The "Apple of X" Investments

Source: Pixabay

Throwback to the early days of the 2010s where most startups are founded on the concept "We are the Uber of X", "We are the Tinder of X", etc.

Uber of X: a platform connecting service providers (cars, cabs, space) with customers.
Tinder of X: a platform for customers to select service providers by swiping.

AirBnB: Uber of Hospitality
WeWork: Uber of Office
BarkBuddy: Tinder for Dog
Blonk: Tinder for Jobs

These startups sucked up a large amount of capital from investors over the past decade - although not a lot of them became as successful as Uber or Tinder (the OGs).
It used to be if you were something like the OGs, it was easy to get funding or a successful IPO.
Now, it seems like if your business model is like the OGs, your stock is not going to perform well.
Uber, Lyft, and other unicorns listed this year have stock prices that are below their IPO prices.
Even WeWork had to cancel their IPO this year.

Then, there is the "Apple of X", or the group of companies that charges a premium for their products and services.
The "Apple of X" group seemed to perform fairly well in 2019.
Apple performed fairly well in 2019, up 82%.
Tesla: Apple of Cars - up 38.8%
LVMH: Apple of Hand Bags - up 64.8%
Marriott: Apple of Hotels - up 42.1%
Razor: Apple of Gaming Peripherals - up 20.5%
Goldman Sachs: Apple of Banking - up 31.0%

Of course, there are also those that did not do well
Bread Talk: Apple of Bread - down 23.5%

And there are those that are not listed
Dyson: Apple of Vacuum Cleaners - not listed

Then again, the S&P500 is up by 27.1% over the same period, so the "Apple of X" does not seem to perform significantly above the average - but they do perform better than average (or so it seems).
Of course, these are just a few of the "Apple of X" that I can think of.
There are definitely other "Apple of X" that we did not include here.
What other "Apple of X" can you think of?
Let us know in the comment below.

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