In a near-future retrospective, this may well be a telling moment.

A market doyen joins the Advisory Board of a shark-jumping ‘disrupter’.

There is undoubtedly a market need/demand for Afterpay-like offerings. Buy now, pay later is not a new biz model.

But several global trends are now coalescing to make this (on a surface level) interesting:

- student loan debt (aka discretionary spending killer)
- wage depression (generously speaking)
- fear of credit (not limited to Millennials, but certainly key)
- point-n-click subconscious habit (credit check and check out within 10 secs)

(amongst others)

The key issue is that, belatedly, others are waking up to these trends.

And (not for the first time) the market will realise entities like Afterpay are rather overpriced given (I) their fundamentals, (II) their lack of ‘moat’, and (III) natural market ‘owners’ like a Mastercard etc. are finally mobilising.

Government is also pushing back against ‘disrupters’ who skim legislative rules - and incumbents like MC etc. will milk that for all it is worth, to add anchors while they catchup.

Larry Summers joins Afterpay advisory board

https://lnkd.in/gnuu9Xw