Welcome to Daivik’s Newsletter!

I apologize about this week’s newsletter being sent out a little later than usual. If you are new around here, this is a bi-weekly newsletter about IRL events, startups and building products! If you find this useful, feel free to refer a friend or subscribe for future newsletters using this link: Subscribe

Featured Events

Events that I host, will be at or think might be worthwhile to check out

👋 - I plan to be there, feel free to say hi!

🎊 - I am hosting! Please feel free to swing by!

Toronto

11/09 - PropTech Mixer - Aceocial - Register

11/12 - Young VC Party - Aceocial x AMPM - Register

San Francisco

11/02 - Llama Lounge - The AI Startup Event Series - Register

11/03 - Happy Hour - Sky9Capital X MindsDB AI - Register

11/05 - Analytic Philosophy After Dark - Register

New York

11/03 - Tech Happy Hour @ Standard Biergarten - Register

11/08 - Houck's Founder Meetup [NYC] - Register

Want to see your event here? Is there something going on that I should be highlighting? Feel free to reach out and I would be happy to feature them!

Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology

Recently, I watched the Game Boy episode of Marques Brownlee's Retro Tech, which discussed and analyzed the impact that the Game Boy has had on modern technology. I thought the episode was great, especially in showcasing how the original Game Boy ultimately helped set the framework for modern-day smartphones and other portable tech. If you have not watched it, I highly recommend it, and you can do so by following the link below:

One of the areas he talked about, which made the Game Boy so successful compared to technically superior hardware, was Nintendo's, and more specifically, Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of 'Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology.' Essentially, this concept talks about using matured technology, which is cheap and well understood, in a radical new fashion to make a new product. In doing so, you do not risk having failures in the hardware that can doom a product's launch and can quickly mitigate any issues given the deep understanding of the hardware and previous documented solutions. You also minimize the trade-offs you have to make when developing a product. These two areas were key to Game Boy's advantage over competitors, as the Game Boy very rarely broke or had issues and managed to still be the best-selling portable gaming platform despite having a non-color panel in favor of a long battery life. This thinking is still relevant in the modern-day and is an interesting area of discussion.

We see that this thinking still exists to a degree in many modern companies, with one of the most prevalent ones being Apple. Many have criticized Apple for being a slow adopter of the latest technology, but ultimately their products still hold the largest market share in most areas because the products they release come with a certain certification of quality attached to them. For example, they waited a long time before implementing OLED panels, but now they and their customers do not have to face the challenges early adopters of OLED had to face, such as a major hit to battery life and screen burn-in.

A recent example where trying to create something with less explored technology could be seen with products like the Samsung Galaxy Fold. At the time, foldable OLEDs were a recent development, and thus, a lack of support followed with the massive price tag to create them is causing an immense amount of issues for Samsung and ultimately making many label the product as a failure. Fast forward, a couple of years to today and we see a vast variety of foldables enter the market given the technology has now matured.

This brings up the question of where innovation in the future should come from. Companies like Samsung are trying to innovate by actually creating new technologies, while companies like Apple, although like Samsung trying to push the boundaries in realms like their mobile processors, tend to create products or add to their products with more established, aged technologies. In a time where it is not uncommon for products to have rocky launches and a variety of issues, it would be interesting to see one fully invested in this mindset. A company not focused on necessarily pushing the boundaries of the technology we have but rather creating something new with what is already widely available in the market. It worked for the Game Boy in the past, and I believe, more than ever, it would work right now.

Check out this Podcast Episode!

You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Podcasts

Andrew Oh is a former 4x Startup Founder and Product Manager at TikTok and Grab. He has worked in a lot of diverse areas such as B2C software applications, flying taxis, and fraud detection. We go through what drives Andrew towards choosing his opportunities, his experience being both a Founder and Product Manager, his experience creating products, and his thoughts on the Asian Market!

Thanks for reading,

Daivik Goel