antonybrydon

Can ZocDoc save U.S. healthcare?

I think ZocDoc is the most important company to launch this year. Beyond being a financial hit (which it should prove to be for founders Cyrus Massoumi, Oliver Kharraz, and Nick Ganju and Dave Weiden of Khosla Ventures), it's the company with the best opportunity I've seen to save an ailing health care system and fundamentally change how healthcare is delivered and managed in the U.S. Since this is far more than the company claims, I'm not just drinking the Kool-Aid, I'm making it and pouring it. Here's why:

Pandora is out of control...

At EMusic in 1999, we often felt like our future was in the hands of the major record labels, who steadfastly refused to license their catalogs without draconian DRM and unaffordable licensing fees.

Ten years later, it's difficult to see Pandora in a similar situation, threatening to shut-down due to exorbitant royalty fees that are costing them $17m of their $25m in annual revenues:

"We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. "This is like a last stand for webcasting." (from the Washington Post)

It's painful, because Pandora has built the best Walkman we've ever seen and delighted consumers worldwide.