Predictions for 2019 - seeing as everyone else is at it, I thought I’d list my top five predictions for 2019. These are in no particular order:
-
Increased focus on wellbeing - for individuals and the environment, as elements of the information revolution and public policy are having visible negative effects on both. These new product ecosystems will become fully ingrained in our day to day as products such as the Apple Watch become widespread. Individual health startups will be concentrated around mental health, reproductive health and AI-assisted diagnostics. Whilst environmental products will aide recycling and reducing Co2 emissions caused by transport and food consumption. Incumbent consumer brands of all descriptions will increasingly focus on these two tracks
-
Emergence of a direct-to-consumer aggregator - barriers to brand+product creation continue to lower, with the internet uniquely able to cater for niche tastes, with CACs increase due to FB/GOOG pricing power. From this, a new top-level aggregator and tastemaker of DTC brands will emerge, with consumer supply and lower CACs being a driving force for brand sign-ups
-
Scooter startups in for a bumpy ride - fierce and expensive competition amongst scooter (and bike) startups will intensify as they push up against localised regulation, seasonality and a tighter funding environment. This will be acute in Europe
-
Constrained capital markets - Debt and equity market turmoil will continue in 2019, whilst a 2008-style clataclysm is unlikely, uncertainty will make for a cautious early stage funding environment. A redress downward in Seed and Series A pricing is likely, with companies looking to raise extended runways, at more sane valuations and act more cautiously in terms of growth and marketing spend
-
Explosion of Future of Work - the combination of a shift to freelance+improved communication tools+talent cost arbitrage will see a host of new products and startups in this space. 2019 is not quite yet the year that new startups will be “default remote” instead of “default centralised”, but new products and attititudes will get us closer to that
Bonus prediction (‘cause who does a Top 6 list!?): Real Estate technology goes inside - much of the innovation within PropTech in the last 5+ years has been concentrated on space arbitrage (WeWork, Airbnb) and the transaction layer (Opendoor, Purplebricks, Harbor). With the emergence of spatial computing (+home / voice computing) I expect to see more breakthrough products which utilise computer assisted measurement and tracking in order to make cumbersome internal processes easier. In the first instance this will manifest itself in construction technology and “low-NPS home services” such as maintenance, repairs and renovations.
>> Would love to hear your view on these and your predictions - I will be posting these on
my Twitter, so please jump in to the conversation there
Tweet
Share