Trends

Source: P&G and Unilever annual reports, 2019

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve turned to all kinds of people — including virologists, Ph.D.s, and market analysts — to explain the challenges we face in the present. But who can help us better understand the next-order effects of this crisis?

The Trends Small Business Database houses hundreds of small businesses, along with their financials and unique stories. You can access the entire database here or read dozens of in-depth features here.

What are the biggest trends you see in 2020? We reflected on that question ourselves and shared it with entrepreneurs, investors, futurists, and Trends members.

What you need to know

Stuart Rudick, founding partner of the VC firm Mindfull Investors, has long been an early adopter. When he was bar mitzvahed at 13 his father asked him what he wanted to do with the $2k he had been gifted. “I said, ‘I want to invest it,’” Rudick recalls. 

What you need to know: Sales of ebikes are eventually expected to comprise half of all bike sales, meaning about 75m units will be sold each year, up from about 30m currently. The United States could see one of the biggest increases: Some 300k ebikes will be sold this year and that number is expected to increase to 2m within the next few years and eventually 7m annually.  

It’s a little strange that I’m here purporting to be a kind of business expert because I’m still a complete freshman in the business world. I think half the people in the audience probably could teach me more than I could teach them about how to function in that world. I definitely have as much to learn as anyone here. Ten years ago, the last thing that I would imagine myself doing was founding a business…because I had essentially no interest in business. My only interest in food was, you know, just eating it. When I wasn’t eating it, I was just not that interested in it.