Uber for CFD?

Last time out I suggested that the key to effective CFD is in the expertise of the user. Therefore, if you don’t have the time to acquire that expertise, then you’d be well advised to get an expert involved.

If expertise is key, is it the real bottleneck stopping more businesses adopting CFD? If access to expertise was as easy as it is for compute power and software would more people make use of CFD? Or is greater adoption all about making the software even easier to use and available on-demand anywhere? Maybe we can learn a thing or two from controversial US unicorn Uber on this?

What is Uber?

For those of you that don’t live in a major city, don’t take cabs and/or don’t follow the US startup scene you might not be familiar with Uber. They’re a transportation/logistics company that provides an alternative to taxis. They don’t own the cars, but they provide a clever platform that orchestrates a fleet of self-employed drivers & matches them with clients needing a Lyft.

A punter with the Uber app can request a car to pick them up & take them to a destination. A nearby driver responds to that request & within a few minutes they arrive and take you where you asked. The app is location aware so the driver knows where you are and you know where the driver is. The pricing is controlled by Uber and rides are paid for via the app, so you don’t need to carry cash or card. You can rate your experience with each driver so the better ones rise to the top & you can avoid the rubbish ones. Oh, and they’re estimated to be worth around $50B dollars.

Their success has led to many companies trying to ape their business model, coining the term “uberfication” & many companies looking to be the Uber for X. Where X ranges from dog walking to laundry to cookies.

Uber, like AirBnB ($31B), Spotify ($33B) & Netflix ($158B) are at the vanguard of what was known as “the sharing economy”, but is now more aptly being called “the access economy.”

Exsqueeze me — access economy?

The access economy generally refers to a business model where buyers pay for access to products (or services) as and when required. Sounds like renting? It’s not a huge leap from renting but it’s typically much more immediate (could be arranged in almost real-time) and covers a shorter period than your typical rental. The facilitator is usually a technology platform of some sort that brings buyers and sellers together in the most efficient way possible.

What does this have to do with CFD?

Easy to use CFD apps & on-demand compute resources are becoming commonplace. CFD is already a tiny part of the access economy. Perhaps we just need more cheerleaders & a bigger marketing budget? Probably, but that’s not really where I was going. What other ideas could we crib from the access economy to make the reach of CFD much bigger? Lets torture the Uber analogy a little more.

Until self-driving cars become accepted and mainstream, Uber will need people who can drive. Until we get self-driving CFD, we will need people with CFD expertise to perform (or at least interpret) the simulations. The current crop of CFD apps are getting easier & more intuituve to use, but they are still for people with the expertise to drive themselves. Could easy access to CFD expertise be the key to spreading the benefits of CFD to an even wider audience? Maybe it would also act as an on-ramp for vertical apps in the longer term?

Are there “Uber for professional services” companies already?

Yes — companies like Thumbtack and Pro Refferal try to make it easier to enlist professional services. Pro Refferal is focussed on home services (not a surprise as it’s owned by Home Depot). But Thumbtack has everything from wedding photographers to yoga instructors and even lists some engineering design services. In both cases they’re very focussed on finding you a local provider. Essential for a wedding photographer but not always important for CFD analysis.

How do these services work?

Let’s use Thumbtack as an example. As a client, you answer a few broad (but relevant) questions about your project needs. They distribute your request to their list of professionals. The professionals reply with custom quote which includes an estimate, reviews of their work and the opportunity to ask them questions. You get the top 5 quotes & choose who you want to hire.

What might a CFD version look like?

What if someone combined the project submission and expert matching/selection process of Thumbtack with a cloud-CFD platform and a database of experienced CFD professionals. What if those experts came with ratings and reviews from previous clients? Add in the cross-party collaboration that a cloud-platform brings and it starts to get even more interesting.

Does this solve any real problems?

Netflix saves you having to go to the video store. Spotify saves you from buying CDs. AirBnB saves you money on short-term apartment rentals & Uber saves you having to call the local minicab company. But how about Uber for CFD?

For the experts it would solve the twin problems of 1) finding clients that need their particular area of expertise, and 2) of running their own CFD infrastructure.

For the clients it would simplify finding and evaluating a subject matter expert. And it would also simplify collaborating with that expert to make their project a success.

For clients who are sensitive about passing their data to others, the fact that the CAD & CFD data resided only on the platform and not with the professional, would be a huge benefit.

Conducting all simulations on a cloud-platform would provide an easy route for clients wanting to graduate to DIY CFD. And, if the platform was based on open-source tools, then there may exist a straightforward path to graduating off the platform entirely.

What do you reckon?

It seems like it might have merit — but as Richard Branson said

“Not every good idea is successful, and not every successful idea is good.”

I’m not asking if you would buy it. I’m not asking you to be a subject matter expert. It won’t be a billion dollar business. And I’m not thinking about building it? But does it even makes sense? Could it could be useful in bringing CFD to more businesses? To help them make better products (and profits) using CFD.

If not this, then what lessons can we learn from innovative, technologically-advanced businesses that would help bring the benefits of CFD to those for whom it’s currently out of reach?