Down Round

QR code menus became popular during the pandemic, when everyone collectively decided it was much safer to have your beers delivered to the table at the pub instead of walking up yourself. Now there are a million different providers of QR code menus. But but how does it all work, and is it actually a good business? We dig in. For an extra episode each week, and no ads, subscribe to Down Round premium here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big news, WeWork fans! The company has announced that it is hurtling towards bankruptcy, with serious doubts about its capacity to continue as a “going concern”. For those who haven’t been paying attention for the past couple of years and assumed it was bankrupt and out of business anyway, this will be a shock.In today’s ep, we take a tour through the WeWork story — particularly what it has been up to since its famous IPO collapse in 2019. Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recent years have seen a surge in telehealth and online health delivery — from essential prescriptions to more discretionary health spending. Everyone from smaller boutique startups to Amazon want a slice of the pie. There’s a big debate in the medical community about so-called ‘asynchronous care’ — where a patient and doctor communicate through non-live online services. Pharmacists, already rattled by the retail revolution led by Chemist Warehouse, are also mad about this stuff. But many patients do like to do medicine on the computer.Today we’re joined by Tim Doyle, founder of online healthcare company Eucalyptus, who gives a window into how this stuff works in Australia. And maybe beyond. (No promises.) Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twitter is no more. From the ashes rises X, Elon Musk’s cringely-named attempt to actualise one of his long term goals: building an everything app. Musk wants X to be the central place where you post, shop, send money, access financial services and do whatever else it is you do as part of being alive on the planet.In this episode we dive into the idea of the everything app, and why tech companies have been chasing that dream for at least a decade. Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a Q&A episode, and we know your pressing questions have been accumulating for months. We’re sorry we let it get so desperate.Thank you to our subscribers on Substack and Twitter (X???) who sent in questions. If we didn’t make it to you, there’s a good chance we’ve got a whole ep planned in future. Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hollywood actors and writers are both on strike for the first time since 1960. Two of the primary reasons they’re hitting the picket line are core Down Round areas: the economics of streaming, and the future of AI content. Working actors are mad that they’re not being compensated properly for appearances in streaming content, where audience figures are much more opaque, and they’re staring down the barrel of having their likenesses reused with AI.Ah well. Guess it’s up to us to figure it out then… This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit downround.substack.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. Want to join? Sign up for Down Round Premium! The rise of the consumer-available drone over the past decade has been a huge win for real estate agents and YouTube fail compilations. But what about the rest of us chumps?! In this episode, we talk about the drone — from the dominance of Chinese companies in their production, to the (possible) promises of drone delivery.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the end of last week, Mark Zuckerberg decided to take advantage of the chaos over in Twitterland by surprise dropping Meta’s own text-based social media platform, Threads. Because it leverages the Instagram social graph, it quickly exploded to over 100 million users.In today’s ep, we dig into Threads and make a series of wild predictions which are sure to never be vindicated. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit downround.substack.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. The ongoing freakout at Twitter culminated this week in the platform limiting the number of tweets users could see per day, which Elon Musk claimed was to stop an onslaught of AI bots training themselves on Twitter data. That caused a brief exodus to Bluesky, the wonky alternative currently being hyped by Twitter refugees and former addicts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ticket industry is one of the most confusing online industries in 2023, a rentseeking behemoth which doesn’t seem to offer much for fans or artists alike. Thanks to the suggestion of a few listeners who seem to have missed out on Taylor Swift tickets last week, we’re diving in. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit downround.substack.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.