Lightspeed VC Caldbeck: Why Airbnb works, why Uber faces disruption

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Justin Caldbeck of Lightspeed Venture Partners says that it is early days for sharing economy startups like Airbnb and TaskRabbit, but some of the sector's pioneers, like Uber, could themselves be disrupted.

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Cromwell Schubarth

Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal

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Lightspeed Venture Partner Justin Caldbeck is excited about the wave of startups that are finding ways to put people with assets - cars, homes or even spare time - together with people who need them.
That's why he invests in companies like Sidecar, which helps people become cabbies using their own vehicles, or TaskRabbit, which helps people offer their services to do errands.
Caldbeck, who joined Lightspeed after launching Bain Capital Ventures' West Coast office, spoke with me last week about trends in what has become known as the "sharing economy" or "collaborative consumption."
He thinks it's still early days in for startups in the space and even thinks a few of the pioneers, like the Uber black car limo service, could be disrupted themselves.
The following is an excerpted transcript of that conversation.