2022 Forecast: Startup veteran David Stone says inflation will be met by creative thinking

Photo / Tim Greenway David Stone, founder and CEO of Forager, says inflation will need to be reckoned with this year.

Write a Comment

David Stone has made his mark as a startup leader.

He is founder and CEO of Forager, an app that helps supermarkets and other buyers source locally produced food, may be best known as co-founder and CEO of the software company CashStar, which was sold in 2013 for $175 million.

Looking to 2022, Stone sees trouble if we don’t rise to the challenges.

There are concrete, well-documented obstacles like the supply chain disruptions and the labor shortage.

“We may see inflation reminiscent of the early 1980s, in the range of 8% to 12%,” he says.

There are also, he says, cloudier, harder-to-define challenges like pandemic anxiety, exhaustion and worker dissatisfaction — factors that have contributed to the so-called Great Resignation. Stone predicts workers at all levels will continue to seek out “more fulfilling jobs.”

Stone cites three negative forces at play in 2022: COVID-19; political challenges with global instability; and the effects of climate change, including drought, natural disasters and famine.

“In short,” he says, there’s “a lot of chaos and uncertainty.”

Yet, even with the chaos, he sees opportunity if we’re willing to work for it.

“We need more creative and out-of-the-box thinking and greater sacrifices among everyone,” he says. “Positive stories will emerge among those ‘heroes’ who are willing to sacrifice and take bold risks to fix the mess we’re in. The nature of how we work will continue to change, real estate prices are going to fall but less so in Maine. We will endure and we will come out stronger.”