Zack KanterVerified account

A few thoughts: 1) I might argue that discovery either is or will be harder today than it was on the past. On a percentage basis of brands discovered divided by brands that exist, discovery is only getting harder because of increased competition since it's so easy to start

Agree - but I don’t think we’re concerned with the relative difficulty. We’re concerned with the absolute number of successful brands. Or, more specifically, that the average fitness of a product (as measured by meeting consumers’ economic needs) is increasing faster than before.

I go back to the third point I made. I think there's too much focus on starting and not enough on staying. It's still early but many will not go far and it usually has to do with securing the audience the brand needs to meet its expectations over time.

I agree - brands may not have staying power. But that’s creative destruction working at scale. Consumers’ needs and preferences are being met at a more perfect rate, and that’s good - even if brands don’t last.

So on that note, do you think competition should always be maxed out? If gatekeepers evolve as we discussed, and creative destruction accelerates, is it ever too much that is becomes unsustainable in your opinion?

In theory, no. I guess that’s because I have a hard time conceptualizing how it could become unsustainable. More specifically: unsustainable for who/what?

For example, if Amazon continues or accelerates growth, suppliers keep getting commoditized, at a certain point, it becomes such bloodthirsty competition that one can't build a real business even if she is trying to serve consumers, likely because of price competition.

Put differently, on the current path, there seems to be a case where what looks good for customers now and bad for businesses becomes bad for everyone.