Venture capital is the business of hitting home runs. But must a startup have the potential to capture the vast majority of market share in its category to earn an investment? I don’t think so.
A few weeks ago, the co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack, Marco Zappacosta, came on TechCrunch’s Found podcast to talk about building his home services startup. I asked him what was next for Thumbtack, considering the startup is 15 years old and was last valued at $3.1 billion. I thought he might talk about a potential exit, but his answer surprised me.
“For our industry, [the adoption of booking home services online on a platform like Thumbtack] is less than 10%. We are still in the very early days of this sort of transition in evolution. I think people don’t appreciate how big this category can and will be,” Zappacosta said. “It also speaks to what we’re still trying to do, because we think we’re still early in this whole sector.”
Thumbtack shares that 10% figure with a handful of other players in the space, including TaskRabbit, Angie’s List and other startups like Jiffy. In home services, a company only needs to grab a few percentage points of the overall market share to be a multi-billion-dollar business.
If you think about it, most established categories look more like a handful of winners than just one. In the travel sector, there is Booking.com, Trivago and Kayak. Even established categories like credit cards see both Visa and Mastercard dominating the market.
Even markets with a seemingly dominant player can support multiple winners. In music streaming, Spotify seems like the clear victor in its category, but it only has 31% of the global streaming market — that’s significant, but there’s still a good amount of market share left for its competitors like Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, and SoundCloud. And while some markets like treatments for rare blood diseases may not be large enough to support numerous successful players, most do.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was little changed in late-morning trading as the financial sector fell, but energy and base metal stocks moved higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.05 of a point at 24,224.95.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 94.31 points at 42,417.69. The S&P 500 index was down 10.91 points at 5,781.13, while the Nasdaq composite was down 29.59 points at 18,262.03.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.71 cents US compared with 73.05 cents US on Wednesday.
The November crude oil contract was up US$1.69 at US$74.93 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up a penny at US$2.67 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$14.70 at US$2,640.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up two cents at US$4.42 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
