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Hot Takes

Straightforward discussions on why often we disagree with the current hype, without filters or buzzwords.

Are we past social media?

Are we past social media?

Facebook has been losing steam for years, and now Instagram has also started to feel stale. Twitter has objectively devolved into a toxic cesspool, and Mastodon feels like a half-backed, overly cumbersome platform. As innovators, we feel in our bones that such a market is ripe for new entrants, if

B2C Is always harder...

B2C Is always harder...

When you're working in startup mode, one of your core missions (if not a unique mission) is to understand the problem you want to solve for your market. And I've been repeating for eternity that it's somehow easy in B2B, while B2C is always

Is TikTok a propaganda machine? It's certainly a cash machine.

Is TikTok a propaganda machine? It's certainly a cash machine.

TikTok has been, for a few years, the center stage of heated debates about being a Chinese propaganda machine in the West. The irony of American tech companies and social networks pointing the finger on how TikTok could sabotage democracies when the January 6 committee is still trying to figure

The shop that didn't need a website

The shop that didn't need a website

One of the shops in our cozy city of Haarlem sells high-end HiFi. As I pushed the door for the first time a few years ago, I was surprised at the really exceptional brands they had in store. The friendly owner was surprised too. He politely asked if I had

The digital native myth

The digital native myth

Today, a quick note for future reference as I still hear a lot of marketers still strategizing about "digital natives." The digital native demography is a common target of many incumbent companies trying to get more into digital. How to address the digital natives effectively has been the

An Amazon-like store without market awareness

An Amazon-like store without market awareness

Since a few months ago, the supermarket chain Aldi has been testing a fully automated checkout-free store in Utrecht and London (Aldi Shop & Go). This is a classic but always interesting move of prototyping at scale technology to understand how your market reacts to it and, most importantly, if

The U.S. army doesn't think VR is ready, either

The U.S. army doesn't think VR is ready, either

Being mostly bearish on VR, I'm still monitoring a few reasonably useful applications. Among them, there is the U.S. army Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS) initiative, promising to equip the "soldier of the future" with enhanced capabilities such as: * Allowing soldiers in the back of