The Digital Economist
Hi, I'm Sam Birmingham. I love startups, innovation and challenging the status quo.
For the vast majority of my years, economies have grown, companies have profited and people have got richer on the back of a once-in-a-lifetime demographic shift and debt-fuelled boom. Those days are through.
Economies must evolve beyond rampant consumerism and confront the demographic headwind that had been a tailwind until the Baby Boomers began retiring. Companies must become nimble, innovate and invent new products to address customers' ever-changing needs in this digitally-disrupted world. And as people, we must focus on solving problems and learn to do more with less.
These are the challenges that excite me. They are what I want to get out of bed each morning and be a part of. This is where I share my thoughts.
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I’ve been re-watching Kevin Rose’s Foundation series this week. There are heaps of gold nuggets in there - from Jack Dorsey and Chris Sacca, to Tim Ferriss and, more recently, Matt Rogers from Nest.
I especially loved this snippet from Kevin’s interview with Instagram founder Kevin Systrom:
“I look at ourselves as our biggest competitor… It’s the hardest thing - to build a company.
A lot of people, when starting a company, think they’re starting a product. And that’s what you’re kinda doing - you’re building a product to show traction… But, really, in the long run, you have to build a company. And that’s way harder.”
