, not the skills coach we hire to train us three times a week. And they’ve learned that adults aren’t so much different from our 11-year-old selves: we love to be inspired by the greatest humans on this planet.