If you take a step back and analyze how Shopify has managed to compete with Amazon, I think we can get a glimpse into the evolution of on-demand businesses.

Shopify is a platform. Shopify doesn’t interface with any consumers directly. Instead, they opted to power over 800,000 businesses across the world. These merchants are then responsible for acquiring their own customers.

While Amazon has taken a different approach. They have opted to own the entire end-user experience. Ben Thompson has perfectly summarized Amazon’s approach as “[Amazon] tends to internalize their network effects and commoditize their suppliers.”

Last month, Tobi Lutke…

A little over a year ago, through some luck and hustle, I joined Brett and Jonathon full-time at Ludlow Ventures — an early stage technology focused venture firm. Over the course of the past year, I’ve done my best to document some of the most important lessons I’ve learned.

Reputation Is Your Most Valuable Asset

Like most jobs, in the venture capital industry, you are only as good as your reputation. This is, perhaps, one of the most obvious aspects of the venture capital industry; however, it is extremely difficult to earn. …

10 years ago, I distinctly remember telling my parents that I wanted to be a professional gamer. Unlike most kids in my town, I wasn’t focused on becoming better at traditional sports. Instead, I was obsessed with climbing the ranks in video games. Typical of any parent at the time, mine laughed at the idea and told me to focus on going to college. I can’t hold it against them though, professional gaming was not a feasible or stable job, but…it was my childhood dream.

My dream was formed out of a deep love for video games, and my envy…

The Idea

Two years ago, while browsing Twitter I stumbled across Darshan. Although I don’t remember the exact tweet or time that I followed Darshan, I’d be willing to bet that I began following Darshan because of his deep obsession with the future and virtual reality.

We exchanged tweets quite a few times, and when I saw he was starting his own company I was naturally intrigued. In July of 2015, he sent me a message saying:

“Hey Blake! I’m working on a VR product — I’d love your feedback! …

Over the past few months, I started to notice a quite a few people had “big message buttons” on their profile. However, I was shocked by how difficult it was to find any tutorials or documentation.

Eventually, I stumbled upon the steps and was shocked by simple it was. Since adding it to my page, a ton of people have direct messaged me asking how I added it — so I wanted to create a super short tutorial.

For reference, this is what my Twitter profile looks like on iOS:

Steps:

1) Visit: https://business.twitter.com/i/settings/support

If you are a founder of a startup, it’s no secret that the odds are stacked against you. There are literally thousands of reasons for why a startup might fail.

However, in my opinion, there are two major reasons that startups fail: timing and a lack of focus on customers. Given that timing is extremely hard to combat, I recommend trying to focus on customers and users.

A founder’s job is to have a clear understanding of the wants and needs of their customers/users. …

On January 1st, 2016 I shared a photo of the homescreen that I was entering 2016 with. Over the past year, a lot has changed in tech. However, more importantly my tastes and usage have changed. As we enter 2017, I wanted to reflect on the applications that have been dropped or added to my homescreen over the past year.

Homescreen: 1/1/2016

I started 2016 with 24 apps on my homescreen; however, I ended it with only 17. Of these 24, only 10 survived entire year on my homescreen. I removed the following apps from my homescreen over the course of 2016:

• …

Last year, I challenged myself to make several predictions about what will happen in 2016. I’d like to think my predictions were fairly accurate; however, I viewed them as “safe” predictions.

This year, I’m challenging myself to have strong conviction on the future of tech. It goes without saying, but nobody can predict the future. Instead, these are my thoughts on where we are heading.

Mobile esports

Mobile esports will have their best year yet. Titles like Vainglory and Clash Royale are helping to lead the charge in this space, and I expect many new entrants to emerge this year.

In many…