Andrew Yang thinks the next big startup opportunity is lowering the cost of living
Andrew Yang thinks the next big startup opportunity is lowering the cost of living
安德鲁·杨认为下一个巨大的创业机会在于降低生活成本
Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a theory about where the next wave of startup opportunity lies, and it starts with a question most founders aren’t asking: what if the business model was giving money back instead of extracting it? 企业家兼前总统候选人安德鲁·杨（Andrew Yang）对下一波创业机会所在之处有一个理论，而这个理论始于大多数创始人从未问过的一个问题：如果商业模式不是从用户身上榨取价值，而是将钱返还给他们，会怎样？
Yang was inspired by Mark Cuban. Not by his wealth, or his celebrity, but by Cost Plus Drugs — Cuban’s startup that sells pharmaceuticals at cost. Yang made a list. “Housing, education, food, fuel, transportation, media, and wireless,” Yang told TechCrunch on a recent episode of Equity. “The things we all spend money on.” 杨受到了马克·库班（Mark Cuban）的启发。不是因为他的财富或名气，而是因为“Cost Plus Drugs”——库班创办的一家以成本价销售药品的初创公司。杨列了一份清单。杨在最近一期的《Equity》节目中告诉 TechCrunch：“住房、教育、食品、燃料、交通、媒体和无线通信，这些都是我们所有人都要花钱的地方。”
He picked wireless and last September launched Nobile Mobile, a new mobile virtual network operator that provides cell service for a fraction of what traditional carriers charge and gives customers money back if they use less data. As AI threatens to compress wages and displace workers, Yang sees a business opportunity in bringing down the cost of living. 他选择了无线通信领域，并于去年九月推出了 Noble Mobile。这是一家新的移动虚拟网络运营商，其提供的手机服务费用仅为传统运营商的一小部分，如果客户使用的数据量较少，还会获得现金返还。随着人工智能威胁到工资水平并导致工人失业，杨看到了降低生活成本背后的商业机会。
Cost Plus Drugs, Noble Mobile, dumb phone makers like Light Phone, and even online grocery store Misfits Markets are early examples of an emerging business category where the startup’s value proposition is the margin it gives back to the customer. “AI is going to suck up a lot of the value and the jobs, and then Americans are going to look up and say, ‘How do I meet basic needs?’” Yang said. He believes meeting people’s needs “less expensively” is “a very rich vein of opportunity.” Cost Plus Drugs、Noble Mobile、像 Light Phone 这样的“笨手机”制造商，甚至是线上杂货店 Misfits Markets，都是这一新兴商业类别的早期案例，其价值主张在于将利润空间返还给客户。杨说：“人工智能将吸走大量的价值和工作岗位，届时美国人会抬头问：‘我该如何满足基本需求？’”他认为，以“更低廉的成本”满足人们的需求是“一个非常丰富的机会矿脉”。
That instinct didn’t emerge from nowhere. Yang first launched himself into the public eye during his 2020 presidential campaign, during which he advocated for Universal Basic Income as a means of combating AI-related workforce displacement and wealth concentration. The campaign didn’t succeed but the thesis has only grown more relevant. 这种直觉并非空穴来风。杨在 2020 年总统竞选期间首次进入公众视野，当时他主张实行全民基本收入（UBI），以此作为应对人工智能相关劳动力流失和财富集中的手段。虽然竞选没有成功，但这一论点却变得愈发重要。
Yang is still an advocate for UBI, arguing that the value generated by AI companies needs to be redistributed into the hands of the average American. But whether the government will be the vehicle for that redistribution, or whether it will just use any collected wealth to “plug a hole and do something not terribly productive,” Yang is less certain. “There is room for a direct connection between the money and the people,” he said. 杨仍然是全民基本收入的支持者，他认为人工智能公司创造的价值需要重新分配到普通美国人手中。但对于政府是否会成为这种再分配的载体，或者政府是否只会利用筹集的财富去“填补漏洞并做一些并非特别有成效的事情”，杨并不确定。他说：“在金钱与民众之间，存在建立直接联系的空间。”
That’s where the market comes in. Where policy fails, Yang argues, market incentives can step in. Noble Mobile is his attempt to prove the point. Since its launch last September, the company has grown to “thousands and thousands” of customers and is bringing in “millions in revenue.” 这就是市场的切入点。杨认为，在政策失效的地方，市场激励机制可以介入。Noble Mobile 就是他试图证明这一点的尝试。自去年九月推出以来，该公司已拥有“成千上万”的客户，并带来了“数百万美元的收入”。
“We’re unit profitable per customer, but we just share the profits with our subscribers with the idea that it’ll make you happy, you’ll stay around, and maybe you’ll tell your friends and family,” Yang said. The pitch is simple. Yang noted that the average monthly savings of $50, invested and compounded over 40 years, could amount to $24,000 — enough for a retirement down payment. And in this economy, who isn’t thinking about little ways they can upgrade their personal finance? 杨说：“我们实现了单客户盈利，但我们只是与订阅用户分享利润，因为我们认为这会让你感到高兴，你会留下来，甚至可能会告诉你的朋友和家人。”这个理念很简单。杨指出，每月平均节省 50 美元，经过 40 年的投资和复利计算，总额可达 24,000 美元——这足以作为退休金的首付。在当前的经济环境下，谁不在考虑如何通过点滴方式改善个人财务状况呢？
Whether investors will share that enthusiasm is another question entirely. Even if the opportunity is real, capital is concentrated heavily in AI right now, while consumer-facing businesses with thin margins and a social mission are a hard sell. “I had at least one investor say to me around Noble Mobile, ‘Love you, Andrew, want to work with you — if you could just make this an AI company, we’ll invest,’” Yang said. 投资者是否会分享这种热情则是另一个问题。即使这个机会是真实的，目前的资本仍高度集中在人工智能领域，而那些利润微薄且带有社会使命的面向消费者的企业则很难推销。杨说：“至少有一位投资者在谈到 Noble Mobile 时对我说：‘安德鲁，我很喜欢你，也想和你合作——但如果你能把它变成一家人工智能公司，我们就会投资。’”
The tide might be changing, though, simply because even the most wealthy, extractive companies need an economy in which consumers have enough buying power to purchase their products. “The value being concentrated in the hands of a handful of folks and firms is just bad for everybody,” he said. “There are some folks I know in Silicon Valley who are open to that for a variety of reasons…[like] they just don’t want to have to hire private security.” 不过，潮流可能正在改变，原因很简单：即使是最富有、最善于榨取价值的公司，也需要一个消费者拥有足够购买力来购买其产品的经济环境。他说：“价值集中在少数人和少数公司手中对每个人来说都是不利的。我认识的一些硅谷人士对此持开放态度，原因多种多样……比如，他们只是不想被迫雇佣私人保安。”
Yang encouraged founders and investors to take on problems they’re passionate about and find a way to build a valuable enterprise on top of it. “Think bigger and more broadly about trying to tackle problems and don’t subscribe so much to groupthink, because there are some valuable opportunities out there,” he said. 杨鼓励创始人和投资者去解决他们热衷的问题，并找到一种在此基础上建立有价值企业的方法。他说：“在尝试解决问题时，要思考得更大、更广，不要盲目从众，因为外面确实存在一些宝贵的机会。”