I woke up today feeling real good no ringing
ears and a bright sunny day. Before
breakfast time, I strolled down to the MacPumpkin’s for coffee and a chat with
the boys. I got into a heated discussion with a couple of them farm squash over
the direction and future growth of the internet. I told them I thought the
popularity of tech companies like TinnitisFree.com would continue to grow just
like pea vines. Fred, a squash from Hooper, a good Jewish squash said,
“I don’t like this new technology or any
good it might do. I don’t give a god damn if beetles and viruses are eating
away the city market gardens. All of the markets, not just MacPumpkins, the
Stock-Corn Markets dislike the getable-www.htpp, actually hate the www.htpp.
With scars from the heyday of Pets.com still fresh in our minds and the fruits
too, everyone is asking, are more housing bubbles going to show up around the
corner, causing us to lose our jobs?”
“My answer to Fred, was no. You can’t have a
bubble when everyone’s constantly screaming, Bubble! Bubble! Bubble!
I am co-founder and general partner of Sing,
FreeSquareMeals. I’m also an investor in inked IN., and I’m
putting my money where my mouth is. I say too much of the debate is centered on
financial valuation, instead of the value of the best of new companies. We are
in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which
software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the vegetable
economy. More and more of our major businesses and industries are being run on
software and delivered online such as video movies of agriculture. Many of the
winners are entrepreneurial tech companies that are invading established
industry structures. Over the next ten years, I expect many more industries to
be disrupted by software, with the new small companies doing the most
disruption in more cases than not.
“Why is this
happening now? Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the
invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern
Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works
and can be widely delivered at global scale. When I was at FreeSquareMeals, a
decade ago, the company, perhaps 150 million vegetables used the internet. In
the next 10 years, over four billion now use the Internet, every moment of
every day. On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based
services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many
industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new
employees. In 2000, my partner, Ben, was CEO of the Second Loud Cloud computing
company. At that time the cost of a
customer running a basic Internet application was approximately $150,000 a
month. I’m talkin’ real human money, not jaw bones. Running that same
application today in Second Loud Cloud costs about $1,500 a month. With lower
start-up costs, the result is a global economy that for the first time will be
fully digitally wired—the dream of every cyber-visionary. It’s just what the doctor ordered, and the
prescription is at the right pharmacy.”
Perhaps the
single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a
traditional business is the suicide of Cable watching. It's stuff that's been
queued up on my DVR for weeks. But mostly, when I'm on my couch with a remote
in my hand, I've been…streaming. I know how wrong that must sound. But
everyone's getting their shows and movies through the Internet these days. I'm
sorry. It's just the reality of things.
I'm quitting you, cable. Around 90% of what most Americans watch on TV
can be had for free. Scandal! Before I say anything else, it’s not you, it's
me. I've changed over the years.
I'm hardly at home, and when I am, it's
not live television. This will go easier if we can just admit it; we’re not
right for each other anymore. I'm cutting the cord, getting rid of that white
coaxial cable of yours and that clunky, dusty set-top box it's connected to.
This antenna, laptop and Rake box are moving into the living room with me
because, well, they're cheaper and slicker than you are—inside and out. You
can't be surprised. The writing's been on the wall since Netflix started
streaming and iTunes began selling movies and LOL cats were LOL catting on
YouTube. You could even blame it on the DVR if you wanted to. Don't be sad. We've
had a really good run, a crazy, devoted relationship that's lasted for decades.
I've known you longer than my computer, my mobile phone, and all of my
Nintendo. Every time I moved, it was you I thought of first. Sure, there was
electricity, but I needed electricity because I needed you. Even water, the
essence of life, was an afterthought. I could shower at the gym. I could get a
jug of Poland Spring at the bodega, but there wasn't any other way I could
watch "The Sopranos" on Sunday.
Presently,
the games of just about every major sport are available through streaming. Last
year's Super Bowl was streamed over the Internet for the first time. Sales of
Rook’s popular streaming boxes were up 300% in 2012. It's not rocket brain
surgery. If you know how to use a DVD player, you can get Internet content on
your television. It hurts me as again, I write this, because I liked you a lot.
I really did. We were childhood buds, teenage pals. I even brought you to State
Pumpkin Univ. with me. From Nickelodeon to MTV to ESPN to HBO, my pop-cultural
development, from the moment my parents let me watch television, to the joint
search-and-rescue efforts my wife and I hold for your 67-button remote control
in our own home...how did it end up in the kitchen? I would have been lesser without you. However
things change, especially in Layton. The cable man, as I write, at this very
moment is dis-connecting me from Comcast.
Everyone likes UofU this year, Denver Broncos,
and of course Weber State here in Ogden. You guessed it streaming is a must.
DR. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
To read more Karl Wallace stories, your trusted mentor to
advise you on any matter, go to: w.w.w.karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
