No other event in the brief history of the exponential world was as perfectly timed as Apple’s iPhone release in 2007. This moment was so important that we argue that technology will be defined as pre-iPhone and post-iPhone. The iPhone was a major catalyst for mass digitization and mobilization of…

As disruption through digitization continues to spread, it provides companies with opportunities to capitalize on the digital habits of their customers. The brands that can make the customer experience a digital one wields a major advantage over their competitors, regardless of industry. Domino’s Pizza and Starbucks Coffee are two brands…

The internet is much simpler than we think. Most people use the internet to do one of the following: search, browse, check email, and/or use social media (including posting photos or watching videos). Apps used for accessing and sharing information across the internet have been dubbed “killer apps,” because of…

One of the top Google searches for Bill Gates is, “Did Bill Gates invent the internet?” No, Bill Gates did not invent the internet. Neither did Al Gore. ARPANET officially created the first computer connection in 1969. Later, Tim-Berners Lee was responsible for commercializing the internet with the world wide…

Airbnb disrupted the trillion-dollar travel industry with its new marketplace that set out to connect landlords with couch surfers. Airbnb started with just two guys — co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia — and in a matter of a few years, the company has been able to disrupt business for…

Uber became the highest-valued startup in the world by building a platform marketplace between car owners and passengers. Much like Airbnb, Uber tapped into the sharing economy and disrupted transportation as we know it. Uber also helped popularize a new economy — the gig economy — while wielding even more…

Rewind to 1993 in San Francisco, California. Craig Newmark was a Case Western Reserve computer science graduate working at IBM for nearly 17 years and moved on to work at several contract jobs until introduced to the world wide web by a coworker at Charles Schwab. Craig was fascinated with…

Even money has taken the leap from coins and bills to bits and bytes. In 2008, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system was born as the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto coined a paper with the same name. …

Kodak is an epic example of what happens on the ugly side of disruption. Kodak was a camera and film photography giant. In the 1990s, they had $19 billion in sales and over 145,000 employees worldwide.(60) Then the film industry became digitized with the advent of the digital camera. …