My WiFi went out again, so I had some time to type this up.
While the tech community is trying to figure whether the next platform of innovation is VR, messaging, or automobiles. I believe that Wi-Fi is the next great platform for innovation, and many startups such as Eero, Luma, Zenreach seem to agree with me. As the world becomes more connected, and businesses are built on the internet, having reliable, robust Wi-Fi has become more important than ever.
I believes there are three areas where Wi-Fi will be innovated and builit upon: 1) Better Wi-Fi 2) Wi-Fi analytics 3) Wi-Fi access.
Better Wi-Fi
A decade or so ago a router would serve one or two computers and that is it, now we have phones, tablets, TVs, and household devices. The proliferation of streaming and connected devices is crowding our networks. Startups like Eero and Luma is innovating amazingly in this category. Luma and Eero is trying to provide surround Wi-Fi, fixing Wi-Fi ‘deadzones’ by helping guide their users into the best place to place their routers, so they no longer will have their Wi-Fi drop for no reason.
A stable Wi-Fi connection is extremely important, especially for growing startups. At the first startup I worked for, we were in a co-working space, and for nearly a week the Wi-Fi at the place continuously dropped in and out, and because of this productivity was greatly affected. Because of the internet age, many new businesses are being built online, and use their connection to the online world for their transactions. Even a moment of not being able to connect to the internet will greatly hinder most startup.
Wi-Fi Analytics
In the world of Foursquare predicting Chipotle sales, or Orbital Insights providing satellite imagery of parking lots to predict retail sales, alternative data has become the new alpha for many hedge funds and other investment institutions. Startups such as Purple WiFi and Zenreach have caught on to this and will be the pioneers of Wi-Fi assisted analytics. Zenreach and Purple WiFi both provide businesses a way to keep track of their customers through the power of Wi-Fi. When customers connect to the Wi-Fi from of businesses using Zenreach or Purple Wifi their activity is tracked and data is provided for these businesses to provide better services for their customers. If a business is noticing less people are active in their stores on Tuesdays they can send out coupons and deals to drive more people in during those specific time. Malls can also use this data to keep track of which stores, consumers visit the most and their walking patterns to provide better marketing efforts.
Alternative data is going to be a really important driver of future b2b growth. As of now these datas are only useful for investment professional, when determining whether to invest in companies or not, but Wi-Fi analytics will be cheap enough that SMBs can afford to adopt and use, which in return will encourage more startups to innovate in that space.
Cheaper Wi-Fi
With the advancement of technology, we will reach a point where Wi-Fi will soon be cheap enough to be a public good. Just check the NYC subway system, now on almost every platform, New Yorkers can connect to the internet, and while the speed is nothing to gloat about, it is a step towards the right direction. Google created, Sidewalk Labs is another startup that is using Wi-Fi to improve everyday living. Sidewalk Labs has the goal to create ‘smart cities’ by connecting all aspects of the public to the IoT. To reach this goal however Sidewalks Labs is attempting to provide Wi-Fi access to the public. Imagine just walking around your city no longer having to worry about data usage, because the very city is a Wi-Fi hotspot. FreedomPop is a startup that is offering unlimited Wi-Fi access to its users at $5/month, which if successful will greatly damage data carriers like Verizon.
Wi-Fi will be an amazing platform to innovate on, and although there might be startups that push limits of Wi-Fi to possibly breaking physics (uBeam) I am incredibly excited to see what the future holds.
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