Imagine this: you’ve found your dream apartment and you want to close the deal. But instead of dealing with realtors, lawyers, and banks, you just enter a passcode, and you’re done.
“That’s just one example of how I think the blockchain will come to reinvent how business is done and consumer experiences,” Bryan Schreier, partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, told Cheddar.
He says the technology could wipe out layers of inefficiencies and middlemen.
Schreier, who sits on the boards of Dropbox, Thumbtack, and Qualtrics, said he sees a dozen pitches from start-ups in the crypto space every week.
“It reminds us of the early days of the internet…[which] promised to reinvent companies across a number of different industries,” Schreier told Cheddar.
But he cautioned that the world he envisions is probably a decade out. “It’s still very early.”
Ride share competitors Uber and Lyft both posted their fourth quarter earnings days apart from each other. Both companies have been trying to get back on their feet after taking some pandemic-related hits, but the Omicron variant had other ideas as the year came to a close, with each company taking a hit in ridership in December. Lance Ippolito, head trader at The Future of Wealth explains how Uber and Lyft measured up this earnings period and why Uber may still have an edge over the competition.
Parallel Systems has been selected to receive $4.5 million from the Department of Energy for an advanced testing program of its autonomous, battery-electric rail vehicles. The startup, which has raised more than $53 million to date, was founded by former SpaceX engineers to reimagine the rail system by creating a more efficient, decarbonized freight network. Matt Soule, Co-founder & CEO of Parallel Systems, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what the company hopes to achieve.
