Building the Next Gig Economy Startup

Let’s talk about what to do when the gig economy stops exploding and starts normalizing.

What Uber and Lyft accomplished— more than provide frictionless rides at lower prices — is they established and legitimized a contingent workforce dedicated to providing said rides. A gig workforce. I’ve gone through the process to become a Lyft driver. It’s kinda simple. Got a late(ish) model car and no marks on your background check? You’re in. You can drive this weekend.

Not long from now, your job might be a gig. You’re going get more freedom from your employer, which in most cases is going to be an app, a technology, a platform.

Make your own joke about our new app overlords, but that freedom is what’s fueling the gig economy. And when entrepreneurs connected the dots between money and freedom, they spawned the “Uber for X” startup movement. Starry-eyed founders stopped building the next Facebook, and instead started building Uber for Food, Uber for Housecleaning, Uber for Hugs. The movement jumped the shark with the Sliceline episode of Silicon Valley.

But now we’re seeing a narrowing of “Uber for X” startups underway. Entrepreneurs and investors are placing bets that the gig economy is about to normalize and become an even greater share of the real economy.