Napkin Math

Profit and power in technology.

Jul 16, 2021

How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts

A Case Study on Market Structures and Harm

Aug 13, 2024

The Addiction Economy

Addicted, overwhelmed, oversubscribed: How technology hooked the world

Jun 3, 2020

Curated: Expert Shopping Advice, Online

A three-sided marketplace to bring specialty retail to the internet

Feb 27, 2024

What the Media Is Getting Wrong About AI

The future must be built on truth

Nov 16, 2023

COGS: How I Bankrupted MoviePass

An intuitive explainer for how to lose money and win anyway

Jan 31, 2022

Spotify’s Quest to Own Your Ear

A Napkin Math and Trapital Production

Dec 7, 2023

The Impossibility of Being Charlie

RIP to nerd Jesus

Dec 8, 2022

The Primary Trends I’m Investing In Next Year

China, boring AI, vertical SaaS, and Apple's power

Dec 5, 2023

Death of a Flywheel

Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway got really big. Here’s why it might kill them.

Jan 9, 2025

More Output, Less Effort

8 pieces of technology that have dramatically improved my life

May 28, 2021

ITDA: The Gamification of Financial Statements

How governments and companies are engaged in mutual manipulation

Sep 28, 2023

The Double Bind Theory—Or Why Sensationalism (Unfortunately) Works

If you want to win, you gotta spike

Jun 22, 2022

Are We Really Addicted?

An interview with Nir Eyal

Jul 30, 2024

Tinder Is Way More Important Than You Think

The success of a dating app has huge implications for the U.S. economy

Sep 9, 2021

Tech stocks’ favorite lie to investors

How the LTV/CAC ratio is manipulated to take advantage of retail investors

Jul 13, 2023

OpenAI’s Code Interpreter Is About to Remake Finance

Get in, loser—we’re disrupting Oracle

Feb 22, 2024

AI and the Vision Pro Don’t Need a Killer App

Software that drives hardware adoption is rarer than you think

Jul 23, 2020

Want to Become a Unicorn? Buy it, Don’t Build it

How Amazon Marketplace works, how Thrasio built a unicorn, the platform risk associated with the strategy, and regulation concerns.

Apr 5, 2022

Twitter’s Shot at Becoming a Meme Stock

It’s Musk's world and we’re just tweeting in it

Apr 13, 2021

Announcing Napkin Math Fiscal Year 2021

After a short break, Napkin Math returns with a new writer

May 7, 2024

The Right Kind of Asshole

A founder’s personality can differentiate them—or destroy them

Jun 13, 2024

The AGI-in-2027 Thesis

Some researchers are convinced that we are on the cusp of superintelligence. Are they right?

Jan 27, 2022

Will Tokens Replace Equity?

The Weird Future Ahead

Feb 29, 2024

Reddit: The Internet’s Bellwether

Is AI training a sustainable business model for the future?