Clouds and Dirt
Move your business into the borderless digital economy before geography strands it
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Priestley frames the modern economy as splitting into 'clouds' and 'dirt.' The cloud is the digital space where anyone anywhere can become your customer with a click; the dirt is geography, where you can only trade with locals. Technology has three superpowers: it automates jobs away, simplifies them so anyone can do them, and outsources them so anyone anywhere can. Businesses tethered to geography, fixed hours, and time-for-money pricing are industrial-age relics losing to global, digital operators like Amazon. The strategic move is to relocate as much of your business as possible into the cloud, so customers, delivery, and revenue are no longer limited by where you physically stand. Once you see the divide, Priestley argues, you see it everywhere.
Origin
Developed by entrepreneur Daniel Priestley from his experience running location-independent digital companies and his DENT entrepreneur accelerator, articulated on Modern Wisdom.
Core principles
- 01Technology automates, simplifies, and outsources work, collapsing the value of geography-bound jobs
- 02In the cloud anyone anywhere can be your customer; in the dirt only locals can
- 03Selling time for money, fixed hours, and an office are all old industrial-age technology
- 04The world is dividing between those who leverage technology and those who don't
How to run it
- 1
Map clouds vs dirt in your business
List every revenue stream and mark whether it can only serve local customers (dirt) or anyone globally (cloud).
Pro tip The high-street shop losing to Amazon is the archetype of dirt losing to cloud.
- 2
Identify your industrial-age anchors
Flag anything that ties you down: a fixed office, start-and-finish times, selling time for money, or geographic sales limits.
Watch out These feel like the most normal things in the world, which is exactly why they go unquestioned.
- 3
Shift revenue into the cloud
Redesign your core offer so a customer in Brazil, Brisbane, or Budapest can buy it with a click, not just a local walk-in.
Pro tip Software scales by issuing usernames and passwords; find the equivalent 'one build, many customers' mechanism in your model.
- 4
Build for leverage, not hours
Use technology so one person can run book, tour, podcast, and product simultaneously, treating tools like a team of free employees.
In the wild
Priestley describes one of his companies with 35 full-time employees and no office at all. Everyone works from all over the world, yet it is one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. Because everything is virtual, the entire business could pick up and rehome anywhere overnight, giving it extreme mobility that a factory could never match.
→ A borderless, highly mobile company that grows fast and cannot be trapped by any single jurisdiction.
Priestley points to UK high streets closing down while owners scratch their heads. One American company, Amazon, serves every geography for every product 24/7 with a click, so shoppers stop walking into local shops. The local grocer is stuck in the dirt; Amazon lives in the cloud.
→ Geography-limited local businesses steadily lose to global digital operators.
Common mistakes
Assuming your local model is safe
Believing that being close to local customers protects you, when a cloud competitor can reach those same customers plus everyone else.
Keeping industrial anchors out of habit
Holding onto an office, fixed hours, and time-for-money pricing simply because they feel normal, not because they add value.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone building a service or product who can plausibly deliver it digitally.
Not ideal for
Businesses whose value is inherently physical and local with no digital surface.
From the transcript
“imagine that the world is dividing into dirt and cloud and in the cloud is your digital environment... in the cloud anyone anywhere could be…”
“the world is dividing between those who know how to leverage technology and those who are not leveraging a lot of technology.”
From the episode
$0 To $1M: The New Rules For Building A Thriving Business - Daniel Priestley - #946
Daniel Priestley