daasKnowledge

A blog isn't much good if it isn't consistently updated. In fact, one could argue that one would be better served NOT to have a blog than to have one that has become dusty... With that in mind, I pledge to do better! I was recently afforded the opportunity to speak at a conference. Thus, I have been brainstorming ideas for a topic and for this particular audience, one obvious choice would be Amazon. This group consists of entrepreneurs many of whom are affiliate marketers. AM's reside in a unique niche since by and large they do not act much more than as a pass-thru engine. The AM market has exploded with the enormous growth of AMZN and many mom-and-pop operators are trying to exploit said growth. In most cases, the barriers to entry are minimal so the entire arena is fertile ground to those I often refer to as 'wantrepreneurs'. Thus, first I would like to divine some macro trends, patterns that account for the explosive growth of Amazon. My initial thought ...

After months of Sturm and Drang, Travis Kalanik finally succumbed to the pressure the board (and the public, I presume) applied and resigned as CEO of Uber. I am sure there was a collective sigh of relief from all involved. Sadly, Mr. K suffered an unimaginable loss in the passing of his mother in a tragic boating accident. Irrespective of any business issues, my hope is he can use the time out of the limelight to grieve. I wish him well. Since my last missive, I had one occasion to use Uber and it was oddly familiar - my car was in the shop. Not the X4 I used for my Uber/Lyft experiment but a little convertible. Seems it rolled down the hill in front of my house and smashed into the neighbor's house (and car). $13k in damage to my vehicle. Plus $13k to his house and car. At first blush, it appears I forgot to set the brake! Upon further review, it would have been impossible to do so without running myself over! So, it appears someone may have tampered with it....

First off, I apologize for dropping the ball on my ride share experiment. I plan to pick it up soon but life has simply intruded. In the mean, I discovered something interesting that I misapplied in my previous posts - the .575 government rate. Seems it INCLUDES gas so to add the actual gas charges is in fact erroneous. Thus, Experiment #1, I was still underwater driving Uber, just about breakeven on Lyft. Experiment #2, technically made about $6 for two hours work. Experiment #3, still nothing to write home about. But at least I will be more accurate moving forward. At some point, I will attempt to intuit the ACTUAL cost of operating a vehicle. It strikes me that the government number is quite arbitrary as it does not address the actual vehicle used in any way. For instance, the tires on a Porsche 911 cost about $2000 and last for only 10,000 miles so it's 20 cents a mile to operate just for rubber - that's actually more than the gas! An extreme example but I'm...

Last night  my whole family abandoned me! My wife was in Rhinebeck, #1 son Miami, #2 son, the OTHER Miami (Ohio), #3 son, the world's loudest Sweet 16 party. So, conditions were perfect for my next rideshare experiment. Friday night is allegedly high demand time. I started at 7pm after dropping my son off. I chose Uber because I didn't want to end in in NYC or my son would have to call an Uber to get him home! I'm not going to bother with the math. Suffice to say, again, I didn't make any money. 6 trips. Almost 3 hours of driving. $36.52 gross revs. In addition, I ended up 20+ miles from my home. But I did uncover some interesting nuggets... Number One, Uber is simply too cheap. It's confirmd. I have read about the complaints from drivers and seen the infamous Kalanick video shouting match. But it's true. Number Two. I drove 51 miles with the meter on but just under 30 miles WITH passengers. So, the distance you must drive to pick someone up, in my c...

Yesterday, I spoke to a group of juniors at a NJ Magnet High School. Roughly 35 kids in both the Computer Science and Business tracks. It's one of those public schools that you have to apply to, 800 kids strong. When I speak, I avoid what I call the 'show up and throw up'. No deck, no slides, just me and my brain. I like the give and take although sometimes with teenagers, it's like pulling teeth - having raised three I know a bit about it! But they were great, courteous, thoughtful. I spoke for nearly two hours punctuated by an unexpected fire drill at the half way point. My topic was entrepreneurship but the conversation ping-ponged around, everything from why did I start my first business to the current state of politics to climate change. At one point I asked how many of them wanted to someday own their own business. I was surprise that so few raised their hands. When I asked the few who did, the answer was universally 'to make a lot of money'. I bel...

There's an old saying - once is a mistake, twice is a problem. Well... Yesterday was another nice spring day in Northern NJ so I decided to take another crack at ridesharing. This time I made a plan! Friday evening I received an email from Lyft showing revised peak hours - when pricing is higher. Saturday from 11am to 1pm was noted so I decided I would target that time frame. I gassed up at 10:45am paying $2.40 (regular). Nice thing about the BMW that it runs fine on regular even though they suggest 93. According a BMW engineer I met, the on board computer will compensate for the lower octane and albeit you might get slightly lower mileage, the cost of premium being what it is, you save money with 87. And it won't hurt the engine. Once the fill up was complete, I waited. Turned off the engine, I might add, and waited. Right at the station. Ten full minutes passed before I got my first ride. Guess what? Four nice Millennials heading to - YANKEE STADIUM! After my trip to ...

A friend read my post on my first ride share driving experience and ask me a simple question. Do drivers take into account the $.575 wear and tear when calculating the COGS? My answer was, I don't know but I will poll some folks on my next few rides as a passenger. But you know as well as I do that there has to be SOME accumulated cost other than gas and tolls. Question is, how much? For the sake of argument, let's assume $0. Silly, I know, but let's see what happens. My total payout was $112.65. Gas and tolls were $38.33 so my total 'take' was $74.22. Divided by the 6.5 hours drive time yields an hourly wage of $11.42. Now I take all this with a grain of salt as the sample size was so small and I made two substantial empty trips. So, for now, I will consider this the low water mark assuming no operational cost of the vehicle (which is ludicrous). Other things I learned, quite by happenstance - I got an email from Uber - is (a) you DO need a TLC license to pic...