2010s — A decade in review or how 7 startups change the way we live and work

Over the last 10 years, few entities have had as big an impact on our personal and professional lives more than startups. As I reflected on this past decade, I wanted to create a list of the most influential startups in the following seven categories. They are, Food, Health and Fitness, Communication, Love, Gaming, Finances and finally Transportation.

The Criteria

To make the list, I looked not at just quantitative metrics like number of users of the services but more qualitative measures like their impact on our lives or a vertical. These startups have changed the way we travel, move, communicate and pay for things.

Category: Food / Delivery

DoorDash (2013) — While delivery services are not quite as old as the internet, you would be excused to think so. Back in 1999 services like Kozmo were trying to make instant delivery a viable business. And while there are more than a handful of other food delivery services, none have more restaurants signed up (300K+) and have a bigger share of the consumer meals delivery market (37% vs Grubhub’s 30%). On the qualitative side, being in a northern suburb of Minneapolis, we are not a hotbed of startup activity, so seeing which startup service make it here is a great indication of growing maturity. To that end, DoorDash was the very first food delivery service to be available.

Honorable mention: Instacart, GrubHub

Category: Health & Fitness

Warby Parker (2010) — By the numbers Warby Parker has sold well in excess of five million frames (5MM) and opened 90 stores nationwide. Their impact goes far beyond numbers. They’ve transformed how we shop for prescription glasses and at the same time democratize good design. Indeed prior to Warby Parker, buying prescription glasses meant a trip to the optometrist for expensive frames or to CVS Pharmacy for those of us who couldn’t afford $300+ for the lens and frames. That truth led led Dave Gilboa, Neil Blumenthal and two other co-founders to found Warby Parker and offer an alternative where instead of paying $500 to $700, great looking frames start at $95.

Honorable mention: Peloton

Category: Communication

Snapchat (2011)— While many have called the 2010s the decade of Instagram, and they wouldn’t be wrong, it’s in fact its less popular peer whose had an oversized influence on Instagram, the startup ecosystem in Los Angeles and the way we and brands communicate with us today. Snapchat debuted or popularized a slew of product features that are now ubiquitous in every other chat product. Three such features to note include the disappearing chat messages, the short length story and face filters. No chat app launches today without having a take on these features. So while the user base wars (or is it still a battle) has been one by Facebook and Instagram, both products wouldn’t be where they are today without Snapchat

Honorable mention: Instagram, Slack, Vine, Musica.ly aka TikTok

Category: Love

Tinder (2012)— With over 1.6 billion (that’s a b) daily swipes, the numbers for Tinder are simply staggering. Add to that resume the fact that the app is available in 40 languages, is used in 190 countries and it’s hard to think of another app that has that kind of universal success. Yet even with those numbers it’s still hard to fathom the impact on culture this app has had. If you are single and available, Tinder is inescapable. It’s become so ubiquitous that swipe right (the action a user takes to say they are interested in someone) has infiltrated our popular lexicon. This makes Tinder an unescapable app if you are dating world today.

Honorable mention: Bumble

Category: Gaming

Twitch.TV (2011) — Prior to Twitch.TV (a Justin.TV spinoff), seismic changes in how gamers learned about and purchased games were well under way. But the platform accelerated those changes by allowing Twichers to build and interact with their communities in real time. In 2018 over 185 million unique streamers generating over 434 billion minutes of watch minutes. Beyond their integration into Xbox and Playstation (both have a streaming content section) is the impact it’s had on popular culture. And that was on full display in 2018 when Twitch Start Ninja hosted Rapper Drake on his channel. Today, streaming plays an oversize role in how games are discovered, coveted and perhaps more importantly purchased.

Honorable mention: Discord, Oculus

Category: Finances

Square (2009)— Founded in October 2009 (yes i know i am cheating slightly on this one), Square’s mission was to simplify the world of point-of-sales and make it easier for small business and gig workers to take payments and make a living. While their stats are impressive with more than 2MM sellers use the square app and another 7MM users that have downloaded the Cash app, what they don’t adequately quantify is how pervasive they are. Today, that white smartphone attachment or the white tablet is everywhere, from the the food truck, to the lunch counter at the mall to the farmers’ market stall.

Honorable mention: Robinhood, Acorns

Category: Transportation / Mobility

Uber (2009)— Conceived in a snowstorm in Paris and founded in March 2009, Uber quickly moved from liberating premium transportation to enabling mobility for all on a global scale. An Uber can be hailed from the same app today whether you are in Barcelona, Paris or Los Angeles. The fact that this can be done without having to worry about having the right currency or even the local language is nothing short of miraculous. Today, Uber provides 15MM rides per day in over 500 cities both in the US and globally. Another impact Uber has had is change the way we think about transportation and mobility. The choices have moved well beyond public transportation and taxis and unto mobility startups like Lime scooters. Without Uber changing perception and expectations, those startups would not have seen the light of day, at least not yet. Today we await with impatience what the latest mobility startup will be. 10 years ago, we were hoping the taxi would take a credit card and mobility was some science fiction dream.

What is next?

To try and answer that question is a fool’s errand (at least for me)., What we know is that some of the underpinnings of the last decade are still very much with us as we head into the future. There are large private cash reserve waiting to fund the next market redefining startups. Computing power is continuing to increase exponentially and being packaged into ever smaller form factors. All that is certain is that our lives will continue to change and the pace will quicken. Will self-driving become as common place as Uber is today? Will we all get a $1,000 living allowance? Which is the next TikTok? Only the future will tell.