In the start-up world, Laziness is a dirty word. Work till you drop: Lazy = Bad. As an early-stage investor, I could not disagree more. At Incisive Ventures, we are investing in the Future of Laziness. We believe technology that significantly reduces friction in a very big market, enabling the users to be lazy, wins over time. That is the Incisive Ventures Law of Laziness: The company that enables the greatest laziness in their customers wins. We have found it to be the most important long-term value creator among our Meta Themes.
While this may sound counter-intuitive, the lazy thesis has already created some of the most valuable companies on the planet including:
- Uber, lazy transportation
- Amazon, lazy shopping
- Google, lazy search and productivity tools
- Docusign, lazy signatures
- Starbucks, lazy coffee
- DoorDash, lazy restaurant food
- Netflix, lazy entertainment
Friction is all the hard stuff between a consumer and something they want. Cost, time, and complexity are huge sources of friction with the last two being most important. Consumers will often pay a significant cost premium to save time or complexity (see: Starbucks). Innovation including simplification, scale, bundling, network effects, and software are huge destroyers of friction.
The Incisive Ventures Law of Laziness is, in some ways, an application of the Law of Conservation of Energy to consumer and start-up behavior. In physics and chemistry, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant; it is said to be conserved over time. Every consumer has a limited amount of energy to get what they want. A company that enables conservation of that energy (laziness) is able to transfer value (money) from that consumer to their company. Modern technology companies have been able to break the “isolated system” part of the Conservation of Energy Law to create positive feedback loops through network effects, scale, and bundling to significantly grow the available pie (and sometimes create whole new flavors) for everyone.
Many of these companies have used technology in new and innovative ways to ramp up the laziness trend that was already inherent in the industry. Walmart disrupted the local store with superstores (lazy one trip to the store). Amazon used the internet and software to put that disruption on steroids direct to your home.
At Incisive Ventures, we are on the lookout for the companies that will enable the next level of laziness.
We have found great companies enabling laziness across many market sectors that have led to portfolio investments including:
Health and Wellness
Precision Medicine
- Mango Sciences, data-driven precision medicine, lazy medicine.
- DocBot, the future of gastroenterology through AI, lazy gastroenterology.
At home health and fitness
- Fight Camp, Boxing-based home fitness, lazy gym-quality workouts (no travel time).
- Katalyst.fit, The world’s most efficient workout (20 minutes), lazy exercise.
- Sensate, the fastest science based stress reduction device, lazy meditation.
- Tripp, The leading mental wellness app in VR, lazy mental wellness.
- SilverTree, The wearable wellness device for active older adults, lazy senior care.
- IfUIWill, a platform to create challenges with your friends, lazy challenges.
- Good Idea Drinks, Functional beverage to control your blood sugar, lazy blood sugar management.
- Goodable, AI finds you the good news of the day, lazy good news.
- LMNT, advanced hydration with electrolytes, lazy science-backed hydration.
AI
- Augment.co, AI to supercharge your productivity, lazy personal assistant.
- DocBot, the future of gastroenterology through AI, lazy gastroenterology.
- Goodable, AI finds you the good news of the day, lazy good news.
- Matchbook Services, AI that unlocks actionable business insights, lazy data standardization, and matching.
- Otherside AI, AI that writes like you do, lazy writing for all.
ECommerce
- BizzTM, E-commerce infrastructure for small Bharat stores in India, lazy eCommerce for physical retailers.
- Anahad, E-Pharmacy infrastructure for independent pharmacies in India, lazy e-Pharmacy.
Cloud
- Vega Cloud, User-friendly automated multi-vendor cloud management platform, lazy cloud management.
- Boltive, Cloud based security for advertising and publishing networks, lazy content compliance.
- Anahad, E-Pharmacy infrastructure for independent pharmacies in India, lazy e-Pharmacy.
- BizzTM, E-commerce infrastructure for small Bharat stores in India, lazy eCommerce for physical retailers.
- Bima Plan, digital-first cloud-based insurance company, lazy insurance.
FinTech
- EduTinker, Learning Management system for K-12 plus Study Now, Pay later, lazy K-12 education platform.
- TradeWell, Institutional stock trading tools for all, lazy stock analytics.
- Equi, Advanced alternative asset platform for the rest of us, lazy alternative asset investing.
- Yuva Pay, Offline last mile fintech protocol, lazy fintech for dumb phones.
- Bima Plan, digital-first cloud-based insurance company, lazy insurance.
Enterprise
- Morpheus XR, Enterprise platform in the Metaverse, lazy enterprise adoption of VR/XR.
- Suavei, AI-enabled IOT device vulnerability scanner, lazy IOT security.
- Matchbook Services, AI that unlocks actionable business insights, lazy data standardization, and matching.
- Vega Cloud, User-friendly automated multi-vendor cloud management platform, lazy cloud management.
- Portside, Vertical SaaS to simplify private and military aircraft management, lazy aircraft management.
Gaming
- Champions Round, A new more engaging way to play fantasy sports, lazy fantasy sports.
- LootLocker, cross-platform game backend enabling advanced game features, lazy game feature development.
EduTech
- Day One, Cohort-based entrepreneurship training and up-skilling, lazy entrepreneurship training.
- Master Health Technologies, App platform to transform health and lifestyle books into apps, lazy health and lifestyle app deployment.
- Reviving Mind, Insurance covered tele-mental health for seniors, lazy access to mental health care.
- Fluent, learn a language while browsing, lazy language learning.
- Unlu, Up-skilling platform for creators, lazy up-skilling.
One can see the “lazy” theme in a number of other meta themes the industry is talking about including:
- At Home Everything. While the pandemic shut us all in our homes, anything that could be done at home was pulled forward into the home. Telemedicine, work from home, home fitness, home delivery of everything, etc. While this was a necessity of the pandemic, many have found that significant friction has been taken out of the system (commute times, access to services, etc.). For many, doing something at home is PREFERRED to the old way, due to the lower friction.
- Vertical SaaS. Despite technology everywhere, many industries still lag in adoption, especially health, retail, and traditional manufacturing. It is possible today to build on rapid development architectures, cloud, AI, API first companies, and other base software layers to develop vertical SaaS applications for these laggard industries. This will only accelerate over time.
At its’ best technology innovation destroys friction. With every new layer of technology infrastructure, more friction is destroyed. The smartphone destroyed the friction of being tethered to your desktop. The cloud destroyed the friction of running your own servers and data centers. Less friction = more lazy. What will you do with that extra energy? When laziness is enabled, new opportunities for that now-saved energy are created. At Incisive Ventures, we will continue to fund the next generation of laziness enablers. You are welcome.
