Everyone talks about Amazon and eBay as the origin of online marketplaces.
But the real story starts earlier long before the web browser, credit cards, or the public internet.
In 1982, a husband-and-wife team launched Boston Computer Exchange from their dining room table.
They were trying to solve a messy problem: how to bring order to the chaotic used computer market.
They built a listings database on an IBM PC, uploaded it to a dial-up bulletin board, and manually updated it every day.
Buyers could browse inventory from across the country.
Sellers shipped computers to strangers they’d never met.
Payments were held in escrow by BCE a trust mechanism that predated PayPal by over a decade.
This wasn’t a website. It was a marketplace protocol, running on phone lines and grit.
Boston Computer Exchange wasn’t just the first online marketplace it was the prototype for how modern platforms work
@kesarvarma They are working with a compounding pharmacy to make non-FDA approved semaglutide products, but due to a patchwork of laws governing pharmacy, it's not currently available in CA, so patients will need to continue to search for Ozempic and Wegovy.
Honestly don't know what this does for patients aside from funneling them into Ro for future marketing etc
Curious if there's actually a way to alleviate this problem other than...making more drugs
ro.co/weight-loss/su…
@DarrelFrater With 20 years of working behind the pharmacy counter as a pharm tech, I've witnessed firsthand the piles of perfectly good medication that goes unused and tossed in the trash. RxPost is an inventory sharing platform for pharmacies helping them to alleviate drug shortages.
Any founders interested in me interviewing them on Linkedin Live this Friday? The person I had for this week can't make it anymore.
It'll be a good way to get exposure to my investor network on Linkedin. Let me know.