Lessons From Failed On-Demand Startups

On-demand-service apps like Instacart and Sprig are among the most divisive startups in the venture industry, in terms of whether their economic models will work.

To figure out the right framework for analyzing such private companies, The Information’s first annual subscriber summit included a roundtable discussion with Ryan Sarver of Redpoint Ventures as well as subscribers from Amazon.com, Microsoft, Shasta Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. Other panels tackled topics ranging from secondary markets for private tech stocks to how startups can copy the activities of political campaigns in order to win customers.