Strategy

Spoke recently with a VC backing a battery-electric construction equipment startup that’s quietly acquiring firms in “boring” operational niches like site prep to control deployment and usage. It eliminates the friction of getting novel equipment into the field while capturing margin. Rather than waiting for contractors to spec unfamiliar hardware, they’re buying the contractors. This is a familiar play. Joby Aviation is building electric aircraft for their own airline. Waymo built a tightly controlled fleet operation to deliver mobility-as-a-service. Deploying autonomous, electric equipment isn’t just about selling, its about guaranteeing outcomes which often requires owning the stack initially. ...

In the spirit of vibe product management, here’s some writing from my corporate strategy course in Spring 2025 for which we were asked to choose a company with problems, analyze it internally and externally, then make suggestions for rejuvenation. Autodesk strategy report Autodesk faces an inflection point. While its financial performance and market penetration remain strong, its dependence on structural lock-in, legacy platforms, and extractive pricing is eroding its brand equity and exposing vulnerabilities to a wave of modular, cloud native, and open-source alternatives. The company must reframe its value proposition to foster trust, true openness, and renewed innovation. ...