by Will Schreiber

Day 1

One of Bezos’ lines is “it’s day 1.” How is the third most valuable company in the world, with over 50% of all e-commerce traffic servicing over half of all product searches, still “in the early days”?

Early adopters think “it’s too late” (imagine Bill Gates reading the Popular Electronics magazine and thinking “software is happening without us”), when really things are just getting started. I remember learning about Tesla over a decade ago in high school and thinking, “Exxon is toast, how can people hold their stock?” Lol.

Ridesharing’s a great example. It feels ubiquitous. When I was taking a Pool to ATL a few months ago, I shared my ride with a woman headed into work at Dunkin’ Donuts. But only 36% of Americans have ever used ridesharing - only a quarter ride once a month. And worldwide, only 110 million people (1.4% of humans) ride Uber monthly.

When DHH/Jason released Rework, they thought it was too late; remote work was already obvious. Over a decade later, the book is having a resurgence because remote work is really beginning to take root.

@patio11 (who works in Stripe’s newest location, “Remote Hub”) placed a $500 bet that 3 of the top 5 largest YC companies founded this year or later will be remote companies within 5 years. None of the top 5 largest YC companies currently are.

Oh, and as for Bezos and Amazon? Only 0.92% of commerce happens online. Still day 1.