E-commerce is one of the most influential developments of the Internet age, yet in many ways it is still in its relative infancy. Online transactions make up only 7 percent of all retail in the United States, up from 2.8 percent in 2006. The growth of e-commerce is even more pronounced in emerging markets such as India, where online retail sales jumped from 3 percent in 2010 to 34 percent in 2014.

This growth is spurred, in part, by the technology continuously developed to improve the online shopping experience for both customers and sellers.

Between the robust payment infrastructures of companies such as PayPal and the centralized hubs of discovery like Amazon, e-commerce has thrived in recent years. But refinement is always possible, and the tech landscape is crafting exciting developments to build into the e-commerce process. Read the full article here.

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.

Read the full article here.

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.

Read the full article here.

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.

Read the full article here.

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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Some of the most impactful and disruptive companies of the 21st century sprung from the minds of young, first-time entrepreneurs. Creativity, hard work, and the Internet have helped turn young people with radical ideas — from Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook to Brian Chesky with Airbnb — into some of the most influential figures in the world.

While this demonstrates to young people that the act of creation isn’t separate from them, it has also changed the way more established companies approach business. They now see how fostering a corporate culture of independent and dynamic employees is a way of harnessing that entrepreneurial drive and creativity necessary to promote business growth.

These are great shifts in mindset on the individual side as well as the corporate, but much more remains to be done to promote entrepreneurship. Here are four ways companies can actively participate in a bottom-up approach to entrepreneurship education.

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The gig economy has come under scrutiny in the last couple of years. Critics have raised concerns as to whether enough hours are available for gig workers to earn living wages — let alone the high wages many of the new technology-enabled marketplaces claim to offer. After factoring in financial responsibilities like maintenance, supplies, insurance, tax withholdings, liability coverage, on-the-job injuries and illnesses, the question gets even more heated.

But it’s dangerous to make broad generalizations about the gig economy, which includes jobs as varied as courier, handyman, lawyer, interior designer and more. Even within one position, the variety of hours worked makes it difficult to paint gig economy employees with a single brush.

In many ways, the gig economy is still a strong and completely valid method for workers to obtain a living wage.

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While discussions surrounding AI’s eventual overthrow of humanity can be fun and interesting, they often overlook the little revolutions that are happening right now.

As the debate centers on the future, AI is already doing a lot right now to help human employees do their jobs better and more efficiently, improving the customer experience. This current AI revolution comes in the form of machine learning.

Like any new tech, machine learning still needs the right people behind it to work properly. There are a few things you need to keep in mind when employing this tech in your business.

Read the full article here.

Not that long ago, venture capitalists took relatively passive roles with their investments. Besides a decent rate of return, the only expectation was really just a seat on the board. It was the epitome of a transactional relationship. Today, all that has changed. With the exception of maybe a few remaining “traditionalists,” most VC relationships are becoming more similar to partnerships.

But these relationships are largely dependent on more nuanced dynamics, like mutual respect and trust. You can’t expect to walk in, hold out your hand, and secure funds — it doesn’t happen like that. For this reason (and many others), I always recommend approaching relationships with VCs in the following ways:

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The sharing economy is in constant flux. With shifts in regulations, technology and competition, any company operating in this model must be ready to switch gears at a moment’s notice. This inconsistency places great demands on employees, making it essential for companies to have hiring practices that develop the right kind of workforce.

Your employees must be innovative, forward-thinking and adaptable if you hope to grow as a business — or even compete at all. Many companies take reactive approaches to hiring that prioritize speed to beat out the competition. But this isn’t the best approach.

Find out what is and how Uber has mastered it.

Read the full article here.