Ben & David break down Jet.com’s meteoric rise, culminating in Walmart’s blockbuster $3B+ acquisition of the company just two years after its founding. Will we look back on this deal as an ‘Instagram-like’ bargain or a ‘Pets.com'-sized blunder? And most importantly, can *anyone* compete with Amazon going forward? We speculate wildly.

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Topics covered include: • Community spotlight: Nowdue • , a super fast invoicing platform for teams on Slack. Invoice like it’s the future! This looks very cool. • Jet’s deep origins in Founder & CEO Marc Lore’s first two companies, The Pit • and Quidsi • (aka, diapers.com) • Lore’s chance run-in with Jeff Bezos at a school picnic in Seattle • in the early 2000’s • Amazon's dramatic acquisition of Quidsi in 2010, including Bezos’ admonition to Amazon corp dev to keep Quidsi from being bought by Walmart under any circumstances (covered well in The Everything Store • ) • Lore’s less-than-favorable opinion of Amazon's culture Lore's vision of Jet • as an ‘online Costco’ that can directly with Amazon on price by selling goods to a “huge middle-class of people" at effectively zero margin, and make profit on membership fees • Jet’s huge • , pre-launch • fundraising rounds • , and subsequent massively promoted public launch • in July 2015 • Jet’s pivot in October 2015 to drop the membership model • (their only profit engine), and subsequent massive growth (but also accompanying massive losses) • ' Admitting defeat • ” to Amazon in July 2016? Immediately followed by the blockbuster $3B+ Walmart acquisition announcement • Is e-commerce really a winner-take-all business and will Amazon just take over the world? Featuring liberal citations (again) of Ben Thompson's • Aggregation Theory • and the importance of customer experience. • Is there any path for Walmart & Jet to compete effectively with Amazon? Is Marc Lore Walmart’s only hope? • Fantastic interview with Tim Cook • discussing (among other things) the massive amount of growth still left in the internet

Followups:

• Lucasfilm: Star Wars Rouge One trailer • drops! Featuring a strong female protagonist! •

New section: Hot Takes! (thank you @cteitzel on Slack for the idea)

Verizon/AOL acquires Yahoo!Lyft reportedly turns down acquisition offer from GM Microsoft acquires Beam Randstad acquires Monster.com •

The Carve Out:

• Ben: Michael Mauboussin’s Talk at Google • and Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors • after thirty years of honing his craft • David: Strava • , the fantastic social fitness-tracking app • None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories • to come next time!