9 City + Tech Stories to Read Monday 10/26 🌆
Antitrust, Tech on the ballot, Palantir profile, Airbnb moves, AI investment ROI
Hi everyone - It's John. Welcome to Urban Tech's first-ever Monday morning edition. Hope your coffee is delicious and strong this AM. I'm writing this brief issue since I ran out of space for the What I'm Reading This Week section in Thursday's issue.
I've found that the "What I'm Reading This Week" section is an essential utility for readers. It arms them with stories and context on urban tech that they might have missed. 📚
Often in industries like real estate, transportation, and logistics, information can be siloed — so this section (and Urban Tech more broadly) aims to provide you with stories and insights from other spaces that might be helpful to you.
While Urban Tech will remain in its Thursday timeslot, posting cadence is something I'm actively thinking about right now. If you loved this special Monday post, hit the like button or let me know at john@urbantechnews.net.
(I'm planning a reader survey for more detailed feedback in the coming weeks, but this will be helpful short-term feedback for me, so thanks in advance.)
If you haven't read last Thursday's issue on Allbirds, go check it out. I tried to step out of the box 🎁 for this one and make a case for why Allbirds should be considered urban tech. I bet Allbirds is much more of a tech company than you think.
Here is a summary thread I posted on Twitter:
The feedback for Thursday's piece was incredible, and please keep it coming. A couple of pieces of feedback I really loved were from Crunchbase News Reporter Sophia Kunthara and IPD Capital investor Alexander Tang (an investor in Allbirds).
The best way to add value to Urban Tech is to share it. As our community continues to grow, the number of insights in this newsletter will also increase.
9 City + Tech Stories to Read Monday 10/26:
The Markup: Tech on the Ballot in November
It feels like tech issues are more salient and increasingly on the ballot in every election. Due to the federal government’s inaction to answer many of tech’s biggest problems, states and localities are increasingly making the rules.
The Markup (a nonprofit news organization) breaks down the most prominent tech issues to know for 11/3.
A few of the biggest issues:
Gig worker employment status
Facial recognition
Consumer data privacy
The ethics of algorithms
Government subsidies for broadband expansion
The Wall Street Journal: Pressure on New York City Commercial Real Estate Worries Investors
Signs continue to show commercial real estate is a sector that will be redefined by the pandemic:
“Distress in financial markets was all about residential mortgage-backed securities in 2008 and energy in 2015,” said Daniel McNamara, a principal at MP Securitized Credit Partners who is betting prices for some CMBS indexes will fall. “In 2021 it will be all about commercial real estate and the securities linked to it.”
NYC is traditionally the epicenter for commercial real estate in the U.S. In Q3 2020, Los Angeles and Dallas both garnered more commercial real estate investments than NYC.
The Wall Street Journal: Uber Founder Turns Real-Estate Mogul for Ghost Kitchen Startup
The Wall Street Journal’s Konrad Putzier outlines Travis Kalanick’s continued investment in ghost kitchens.
“WSJ analysis shows entities tied to Travis Kalanick spent more than $130 million on property acquisitions for CloudKitchens”.
I wrote in Urban Tech an essay on the rise of ghost kitchens back in July. If you’re interested in learning more, check it out: Casper the Kitchen
Big Technology: Where The Case Against Google Could Fall Apart
If you’re looking to understand the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google, Alex Kantrowitz wrote one of the best pieces I could find.
“When the Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against Google this week, it took aim at distribution deals, some similar to those Pichai brokered. Google “pays billions of dollars each year to distributors,” the DOJ said, “to secure default status for its general search engine and, in many cases, to specifically prohibit Google’s counterparties from dealing with Google’s competitors.”
CNBC and Bloomberg: Aibnb Teams Up w/ Jony Ive and Splits Shares
As it continues to build momentum going into the IPO, Airbnb announced last Wednesday it hired former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive. Ive will work with Airbnb on hiring and future products.
