Ross Galloway's Profile

Thanks D – this is actually something Nike has underway with Nike ID for customization, and Express Lane for a more fluid and adaptive supply chain. However, I don’t think they are there yet with data integration earlier in the supply chain, and I agree that will be key to success.

Thanks Crystal – smart to link back to their own website.. they should try it and see if they get caught by Amazon!

Thanks Jay – love the idea re: Nike tape (or even Nike orange shoe boxes shipped by Amazon), but agree Mr. Bezos wouldn’t go for that..

Thanks Pasha for a very interesting and non-traditional post. Agree with the comments above – lots of opportunity for additional integration from Spangler food to Cumnock doctors. One additional opportunity would we wearables. I track my Activity on my Apple Watch, and share it with a bunch of people (including some in DIGIT!). It’s highly motivational, as I don’t want to get shown up by any of them! This is even more pronounced with devices such as Whoop, which track advanced analytics. Building on your Facebook group idea, perhaps Trainers could share their own data with clients and use Apple Watch or other devices to track their activity in non-work out days.

Thanks James – I need to learn much more about this part of the Entertainment industry, and this was very helpful! Re: opportunities for growth, one thing that didn’t come right out was international. You talked about increasing internet speed allowing more opportunity for social or multiplayer gaming – as this happens internationally, might the same trends occur? I’m not sure how much of ATVI’s revenues come from abroad, but given the rise of Esports in other countries such as Korea (already fast internet, but just an example), perhaps doubling down on franchises that are successful in international markets could help growth.

Great post, and I love all the comments. Certainly problems we wrestled with at ESPN. If we believe BSSE’s Schools of Experience theory, the appointment of Jimmy Pitaro to head of ESPN should position them well to combat challenges entering the digital age. Although the Maker acquisition didn’t work out (and was IMHO influenced by the gold rush mentality into MCNs by traditional media companies, very few of which have worked out well), I remain hopeful about ESPN+ and the forthcoming Disney DTC services. Disney’s portfolio, including Lucas and Marvel, is stronger than anyone else. However, I predict consumers will be the losers in a few years – instead of a robust Netflix, they will likely end up paying much more for a plethora of DTC apps. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for a great post Mike! I find the political narrative surrounding Thiel to be fascinating. He has been resented, at least within the parts of the country that didn’t vote for Trump, for his proximity to Trump. But based on this article, it seems that Palantir has been growing through government contracts since 2004, meaning the company would have had relationships with Obama as well. Perhaps I simply don’t remember, but there didn’t seem to be such consternation about Thiel and Palantir carrying out Obama’s foreign policy. However, whether this concern about political ties is well-founded or not, given that it exists I agree with EAP about keeping the company private. I worry about political gyrations effecting the company’s public valuation, especially given the volatile nature of Trump and his seemingly close confidants (see: basically the entire Cabinet).

Thanks MAB for a very interesting, and timely, post! I am pleased to hear that Toutiao provides a range of opinions in the information it provides. Indeed, that is something I would support Facebook and even the cable networks in the US doing for the viewers. However, I worry about this range of opinions weakening their ability to capture value — people often very much like living in an echo chamber, and Toutiao may have to move to a more pleasing algorithm over time to maintain users if other services begin to compete. Nevertheless, I’m glad to hear they are starting with at least some diversity of opinion.

Thanks for a great post Jessica! I’m interested to learn a bit more about the factors included in the model – specifically, do they go to the detail of characteristics of the founders? Beyond the team chemistry mentioned above, I worry that if the model includes data about demographics of the founders, and is too backward looking, it may eliminate more diverse founding teams because the algorithm doesn’t have historical data or the ability to be forward looking.. given lack of data perhaps those factors are not included, but I worry about companies being able to hide behind machines, or use algorithms to justify unfair decision making.

Thanks for the article Anton! von Ahn certainly seems to be a brilliant entrepreneur, given the success of Duolingo. I had no idea that CAPTCHA was actually captcha’ing value from me each time I used it. This is certainly a model to be replicated!

Thanks for this! With regards to embargoing reviews, I wonder if there are any market norms or deals in place to regulate this action? In theory any movie scared of bad reviews could embargo, weakening the role of RT, at least for a while.

