The Internet's “Third Wave” - a period in which entrepreneurs will vastly transform major “real world” sectors like health, education, transportation, energy, and food.

Must read for startups!!!

During my last visit to Washington DC, I had met few policy makers in DC at 1776 Conference and was gifted a book “The Third Wave: A Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future” by Entrepreneur and America Online (AOL) founder Steve Case. Case had shared a roadmap for how anyone can succeed in a world of rapidly changing technology in the book that I think all aspiring entrepreneurs and early stage startups must follow and start embracing the Internet's “Third Wave.”

This inspired me to share my views and few keys points with the startup community.

There’s an old African Proverb: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In Third Wave, the success of a company will depend largely on the partnerships its leadership can forge – sometimes even with the very organizations they are trying to disrupt.

We are entering a new paradigm called the “Third Wave” of the Internet. It is extremely important for entrepreneurs to rethink their relationships with customers, with competitors, and with governments and accordingly make winning business decisions and strategies.

My Message for all startups, government, startup ecosystem enablers, Investors is to partner and together work towards the growth of Indian startup ecosystem.

The Three Wave of the Internet

First Wave:

The first wave saw AOL and other companies lay the foundation for consumers to connect to the Internet.

Second Wave:

The second wave saw companies like Google and Facebook build on top of the Internet to create search and social networking capabilities, while apps like Snapchat and Instagram leverage the smartphone revolution.

Third Wave:

We’re entering the Third Wave: a period in which entrepreneurs will vastly transform major “real world” sectors like health, education, transportation, energy, and food—and in the process change the way we live our daily lives.

The playbook of the Second Wave of the Internet that worked for SnapChat, Facebook, Uber and others won’t work in the Third Wave and success in the Third Wave will require a different skill set, and focus on three P’s: partnerships, policy understanding and perseverance.

The Second Wave had many inspiring stories of twenty-something computer coders creating multi-billion-dollar companies. The Third Wave will have similar stories, but founders are less likely to be the twenty-something coders and more likely to be thirty-something farmers and factory workers and chefs and artists – people who saw a problem in their own spheres of expertise, then leveraged the skills of others to build great companies.

We are going to see the convergence of three powerful megatrends – The Third Wave, The Rise of the Rest Regions, and Impact investing – and the chance for a supercharged result.

If this article inspired you, I urge all entrepreneurs and startups to read Steve Case’s book, The Third Wave.