Gambling Appeals To Basic Human Instincts

There is a glut of crazy money chasing start-ups these days which are driving up the valuations sky high. There is no dearth of online asset light models scoring higher valuations than asset heavy industries. No wonder, LN Mittal, CEO – Arcelor Mittal, with steel operations in roughly 20 countries, feels surprised and shocked to find his company’s valuation at almost 1/8 the size of Facebook which in comparison, maybe owns few patents and basically allows the world to connect on web and mobile. It is not unusual to find $1bn startups anymore. Companies like AirBnb, Uber, Dropbox, etc. are already pricing in multi-billion valuations. Besides there is a host of non-revenue cash burning startups that have breached the billion dollar mark. I won’t say that the investors are building castles-in-air by ascribing astronomical valuations as this exuberance is not completely ill founded. Besides, I don’t intend to challenge the collective wisdom of investors in any way. In fact, this eco-system comprising VCs, PEs and Angel investors is necessary to give wings to thousands of half-baked useful ideas but the mad rush for the Next Big Thing has a lot of speculative angle to it as well.

1. Gambling Appeals To Basic Human Instincts Lyrics
2. Gambling Appeals To Basic Human Instincts Video
3. List Of Basic Human Instincts

It must have the internal force to override human instincts and recreate order where it has been disrupted. This God-factor, is necessary for both internal and external human government.

Nevertheless, we can’t ignore that valuation remains more of a game of approximations and expectations saddled with uncertainties, more so with start-ups that continue to scamper for a firm footing (in the form positive FCFs, customer retention, warding off competition etc.). I am sure, while investors think through a revenue path for their investment and take logical calls on these investments, a considerable amount of these transactions is purely an interplay of gamble and hubris. So what are they really gambling on? With a limited knowledge and observation of the broad themes from the recent times, I think the investors are scrambling for the tech businesses or these partly novel ideas (I’d say the act of migrating retail commerce to online is only a partial innovation unlike Google, Apple etc.) to reap profits from the low hanging fruit. They are betting on Human Instincts.

Basic Instincts (are the mother of innovation): I will not attempt to take the reader’s attention towards the leg crossing scene by Sharon Stone from the movie Basic Instinct. It is frozen in our memory. Neither am I an Anthropologist to read human nature. But I believe that any business idea that appeals to basic human instincts and as Warren Buffett says, ‘even a fool can run it’, could be a sheer success for the simple reason that the idea just cannot fade away like Sharon Stone…ummm. Moving on, I believe the upcoming tech innovations that appeal to basic human instincts (from the times of Adam & Eve) would continue to grab attention. My view may have ignored all the other insightful businesses and ideas being brought to light every passing week, but I believe the simpler and scalable ideas largely emanate from the following:

1. SOCIALIZATION (‘Man is by nature a social animal’ – by Aristotle): It is no surprise that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp and gazillion such websites/applications found takers as they simply allow humans to engage with each other. Differentiate/improvise your product and the users will run in droves (Facebook trumped Orkut hands down). Clearly, there is pressure on all these businesses to constantly innovate to maintain traction. Else die as a passing fad. RIP – Orkut.
2. SEX (‘…sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts’ – by Ayn Rand): One can’t sell sex, atleast not legally (moreso in India with RSS at the helm practically) else it would have been a hot pie for all the investment funds to devour. There is a reason they loathe porn. But here Noel Biderman’s ashleymadison.com has created some sort of a market place model for people seeking each other for sex. An India based story on these lines is still awaited. Safer ventures or call them surrogates like Dating websites e.g. twomangoes.com or host of web based Matrimonial properties (one just needs to go through the profiles to judge these) are indirect ways to seek attention and corner investments for themselves on this front. At the core lies their intention to encash sex.
3. FOOD aka convenience: Man has been a scavenger since its very primeval form. He lives for his fuel aka food which has now extended to leisure. He has been a hunter, a farmer and has become a grocery purchaser. I use this category as a proxy to capture the ever increasing craze for ecommerce. Be it food, grocery, healthcare, travel, housing, etc., this list is expansive and growing. People are betting on the increasing internet and mobile penetration to bank on a multitude of apps and websites that lend convenience and easy to scale. This is not a pie in the sky and their initial investment story has credible legs (if they would sustain remains debatable). The moot question is on their valuation which for some is unsustainable, while others find it justifiable on their potential market size and disruptive capabilities to replace and enhance the incumbent’s market/valuation.
4. CURIOUSITY: This bucket applies to all those information clad ventures which strive to quench our thirst for curiosity. Man by nature wants to become ‘know it all’ and ‘do it all’; Greg Mckeown, the author of Essentialism, who wrote a book to address this issue, might also resonate with my thought. All the ventures that give us reviews, knowledge, data and by & large satisfy our need for intellectual voyeurism fit into this category. Few of these names include: Wikilieaks, Wikipedia, Spoongo, Tripadvisor, Zomato etc. The growing popularity of MOOCs and the online tutoring/education would also fall under this category
5. VIOLENCE: This remains a controversial category. Believe it or not, the dark traits spanning voyeurism, violence, bloodshed etc. all appeal to us. Man has fought battles for centuries and continues to do so in the garb of struggle for land, oil or religion. The idea is not to encourage or support any such view but to show that our belligerent tendencies exist.We discreetly want it and we will not be shy paying for them through the nose. Ventures like WWE and myriad of video games from the classics of Contra to Street Fighter or even Road Rash (clearly my knowledge here is ancient and stale) have made big monies or draw lot of attention. Their customer validation has come a long way despite all the evangelists and researches preaching against their existence. I am not really encouraging anyone to circumvent the laws and encash on the dark sides of human but any legitimate effort here may go a long way.

Maybe my approach of identifying innovation/ventures is parochial, maybe I don’t approve of the high valuations to convenience lending websites, maybe I don’t have the wherewithal to understand the fad for disruptive technology but I am sure anything we do for the human instincts and particularly the squiggly and underserved category 2 and 5, we will continue to see lot many multi-baggers. I will continue to keep a tab on these five categories while innovators can think if there model caters to long standing instincts or ephemeral trends…..period.

Persons are generally guided by certain instincts, the more important of which are (1) self-preservation, (2) clothing, (3) food, (4) hunting, (5) parental, (6) hoarding, and (7) curiosity. These instincts have to be kept uppermost in the mind to make the proper appeal to the appropriate instinct and to create a desire in the mind of the reader to buy the article.

Image Courtesy : businessinnovationfactory.com/SEwens-1.jpg

Gambling Appeals To Basic Human Instincts Lyrics

Physical culture courses, health foods, woolen clothes, are appropriate articles for an appeal to the self-preservation instinct. In case of foodstuffs, the proper appeal can be made by conveying the idea of favourable taste and good quality.

Gambling Appeals To Basic Human Instincts Video

Articles such as sporting rifles, ammunition, hunting kits, etc., would appeal easily to the hunting instinct. Baby food stuffs can be sold easily by making an appeal to the parental instinct and the natural affection of the parents for their children.

Articles such as used postage, stamps, curios, etc., are purchased because of the inborn human desire to hoard or collect articles. Certain advertisers make appeal to the curiosity instinct by incorporating puzzles in their advertisements.

List Of Basic Human Instincts

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