Separately, I wonder if there will be a world in which the Academy adopts a crowdsourcing model for their awards. Other entertainment products, notably the All Stars for sports leagues, include at least some component of fan engagement (not that these are brilliant examples given the ability for fans to vote myriad times). This could increase movie viewership and revenues, but would risk diluting the “art” of the review as Peter mentions above.

Thanks Sean for the post! I sure hope the future is brighter for YT Red than my classmates believe, although I find their concerns valid. It’s an odd problem where in order a pay platform to work, it has to have hit content – which requires a potentially million dollar / episode spend, which is, as you state, antithetical to the YT model. However, if Red can get viewers on to watch a hit show with a massive cost, perhaps they can keep those users around for longer (after they finish said hit show) with cheaper content from YT stars, making them at least more profitable than the Netflix’s and Hulu’s of the world which all rely on premium content.

Additionally, on adpocalypse and regulation – it feels like it’s time for the government to step in. FB and Zuckerberg clearly believe this given his comments last week, and allowing the private sector to be the “moral police” has a history of massive risk (see the financial system in times of reduced regulation). I certainly don’t want to be mired in red tape, but a government solution may be superior to a private sector one in this case.

One more thought on the social media nature would be YouTube’s recent feature add to allow users to send each other videos within the app. This serves to increase engagement directly on the platform, and starts to branch into a more “social” type of media.

Thanks for the great post! My concern is about monetization – how can Houzz continue to grow revenues without making the site less friendly? I would like to see them explore native advertising – hopefully suppliers would be willing to pay for advertisements that flow seamlessly with the site and are helpful to users. Also, they could charge a fee for referrals from one of the green tags to a similar product, if the user bought the ultimate product. Either way, their growth is impressive!

A little late to the party, but great post! I wonder about ways that The League can reduce disintermediation. How effective is their messaging platform? Is it good enough to be an alternative to text messaging? Is it possible to make one’s phone number available to the other party at a certain time, and even call them through the app – similar to WhatsApp? A notable weakness of GroupMe is the inability to call through the app, and that tends to cause disintermediation. I wonder if The League could mitigate this risk through better integration.

A bit late to the party, but thanks for the great post! Given the title of the post, I wonder if Twitch has studio programming related to Esports? The great majority of ESPN’s content spend goes to live rights, but the majority of its programming is studio content such as SportsCenter, etc. Secondly, has YouTube’s creation of YouTube Gaming made any negative impact on Twitch? Interesting point Will L made above about streams being shut down, but I wonder if that has improved as YouTube has made a more deliberate effort on the gaming front. In any case, ESPN’s president saying that “Esports is not a sport” a few years ago has proven to be a disastrous strategic move as this continues to grow.

Thanks Pasha! I remember this as a watershed moment for the industry – the concept that linear TV shows could be revived online. There are many other examples today – Arrested Development and Fuller House as two of the most prominent. However, this is one of the concerns I have about the “golden age” of media, or “peak TV” as Fox’s John Landgraf describes it. There is simply too much content. Although Community was supported by a strong group of fans, it didn’t work in the confines of former distribution, saved by the more flexible digital distribution we know today. However, there will be a point at which humans simply can’t consume all content that exists – and I worry that when original or revived content starts to fail at Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. there will be a huge bubble burst for content producers everywhere. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy all the great shows!

Thanks Ari! My biggest concerns about Netflix are old people and poor people. In the US, Netflix has super high penetration in the younger crowd but still has a ways to go with the old and the poor. As broadband penetration stops growing, (in the high 80%’s in the US), we are seeing that for some the internet, and therefore Netflix, is either not affordable or important. Although the international growth you describe is encouraging and likely to distract for a while, I fear a meaningful slow down in the US will change the stock’s narrative and bring its valuation back to earth.

Thanks for the post! As another ex-Nike employee, an important factor in their digital retail success will be their ability to fulfill orders received through a variety of platforms (online and offline) through multiple distribution points (online and offline). The dream of buy online, pick up in store is now a reality – and Nike must upgrade its infrastructure to do so. Over the summer I looked into ways of doing this, with RFID being a leading technology. Nike’s near-field communication technology present in the latest NBA jerseys can also play a role. In order for them to beat Amazon and other retailers in experiential retail they must ensure full inventory at multiple points – for which I believe they have a long way to go.