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Insurance by the hour. A billing cadence or a business model? Founded by Harry Franks, Sten Saar and Stuart Kelly in 2016, Zego has set out to re-invent commercial insurance for self-employed people, with a particular focus on contractors powering various parts of the gig economy. Its first product is pay-as-you-go scooter and car insurance […]

A “strike” in on-demand is failing to show up for work, something that is very hard to enforce in a virtual community. With Instacart’s “commission” structure, which provides the base pay for a delivery, local factors can bring compensation way down, to “just $1” in Evansville, Indiana. One of the strike’s leaders is Matthew Telles, […]

Kamcord, a game streaming developer, has been acquired by Lyft and announced it is closing existing services to focus on video engagement in autonomous Lyft vehicles. Interesting. The transportation space is very different from mobile live streaming but we see a lot of parallels. Prior to Kamcord, broadcasting your mobile screen involved cables and desktop […]

Uber and Volvo move to deliver the first fleet of autonomous ride-sharing cars. This comes sooner than many expected, and raises a very important question about Uber, which has relied on drivers to supply, clean, and maintain cars in the past: Is there any margin in autonomous vehicles? The acquisition of 24,000 self-driving cars for […]

U.K. politicians have made gig work a hot-button issue as Tories and Labour vie for post-Brexit influence. This will spread to the U.S.,. and companies need to get ahead of regulators by finding solutions for on-demand work benefits and safety net services. Companies should face punitive fines for falsely classifying workers as self-employed and denying […]

Local value must be recognized by Amazon — or any on-demand company — if it is going to revive the middle class economy. Human interaction is the highest degree of engagement, but treated by financial-centric organizations as the least valuable. Flex drivers are in the best position to get a full accounting of customer satisfaction, […]

Smart move, big win for Postmates. Bundling of delivery is how many consumers will first experience on-demand service. According to news from Mac Rumors, Apple announced the offer to its Apple Pay customers via email: “Special announcement: Just in time for the holidays, we’ve extended the Unlimited trial for customers using Apple Pay. Sign up […]

Question for debate in comments: Are national brands the ultimate end-game for in-home services or do local small businesses play the leading role in the long-run? TaskEasy has performed over one million tasks in more than 10,000 cities in all 50 states. The company has established the largest network of screened and insured lawn maintenance […]

The microtransit “movement” is an evolution of campus developments in corporations over the past 30 years. These locally delivered shuttle services will develop around shopping destinations and planned urban and suburban communities. Look for apartment/condo developments to add an alternative to owning a car. Keep an eye on partnering between communities, developers, and transportation network companies. […]