Hipster Business Models

Tight pants, fake reading glasses, beards, irony: this is modern society’s interpretation of the word ‘hipster’. Yet, today’s young people have much more to offer. If half of the hipster stereotype is a consumer who tries to show off how cool he is based on his tastes, the other half of the stereotype is ‘The Maker’ -- the person out hawking homemade cheese, knitting sweaters for your beard, or repurposing steel-framed bicycles. The hipster business model is distinctive: Make a product you love so much that you’ll make it yourself. See if anyone wants it. Try again. When they want to build apparel companies, they teach themselves how to sew. When they dream of producing toys, they learn how to use 3D printing software. When they don’t know investors who will back their restaurant concepts, they open food trucks. All the while, they are guided by books, instructional videos, and intuition; only later do they move production to real factories, or hire lawyers. They frequent public parks to see if anyone will buy their custom, typewritten stories. They use crowdfunding websites to raise money from customers before their products even exist. They post their ideas to massive web forums to gauge interest, or set up online shops the second they have a product to sell. In their world, sales come first, not last. While each entrepreneur featured in this book embarked on his or her own unique quest, their stories share a common thread: like true hipsters, they were not afraid to try new things.

Priceonomics is a San Francisco-based company that writes stories about innovators and economics, and also provides data services for businesses. The authors of this book are: Rohin Dhar: Rohin is a new dad. He likes to ride bikes and drink coffee. He holds an MBA from Stanford and BA from Dartmouth. Zachary Crockett: Zack plays many stringed instruments, climbs mountains, and is working on a collection of South American travel narratives. Rosie Cima: Rosie can usually be found making slow progress on several different music, digital art, and literature projects at a time, and generally tuckering herself out. She likes punk rock shows. Alex Mayyasi: Alex enjoys hiking, good food, and the rare days when the San Francisco fog lifts. He is writing a book about the Egyptian Revolution.