Should govern- ment address the issue?
ADVANTAGE ; SIMS While the FCC has argued that net neutrality rules made it
more difficult for broadband providers to invest in their networks and thus hurt innovation,
evidence suggests that such regulation has had no negative impact on telecom investment—
instead, it increased by 5 percent from 2014 to 2016, when net neutrality rules were in place.
There are more Jeff Bezoses (eight hours of sleep per night) than Martha Stewarts (four).
Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander, authors of the upcoming book My Morning Routine,
surveyed more than 100 founders and found 85 percent sleep seven or more hours a night.
S
COT
T
CH
AMB
E
RS(
2);
COU
RT
ESY
H
V
MN
THE PIVOT
TO CHANGE IS HVMN. TO SUCCEED IS DIVINE
In 2016, Geoff Woo
and Michael Brandt
went on Shark Tank,
sought a sky-high
valuation for their
supplements startup,
Nootrobox, and were all
but laughed off the set.
So they changed the
name to HVMN (say
human) and refocused
on broadly optimizing performance. The
company’s new flagship product is HVMN
Ketone. It tastes like
nail polish remover and
costs $33 per serving.
It’s the first drink on
the market with ketone
esters, which are released when fat breaks
down and account for
the energy surge experienced by people on
fasts. HVMN’s clients
include NFL teams, but
Woo is thinking bigger. “There’s going to
be some shift of caloric content from sugar,” he says. Maybe.
But there’s that gnarly
flavor and an equally
unpleasant aftertaste
(which takes several
minutes to dissipate)—
and one 2. 2 ounce
serving costs as much
as a case of Red Bull.
Woo says $33 is, in
some ways, a bargain—
during R&D, producing
a bottle cost more than
$25,000. Bottoms up!
;JEFF BERCOVICI
●
The Communications Act of
1934 tried to regulate the
phone system. It caused a
lack of competition and
made services more
expensive. More regulation is
terrible for businesses.
●
No changes. Eliminating net
neutrality hasn’t caused any
shift. Whatever has changed
is due to market forces. And
there’s no reason Netflix
should pay the same for net
access as Apptopia, a com-
pany a thousandth of its size.
●
I believe to my core that it
will result in lower bills for
the smaller guys and more
innovation. The repeal of net
neutrality will force the larger
players to invest in infrastruc-
ture for broadband service.
●
The FCC introduces policies
that do nothing, and then
repeals them, over and over
again—while real issues,
such as the last-mile delivery
of internet, remain.
●
Yes. Innovation didn’t
decrease when net neutrality
rules were in place. They
made it possible for upstarts,
like mine and Eliran’s, to
compete.
●
The dystopian vision is that
you’ll be able to watch Net-
flix, but when someone puts
an indie film online, you’ll
have to pay an extra $100
a month to see it. That’s a
world where someone start-
ing a company can’t get
distribution.
●
An ISP could effectively
charge Codecademy a
ransom just to access the
same number of consumers.
It will become much harder
for entrepreneurs to scale,
which seems fundamentally
against the promise
of the internet.
●
It is the role of Congress
to protect consumers, and
to deal with some of the other
issues that Eliran brings up.
THE DEBATE The Pros and the Cons of Net Neutrality
Ever felt the internet needed major changes? That’s coming, but you’re going to be sorry, say
advocates of net neutrality. They believe internet providers—like Verizon—should treat all web
traffic equally, and are outraged by the Federal Communications Commission’s decision last
December that repealed rules requiring those providers to do just that. Advocates of the FCC
decision insist the market will now dictate what succeeds or fails online. We asked Zachary Sims,
co-founder and CEO of the online coding boot camp Codecademy, and Eliran Sapir, founder and
CEO of data mining firm Apptopia, what all this means for the future of the web. ; ZOË HENRY
Should the internet be treated like a utility, such as electricity?
Will this repeal result in higher or lower internet bills?
What will the internet look like now that the FCC has rolled back these rules?
ZACHARY SIMS
Codecademy
ELIRAN SAPIR
