Is greater technological efficiency leading to the death of capitalism? This is the argument author Jeremy Rifkin makes in his book “The Zero Marginal Cost Society.”

Rifkin cites the information goods industry and the sharing economy as harbingers of this new non-economy. Where platforms such as YouTube and Medium removed publishing and publicity costs almost completely for content creators, businesses such as Uber and Airbnb will do the same for their respective industries.

These platforms — by allowing millions to connect and share assets with minimal expense — are driving costs for companies and consumers down to zero, rendering capitalism as we know it obsolete. But capitalism will be alive and well — it just may be hard to recognize.

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Running a startup is risky business. Three out of four startups fail, and those that manage to survive often struggle to retain customers and profit. A simple keyword search for “SaaS enterprise growth” will produce a litany of different (and sometimes conflicting) advice.

With the weight of potential failure and the inconsistent messages of how to overcome it, knowing where to focus your efforts can pose a serious challenge. Leaders of SaaS businesses should pay attention to these three aspects in order to grow.

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When Los Angeles was listed as the fastest-growing tech startup region in 2014, many guesses were raised about the root cause of its success. Could it be the large number of new companies? Is it the culture or community atmosphere? But trying to boil it down to a single trait minimizes its impact. No, to see the strength of Los Angeles’ startup scene, you must look at the whole story.

The LA Tech Summit is a great example. For three years now, Cornerstone OnDemand has been using this conference to celebrate the successes of local startups and to look to the future of technology. While the initiative is still new and growing, it’s a symbol of why LA’s startup scene is poised for long-term, sustainable growth. It’s a sign of preexisting businesses sharing the keys to their accomplishments and reinvesting in the future of the industry.

This kind of reinvestment — which is also being done by General Assembly, WeWork, Cross Campus, local startups, and more — is what builds a home for the region’s tech newcomers. This is one of the essential ingredients that make up a sustainable startup community.

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Uber, unlike many startups, has already figured out how to make money. The company has created a product that can offer both value to consumers and strong margins for itself.

When you think about new marketplaces in the tech industry, you must consider how they affect the three key stakeholders in the equation: the consumer, the seller, and the marketplace itself. If Uber and similar companies are willing to push their business models to their best possible conclusions, they can not only survive but flourish.

With that in mind, I came up with a simple rule to determine whether a tech marketplace is built to last:  the 20/20/20 rule.

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