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By Root 233 0

communities, teams, and expectations worldwide. As a Web entrepreneur, I’ve watched old business models and brands tumble one after another. From publishing to retailing to banking, companies have been forced to adapt or die. Amazon grabs the bookselling market from Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Blackwell. It marches on to become the world’s biggest online retailer, and then to further disrupt the publishing industry by introducing the Kindle and widespread access to e-books. Song sharing via the iPod and iTunes transformed the music industry. Ofoto created a platform for sharing digital photos that Kodak was compelled to embrace and that helped inspire other digital share platforms. Industries and brands that once seemed bigger than life and eternal are now scrambling to find a new way forward. Many were already in a free fall when the recession gave them an extra shove into the spiral of doom. Dozens of industries and brands that once seemed indestructible are now struggling to find solid footing in a changing world.

better things. easily shared.

To date, the biggest disruptions have occurred in businesses that largely involve digital products and services, such as music or financial data. The Mesh enables businesses to also profit handsomely by streamlining access to physical goods and services. These businesses are relatively easy to start and are spreading like wildfire: bike sharing, home exchanges, fashion swap parties, energy cooperatives, shared offices, cohousing, music studios, tool libraries, food and wine cooperatives, and many more. They leverage hundreds of billions of dollars in available information infrastructure—telecommunications, mobile technology, enhanced data collection, large and growing social networks, mobile SMS aggregators, and of course the Web itself. They efficiently employ horizontal business to business services, such as FedEx, UPS, Amazon Web Services, PayPal, and an ever-increasing number of cloud computing services. All the Mesh businesses rely on a basic premise: when information about goods is shared, the value of those goods increases, for the business, for individuals, and for the community.

Mesh businesses are legally organized as for-profit corporations, cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations. Once I started looking, I quickly uncovered over 1,500 relevant companies and organizations. The Mesh, I realized, was further along than I had originally imagined. In less than a decade, the Mesh model has infiltrated dozens of categories, including fashion, real estate, energy, travel, entertainment, transportation, food, and finance. The shift to the Mesh is quietly changing the way business is done, and it’s picking up speed.

Mesh businesses come in all shapes and sizes, including extra large. Netflix, for example, is a share platform that transformed the video and film distribution industry. The company posted $1.36 billion in sales in 2009 and a $4.76 billion market cap in 2010, only a few years after displacing the reigning company in video rentals (more about that in chapter 8). Netflix has inspired similar models elsewhere, including Seventymm, a similar service in India that offers movies in eighteen Indian and foreign languages.

Other Mesh businesses take advantage of local resources. Crushpad helps wine lovers experience the joys of selecting, crushing, fermenting, and blending their own Napa varietals with the help of seasoned wine pros, and at substantially less cost than buying their own equipment. Several of their customers have created custom labels that are sold on the site.

put on your Mesh lenses.

Sometimes, as Crushpad’s Michael Brill discovered, Mesh opportunities reveal themselves when you’re paying attention. It helps to put on what I like to call your “Mesh lenses.” Look around you for physical resources that could be more efficiently and profitably shared using information networks. When you see in this new way—through Mesh lenses—rich and surprising business opportunities reveal themselves, even in your immediate surroundings. Ask yourself how you