The New Economy is where we are after picking ourselves up from the Great Recession. We have a lot of new challenges as well as a lot of new toys.
We have new tech, expanded uses of artificial intelligence, and a new sense of economic order (or is it disorder/disruption?). Corporate America is even leaner than before, while drones (and disappearing industries) threaten our job security (if not our jobs). Some of our malls have gone silent as the overgrown moss spreads through the empty parking lots. But new marketplaces have sprung up to fill these cracks in the pavement.1 The game has changed (or moved to the next level, where everything gets more complicated and moves faster), and we’re changing along with it. Sometimes this is by necessity, sometimes by sprinting forward with our eyes closed and just hoping we don’t run into anything.
- Staying in a stranger’s house or apartment instead of a hotel?
- Hailing a ride on demand from someone’s car or driving your own car to pick up other riders?
- Running errands for other people?
- Renting your neighbor’s bike or lawnmower?
- Lending strangers money in exchange for interest?
- Finding another income stream to make ends meet or to stretch retirement dollars now that we’re living longer?
- Taking on a side hustle because your regular job or your whole department has been—or soon will be—downsized, outsourced, off-shored, relocated, automated, eliminated, reduced, or otherwise taken off the table?
- Using technology to help you save and invest, because tech can optimize your finances in new ways, and every dollar matters?
This is all part of The New Economy.
The old order isn’t always working, so we’re forced (or willing) to try something new. At Otterwize, we’ve broken these down into the following areas:
- The Sharing Economy
- Side Hustles
- Starting a Startup
- Fintech solutions for personal finance (here and here)
Please feel free to contribute other topics to our list. Let us know your thoughts by writing to us at [email protected].
Footnotes
- Eric: One of my favorite things I’ve heard is that the most successful apps are those that replace your parents when you were a kid: Cooking? Seamless. Driving? Uber. Providing a bedroom for you to sleep in? Airbnb. And the list goes on.
