The decline in U.S. manufacturing isn't just about labor costs. A crucial, overlooked factor is the disparity in savings. While Americans consumed, nations like China saved and invested in capital goods like factories, making their labor more productive and thus more attractive for manufacturing investment.

The capital-intensive nature of e-commerce requires profits to be immediately reinvested into more inventory to fuel growth. This can lead to founders of high-revenue businesses living on modest salaries, making them "asset-rich" but "cash-poor" until an exit.

Despite a profitable affiliate model, Babylist was heavily reliant on a few large retailers. They chose to enter the complex, lower-margin world of direct e-commerce and warehousing primarily to mitigate platform risk and control their own destiny, not for short-term profit.

To win as a low-cost service provider, every decision must be optimized for operational efficiency from day one, like offshoring talent and using heavy automation. Simply lowering prices because a premium model failed is a losing strategy, as the underlying cost structure is fundamentally different.

High-margin software businesses operate on 'easy mode,' which can mask inefficiencies. To build a truly durable company, founders should study discount retailers like Costco or Aldi. These businesses thrive on razor-thin margins by mastering cost reduction, operational simplicity, and value delivery—lessons directly applicable to building efficient software companies.

According to Uber's CEO, the failure of quick commerce in the U.S. boils down to economics, not consumer interest. The model depends heavily on human labor in dark stores, which is too expensive in a high-wage market like the U.S., unlike in developing countries where it has thrived.

Founders must distinguish between core competencies unique to their brand (e.g., product design) and commodity tasks (e.g., warehousing). Commodity functions should be outsourced to experts who benefit from economies of scale, freeing up internal resources to focus on what creates true differentiation.

Brands are shifting to a new model: one senior US-based leader for strategy, supported by one or two offshore team members for execution. This structure leverages the US lead in marketing strategy while efficiently scaling operations and keeping headcount costs low.

Deliver's founder admits their logistics model (distributed inventory) wasn't a unique insight; Amazon had already mastered it. The true innovation was recognizing that the rise of Shopify created a new, underserved market of small merchants. By aggregating their inventory, Deliver could offer them Amazon-level fulfillment infrastructure.