Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Young has a theory about where the next wave of startup opportunities lies, and it starts with a question most founders don’t ask: What if the business model gives money back instead of taking it out?
Yang was inspired by Mark Cuban. Not by wealth or fame, but by Cost Plus Drugs – a Cuban startup that sells pharmaceuticals at cost. Yang made a list.
“Housing, education, food, fuel, transportation, media and wireless,” Yang said on a recent episode of TechCrunch. Capital. “The things we all spend money on.”
He chose wireless and last September Launched Nobile Mobilea new mobile virtual network operator that provides mobile service for a fraction of what traditional carriers pay and gives customers money back when they use less data.
As AI threatens to squeeze wages and drive workers out, Yang sees a business opportunity in lowering the cost of living. Like Cost Plus Drugs, Noble Mobile, dumb phone makers Light Phoneand even online grocery store Misfits Markets are early examples of an emerging business category where the startup’s value proposition is the margin it returns to the customer.
“AI will absorb a lot of value and jobs, and then Americans will look up and say, ‘How can I meet basic needs?'” Yang said. He believes that meeting people’s needs “at less cost” is “a very rich vein of opportunity.”
This instinct did not come from nowhere. Yang first came to the public eye during the 2020 presidential campaign, during which he advocated for Universal Basic Income as a means of combating AI-related labor displacement and wealth concentration. The campaign was not successful, but the thesis became more relevant.
Yang is still an advocate of UBI, arguing that the value created by AI companies should be redistributed into the hands of ordinary Americans. But whether the government will be a vehicle for redistribution or simply use the accumulated wealth to “dig a hole and do something not very productive,” Yang is less certain.
“There’s room for a direct connection between money and people,” he said.
This is where the market comes into play. Where policy fails, Yang argues, market incentives can come into play. Noble Mobile is his attempt to prove his point. Since last September, the company has grown to “thousands and thousands” of customers and brings in “millions in revenue.”
“We’re profitable per customer, but we’re just sharing the revenue with our subscribers with the idea that it’ll make you happy, stick around, and maybe tell your friends and family,” Yang said.
The pitch is simple. Yang noted that an average monthly savings of $50 invested and accumulated over 40 years can add up to $24,000, which is enough for a down payment for retirement. And in this economy, who doesn’t think about small ways they can improve their personal finances?
Whether investors will share this enthusiasm is another question. Even if the opportunity is real, capital is currently heavily concentrated in AI, while consumer-facing businesses with thin margins and a social mission are a tough sell.
“At least one investor around my Noble Mobile said to me, ‘I love you, Andrew, I want to work with you — if you can just make it an AI company, we’ll invest,'” Yang said.
Even the wealthiest, extractive companies need an economy where consumers have enough purchasing power to buy their products, so the tide can turn.
“Value concentrated in the hands of a handful of people and firms is bad for everyone,” he said. “There are some people I know in Silicon Valley who are open to it for various reasons…
Yang encouraged founders and investors to take on problems they are passionate about and find a way to build a worthwhile enterprise on it.
“Think bigger and broader about trying to solve problems and don’t subscribe so much to groupthink because there are some valuable opportunities there,” he said.
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