The most fundamental change that our generation has seen has been the growth of the internet.
From a numbers perspective, we went from 400M global internet users in 2000, to 2B in 2010, to around 5.3B today. Today, all human knowledge, past and present, is instantly available to 70% of Earth’s population. This development has brought tremendous change to all aspects of our lives, and it will only continue and accelerate.
The implication of this democratization of information is that anyone who’s extremely passionate about a certain field can become a world leading expert, regardless of where they live, formal qualifications, and the need to appease the gatekeepers of the past.
We should be clear about the fact that we started Nothing in the 2020s, and should therefore fully apply this huge societal change in building Nothing in a modern way, instead of sleepwalking into doing things the way they’ve always been done. Done right, this can supercharge our march forward.
Since the beginning, community has been key for Nothing. Today, I want to lay out a clearer future vision of how we intend to work with our community.
We’re pioneering a new way of building a company, hand in hand with our community.
There are smart and passionate people all over the world who are spectacular in their fields, and who want to be a part of something bigger. We’ll identify them and integrate them. Over time, it will become their company as much as ours. Together, we’ll own the company shares, build great products, and grow the brand. We’ll build a different type of company, decentralized yet highly aligned, to realize Nothing’s vision of making tech fun again.
Over time, the lines between community and company will increasingly blur, to the point where we eventually erase them.
We’ve already taken a few steps in our first three years. Over 8,000 shareholders are members of our community. We have a community-elected member on our board. And there’s a tight product feedback loop with our community. However, these can only be considered baby steps compared to what’s to come.
In 2024, we’ll start accelerating our efforts, and I very much look forward to building the future together with you. Thanks for being a part of our journey.
