“Technology changes but people stay the same”
The hierarchy of needs is real, let me tell you.
As mentioned in the second point of Andrew Chen’s investment framework, his sentiment on companies that taps into an existing consumer motivation is pretty bullish. While the invention of the telefone took a while to be adopted by consumers as a new technology, the technology still met the consumer need of communication. As a new technology, consumer had to be educated about the telefone, which is why it took five decades for the technology to become mainstream. In comparison to the adoption of the telefone, the adoption of the cellphone was much quicker due to the fact that the new communication technology met the same consumer need and the technology was built on top of the existing telefone technology.
The fact of it all is that we, as humans, have been the same throughout time. We continue to make purchases based of our underlying motivations, which can be understood under the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs framework. Technology changes, but our needs stay the same.