I'm 26 years old now and ever since I can remember, computers have been billed as "the next big thing" in the way that we will integrate it with our daily lives. And so it has too; computers are being used by more people, doing more different things than they did at any given stage in the past.

In the last couple of years, the internet has taken over that moniker from "computers". We've seen platforms like Facebook, Twitter & Foursquare that have managed to integrate itself into our daily lives and actually change some of our social behaviour. For just a minute, consider how much time you spent online and how much of that time actually applies to physical, real-world stuff that you're doing: communicating, shopping, doing business etc.

One thing that is changing at a rapid rate at the moment, is the attractiveness of the internet to the mainstream masses. Before some of the things that the early adopters were doing online, were considered too "geeky" for the Average Joe Public. It kinda felt like if you were working online in some way, then you'd be the only type of person interested in some of these products & services. But this perception has changed significantly, since new online(-based) ventures have started to disrupt traditional industries. 

Seeing Uber, the luxury, personalized car service, raise another $32m in funding reminded me of how many great new ideas are truly disruptingthe  traditional status quo for transportation. I'm then quickly reminded of Hipmunk, who has done the same for travel booking, and AirBnB, who have revolutionized accommodation. This is online in the wild.

I'm excited to see this trend continuing and see a few more traditional industries disrupted.

AirBnB just announced a whopping new funding deal worth $112 million. Sheesh. What do you do with $112 million?

I come from a bootstrapped background and I've never been close to seeing anything like that kind of money in my own business (not even on wishful projections or targets), so I have no idea how to spend $112m. If I were given a $112m investment at WooThemes right now, I would honestly not know how to spend it.

And I guess therein lies the difference... I'm co-founder of a very successful business that exceeded 40k paid users over the weekend and we are very profitable (and have been for a while). We don't however operate on the kind of level where a $100m would ever even come into a serious conversation.

Guess I have a lot to "(l)earn" yet...

After reading this article about Airbnb’s success, there was one bit from the article that really got me thinking:

“…a company that creates immensely more value than it extracts from customers…”

Reading & re-reading that phrase really got me thinking about how other business models work in terms of the margin between value created & value extracted.

I’ve not read Tony Hsieh’s Delivery Happiness yet either, but I kinda suspect that it’s gonna come down to the same principle: create & offer more value than you are necessarily being paid.

This doesn’t mean you should cut profit margins or stop earning a profit all-together, but you should consider adding non-financial value to whatever it is you are offering clients. So how can you do that in your business?