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by gumby 2319 days ago
Not sure why a coffee company is a “tech startup”.

(Though TBF Amazon didn’t feel like a tech company in the 1990s)

2 comments

It has a live chat and five different tracking solutions implemented. What about this doesn't look like a tech business?
That’s just table stakes for a generic retail store Just because I drive a car wouldn’t make me a car business.

I think of tech businesses primarily as those that develop novel technology and secondarily as those who use technology in a novel and unexpected way. In both cases technology is the differentiation.

The only novelty of this business is its message and while that might make a perfectly respectable business (I am not part of the target market so I can not judge) there’s no “tech” in their business plan. Think of it more like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein: the clothes are made in the same factories by the same workers; the only differentiation is market positioning. Nobody would criticize them as not being “business” or even “clothes business” but their differentiator is marketing.

I'm pretty sure Wordball's response was meant as sarcasm.
Hah, whooshed over my head! Everybody wants the pixie dust these days.
well google is an ad company, what’s your point
Read my response to wordball. Google differentiates itself with its tech.

Note what I said about Amazon: it didn’t look to me like a tech company when it started, but actually it was (for its time). And since then has continued to aggressively differentiate itself through investment in tech development.

yeah but its selling ads, not tech. tech is the facilitator but google mainly monetised ads. sure from a worker’s perspective it sells tech, but it doesn’t.