Author: Robert Schouwenburg

One of my favorite holidays

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish everyone out there a happy thanksgiving. I am thankful I have a great partner in life, my two boys and the rest of my family and friends, that I’ve been given the opportunity to work on great companies and to live in this incredible world. As an import American, I’m new to the […]

Sorry, I’m not eating at home tonight

Subscriptions for consumables are impossibly hard

I’ve been following the IPO and the performance of Blue Apron closely. Innately I don’t believe in subscription models for consumables. In my mind, there’s too much hassle in “managing” the subscription. Life is not predictable and small changes (“Sorry, I won’t be able to make dinner tonight”) ruin the rhythm of incoming products. Amazon […]

Not all laptop users are created equal

Ipad Pro ad & mom

Apple is running ads for the iPad Pro called “5 reasons iPad Pro can be your next computer”. I wish that was true. I wrote about it before, but what I didn’t write about was that my mom uses her iPad Pro just like that. Her old Windows computer was dying after 7 years and […]

A potential future for retailing

Showrooms vs retail

Yesterday, we were driving past a big Toys’R’Us sign. My partner remarked it’s interesting that these signs are still up and she was wondering what is going to happen to these retail locations. They’re gigantic locations and not easy to fill. As far as I know, the only stores who are increasing their retail locations […]

Personal pet peeve

Ghosting is rude

When did it become ok to just drop out of a (email|text) conversation and stop participating? Even mid-conversation? It’s one of those things which really bother me. I get, you don’t respond to unsolicited sales communications, but the other day I got introduced to someone by an investor. The person responded 6 minutes after the […]

The internet is not nearly done

Let’s do everything else

This morning, I watched a presentation by A16Z’s top analyst Benedict Evans titled “The end of the beginning”. I always enjoy his analysis and this one is no exception. Using market sizes Ben extrapolates that we’re just scratching the surface on disrupting global industries – we’re maybe at 5-10% of leveraging software and the internet […]

Less choice is often better

FOBO & Amazon

Every now and then, I’m searching for something on Amazon and end up not buying. The problem is that I get overwhelmed with choices and end up with option paralysis. In other words, a serious bout of fear of better options (FOBO). Yesterday, I was looking for a long outdoor extension cord. Amazon has 14 […]

Nothing to do with nostalgia

Why we love vinyl

One of the fascinating effects of today’s technology world, is the way we mix sound. Most people are not aware of this, but music today sounds widely different than it did 20 years ago. Everyone is aware that we changed from LPs and CDs to streaming. Some people might have heard about the vinyl revival, […]

Like your home, it’s better not shared

Own your blog

Yesterday, I was reading a post on Medium that Medium is not a great place to blog. And kind of like Blogger, Medium is a terrible thing for publishing. If you think about publishing an article, starting a blog or even just sharing a short rant on Medium, please consider what you’ll be putting your […]

Is that outside or on TV?

Real sound

I’m an audiophile and I tend to spend more money than most people on audio equipment. Although, there are plenty people out there who spent more in the pursuit to true sound reproduction. I like to be more practical. It does mean I typically adorn the family room with larger speakers, but I don’t have […]