Byrne Hobart writes essays on Medium about finance, economics, real estate, and tech business models, including WeWork and meal kits.
HN commenters call him a favorite finance writer and call his writing superb. They cite his Alchian-Allen piece and meal-kit analysis.
An article called "The Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry" relates how the meal-kit industry faces the same problem(s) as Groupon:
"The problem Groupon faced was that their initial success validated a model that anyone could copy, and everyone who copied it increased both Groupon’s cost of customer acquisition and its churn rate."
https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/the-slow-motion-trainwreck-facing-the-meal-kit-industry-345f14df45ad
Wow, I thought this writing was really superb. I read one of the author's other linked articles, https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/alchian-allen-and-agglomeration-explaining-economic-inequality-and-nice-golf-courses-in-vegas-379eae5ddc5 , and it was the first time I read a convincing argument for the relationship between high real estate values and industry concentration in specific urban areas in the age of globalization. Fascinating read IMO.
There was a really good article in Medium about this.[0] Basically the Blue Apron model is too easy to duplicate. As more competition enters the space, the higher the costs for recruiting new customers, to the point where it's no longer profitable.
0. https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/the-slow-motion-trainwreck-facing-the-meal-kit-industry-345f14df45ad
> One weird thing I've noticed is that the California avocados out here are consistently better than they were in California
Were avocados cheaper in CA? It might be the Alchian-Allen Effect: https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/alchian-allen-and-agglomeration-explaining-economic-inequality-and-nice-golf-courses-in-vegas-379eae5ddc5
It's a great place to follow high quality individual writers instead of publications. For example one of my favorite finance writers: https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/
Not a regular newsletter, but you might enjoy Byrne Hobart's essays on Medium:
https://medium.com/@byrnehobart