20VC: Why Not Every Element of A Scalable Business Has To Scale, Why You Should Be Bearish on Retail & Why Fewer Businesses Are Getting Started Today Since The Great Depression with Brad Hargreaves, Founder & CEO @ Common

Brad Hargreaves is the Founder & CEO @ Common, the startup that provides shared housing for those that live in common. They have raised over $20m in VC funding from some of our very favorites including the likes of Maveron, Slow Ventures, Lowercase Capital, 8VC and Brendan Wallace @ Fifth Wall. Prior to Common, Brad was the Founder of General Assembly, the global school for tech, business, and design which has, to date, raised over $140m and has locations across 4 continents.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Brad made his way into the world of tech, came to found General Assembly and then made his move into the world of real estate with Common?

2.) Why have we seen the price of real estate in core urban areas hit an all time high today? How does Brad think this will affect the future of malls?

3.) Why does Brad think that in a scalable business not every element has to scale? What does he mean by this? What proportion of elements have to scale? What are the inflection points in scaling that suggest potential for venture returns?

4.) How does Brad think about the secondary affects of AVs? Which areas does Brad think have the most potential for innovation? How does Brad think about the negative externalities of AV's? What can be done to mitigate their effects? 

5.) Why does Brad think that occupational licensing is one of the biggest barriers to economic growth in the US? What reform can be made to enhance this and allow for growth?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Brad’s Fave Book: The Lever of Riches

Brad’s Fave Blog: Kim Mai Cutler, Fifth Wall Newsletter, Steven Smith

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brad on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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