A venture-backed startup has quietly bought more than 80 mom-and-pop shops
This is brilliant.<p>Instead of saving on labor costs by pretending your employees are contractors like Uber and friends, they go in the opposite direction. You're not a contractor, or even an employee, but an <i>owner</i>.<p>Just imagine how big your milkshake will be once you all own 80% of the business! Admittedly, a business where this company has slurped out most of the value and saddled you with various software license fees or whatever in perpetuity. But a business nonetheless.<p>And now when the business goes belly up and these owners are destitute, the HN logic applies-- hey man, most businesses fail. So why not just learn some python and code up some nice fintech that extracts value from other rubes?