Over the last few years, a new term has popped up in the tech sector:
“Disruption.”
For example, the media is constantly talking and writing about “disruptive technologies,” and how they’ll change the world.
But what does this term actually mean? And why is it so important for investors like you?
Today, I’ll answer these questions…
Then I’ll show you how to take advantage of disruption to make extraordinary profits.
Started From The Bottom...
I first learned about the concept of “disruption” when I was very young—and frankly, the way I learned about it was pretty unpleasant.
You see, nowadays, I’ve got quite a nice lifestyle:
I live in a luxury high-rise in Manhattan. I’ve got a team of well-dressed doormen and a killer view of the Hudson River and the Empire State Building.
And after founding and selling a number of different technology companies, I started investing in other peoples’ start-ups. In fact, currently, Matt and I are angel investors and shareholders in 57 early-stage companies. These companies are already worth north of $250 million dollars…
And before launching Crowdablity, I took two years off to travel around the world.
But I’m not telling you all this to brag.
On the contrary, when I was growing up in Queens, if you’d told me that this is what my life would look like, I would have just laughed…
Because to put it mildly, I don’t come from a lot of money. In fact, there were plenty of times in my childhood when my family was dead broke.
But it was during one of my family’s leanest times that I learned about the concept of disruption.
And as it turns out, this concept is what helped me get where I am today.
Dreams of Small Business Success
It all started when my dad came home from work one day and announced he was leaving his job. This was a big deal.
We were a blue-collar family. My dad worked as a locksmith, and my mom was a secretary. And between paying the rent on our tiny apartment and buying food and clothes for me and my two brothers, there wasn’t much left over.
But after calling in a few favors, my father scraped together enough money to start his own locksmith shop.
Once he got it up and running, he worked around the clock… and before long, his shop started doing pretty well. He even hired a couple of employees.
Eventually, my parents were able to put a down payment on their own home.
I can’t tell you how exciting this was for our family. It seemed like we’d really turned the corner.
But then, overnight, it all came crashing down.
Disruption Strikes
Out of nowhere, my Dad’s business started to dry up.
People stopped coming in to have their keys made. And they stopped calling him to install new locks and doors.
What happened?
To put it simply, my dad’s business was disrupted.
You see, just a few miles away, a Home Depot opened up.
And not only did they offer keys and locks and safes just like my dad’s—but their prices were 20% to 30% lower than his.
As more and more of his customers switched to Home Depot, it wasn’t long before my father had to shut down his business for good.
After that, money got pretty tight for us.
In the end, our home was foreclosed on.
I’ll spare you the gory details... and I’m happy to say that things worked out OK for my family in the end…
But this experience was my first exposure to disruption.
And it taught me some valuable lessons that I’ll never forget.
Lessons Learned
Here were my big takeaways:
- If you’re watching closely, you can identify where disruption will hit next
- When disruption occurs, the “incumbents” often lose
- But if you’re on the winning side, you can make a LOT of money
For example, if you’d invested in Home Depot when it started disrupting my dad’s business, in just four years, you would have made 562% on your money.
This was a period when Home Depot was expanding rapidly. And as it did, it disrupted thousands of businesses like my father’s all over the country.
Considering that Home Depot is in the retail industry—in other words, it’s in a sector that’s slow-growth—a 562% return in four years isn’t bad.
But as you’ll learn shortly, that’s nothing compared to what you can make if you identify a disrupter in a high-growth sector.
So in tomorrow’s lesson, you’ll learn how to maximize your profits by applying these same three lessons to the highest-growth sector of all:
Technology.
Stay tuned!
