I'm over unicorns and The Future of Work

Why I'm focusing on anthills and the Tomorrow of Work instead

I will never forget the infamous slide that made its rounds in the 2010 pitch deck circuit, as everyone (and their brother) tried to establish themselves with a new concept that positioned them alongside the game-changing unicorns of the sharing economy.

They all went like this: Uber is the largest taxi company and they own no vehicles. Airbnb is the largest accommodations provider and they own no real estate. And we [insert company name/catchy pun] will be the largest [insert random industry] and we own no [insert asset].

We all ate it up. And for good reason. It was a beautiful proposition: by facilitating human interactions that weren’t possible and leveraging content, resources, knowledge and abilities of those very humans, legacy industries would be disrupted. The sales pitch to consumers was the democratization of access through sharing. Who doesn’t want that? After all, startups were built with the promise to “change the world.” The sales pitch to investors was even better: “our margins are going to be insane because we don’t need to own any assets.”

Fast forward to now, and it’s clear what “sharing” really meant: Contributors were sharing their content, resources, knowledge and abilities, generating revenue. The revenue and the associated gains were then shared with shareholders. Boom. Unicorns were born, founders were '‘changing the world” and everyone wanted to be like them, including me. For a large period of time, I thought of the “Future of Work” in relation to what these companies had been able to unlock: access to freelance/contract/short term gigs, the transformation and increase of new opportunities globally — what a bright and incredible future waiting for us!

It took me a second to understand exactly what was wrong with this equation. It was only when I was building Arrive and supporting newcomers to Canada that were highly skilled/highly educated but were often working survival jobs like driving for Uber and living paycheck-to-paycheck, and facilitating workcations for remote workers in rural areas where the impact of short term rentals like Airbnb were pricing locals out of their neighbourhoods, that I started to see how unfavourable this proposition truly was.

Many of these platforms could not and would not exist without these contributors. And yet, as the platforms grew and became successful, the financial upside was not distributed to those that played a major role in its success. I’ve already written in the past about how critically important ownership is to building wealth, so you don’t have to imagine how this dynamic has facilitated widened wealth inequality.

This is not just a critique on tech companies, though they, in a hunger to maximize margins, are most likely to fall into this exploitation framework of worker arbitrage. But the reality is that many companies rely on freelancers, contributors, and even full time employees that don’t get a piece of the pie that they’re contributing to. And workers are getting fed up. Rideshare drivers, beauticians, writers/actors — workers from all industries are hungry for change.

It’s time to kill this notion of the Future of Work because the future is far away and therefore we can speak about it with as much speculation and grand ideals as our hearts desire. I’d rather talk about the Tomorrow of Work because the reality is that things need to change, and quickly. Because the Today of Work is that quality contributors have been unfairly left out when they deserve to share in the upside of their efforts. The Today of Work is that the elusive unicorn model is one of inequality and instability. The Today of Work is one that is at a breaking point because we’ve seen time and time again that growth at all costs comes at far too large an expense. The Tomorrow of Work needs to be different, and it needs to be better.

While we’re at it, it’s also time to kill this goal of the unicorn. Having looked into Disney’s financials, I can see that their costs have nearly doubled due to the launch of Disney+, and this is already factoring the fact that writers and actors are getting paid pennies on the dollar (so much so that many of them don’t qualify for health insurance.) And when we look at other unicorns, many (cough Uber cough) have never in their lifetime been profitable.

Like many founders, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enamoured by building a massive company. We all romanticize building the unicorn that’s going to “change the world.” But I believe we should be more intentional with how we are changing the world. We are at a critical junction in time. Venture funding has slowed, the market is flat, and user growth is stagnant. Many companies have been laying top talent off. AI is positioned to disrupt work, and could even further harm workers if we aren’t careful and thoughtful about we use it.

Rather than building a unicorn, I am becoming a lot more invested in building an anthill. Let me explain:

• Unicorns, like the Future of Work, feel too elusive. They are idealistic, they are grand, and ultimately they aren’t real. They rely on an invisible workforce to bring them to reality, with no recognition. Anthills, like the Today and Tomorrow of Work, are tangible, real, and a direct manifestation of many contributors building something greater than them. And just to be clear - building an anthill does not mean compromising ambition, impact, or output. After all, ants can lift 10-50x their weight!

• Unicorns act independently out of their own self interest. An anthill is the culmination of an ecosystem and a community that acts independently, yet collectively, resulting in something that benefits everyone.

• A unicorn is a sight meant to be beheld but what value it actually holds is questionable. An anthill can be massive (I’ve seen one over 7ft tall!), but you might not even notice it because the emphasis isn’t on being impressive or glorified— it serves a purpose, and it doesn’t exclude its contributors from the outcome.

Ok, to be fair, I’m biased about ants because A Bug’s Life is one of my favourite movies - it reminds me of how much power we have when we come together. And there’s no better time than now. I’m driven to play my part to create a Tomorrow of Work focused on uplifting opportunity and distributing it more equitably alongside ownership to contributors and workers and employees. I’m still figuring out exactly how I’m going to be doing that, but if it’s something that resonates with you as well, I’d love to chat.