From Brian Chesky’s blog post:
“Since the beginning, design has been at the core of everything we do. Joe and I studied industrial design together at RISD, and we were taught that design is more than the way something looks – it’s how something fundamentally works.”
“Jony and I have been good friends for many years, and he has been gracious enough to provide me with guidance and advice. We share the same belief in the value and importance of creativity and design.”
Jony Ive is one of the most acclaimed designers ever. Design indeed has been at the core of everything Airbnb does, so this partnership makes a lot of sense. Time will tell if this partnership has an impact on Airbnb’s bottom line.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg also scooped that Airbnb’s board approved a 2-for-1 split of the companies shares.
Dan Primack made a great insight on one big motivation for the split — it will make it much easier to allocate shares at the IPO for Airbnb hosts. Uber did something similar for drivers when it IPOed.
Initialized Capital: Abodu: A Fast, Scalable Way to Start Fixing The West Coast’s Housing Shortage
One of my favorite thinkers on urban issues, Kim-Mai Cutler, shares details on a new investment made by Initialized Capital in Abodu.
I’ve shared my thoughts on ADUs (granny flats or backyard cottages) in Urban Tech before, but I think they are an excellent low-hanging fruit solution to introduce more supply to the housing market.
There are not many compelling reasons why someone shouldn’t be able to build a flat in their backyard.
Kim-Mai details the benefits of ADUs incredibly well in her piece.
“The most popular way to thread the needle on more density has been by opening the door to accessory dwelling units. Also known as granny flats, casitas or backyard units, accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are a way for homeowners to add a new unit to their background (typically, to either to house family members like aging parents or kids returning home, or to make additional income through rental revenue).”
“This is a big deal because American families are changing. A record 64 million Americans lived in multigenerational households prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and since the start of social distancing, a majority of young Americans now live with their parents for the first time since the Great Depression.”
Forbes: Companies Will Spend $50 Billion On Artificial Intelligence This Year With Little To Show For It
David Jeans at Forbes had a great piece on ROI for AI investments.
“As corporate spending on artificial intelligence systems is set to pass $50 billion this year, the vast majority of companies may not be seeing much return on that record investment.”
“In a survey of more than 3,000 company managers about their AI spend, only 10% reported significant financial benefits from their investment so far, the new report from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group found.”
Fast Company: 'Zoom towns' are exploding in the West
There’s a cool piece in Fast Company on the growth of new cities due to remote work.
“The coronavirus pandemic is leading to a new phenomenon: a migration to “gateway communities,” or small towns near major public lands and ski resorts as people’s jobs increasingly become remote-friendly. This is straining the towns’ resources and putting pressure on them to adapt.”
“A new paper published in the Journal of the American Planning Association shows that populations in these communities were already growing before COVID-19 hit, leading to some problems traditionally thought of as urban issues, like lack of affordable housing, availability of public transit, congestion, and income inequality. And while COVID-19 has accelerated the friction, the study suggests that urban planners can help places adjust.”
Technology often impacts the movement of people in very unpredictable ways. The automobile leading the way to the growth of the suburbs is probably the best modern example.
The New York Times: Does Palantir See Too Much?
The New York Times profiles arguably the tech industry's most mysterious company— Palantir. This piece from Michael Steinberger provided so much historical, business, and cultural context for understanding Palantir.
Palantir is a software company focused on big data and analytics. You've likely heard of the company in the news for its controversial work with government organizations like ICE.
This inside look at Palantir and its CEO Alex Karp was fascinating. Some interesting things I learned about Palantir and Karp:
While Palantir Cofounder Peter Thiel is a staunch conservative, Palantir Cofounder and CEO Alex Karp is a "self-described 'progressive warrior."
Karp has a PhD from Germany and studied with one of the world's leading philosophers for a time.
I knew Palantir's name was a Lord of the Rings reference but this piece gives you the full history and context for the name.
James Carville is an informal adviser to Palantir.
Thanks for reading! I’ll talk to you on Thursday. Also, please share Urban Tech!
JT