Felix J's Profile

Interesting Post! I wonder what metrics OpenDoor uses to attract its end-consumers given all the other service options in the market. Is it their high sell-through rate? user satisfaction? etc…

Great Post. From a data perspective, I understand your point that getting incrementally better at diagnoses is important. However, do you think that beyond a certain level of blood testing accuracy, consumers are indifferent? I think the pricing elasticity around this could be very interesting.

Great post, James. It’s interesting that the presence of Palantir’s software in the hedge fund space is never really mentioned in the public buzz. I’m glad you brought that up! Given Prof. Viceira’s argument that the “cumulative alpha” in the world is reaching a plateau, do you think Palantir is the best positioned to address it? or someone else?

Thanks for the question Sidharth!
(a) Amino has engaged in a number public (e.g. – Medicare) and private partnerships (e.g. – insurance companies). Although they’re careful not to disclose information about their partners, my guess is they’ve gone after the bigger players first. Although the public has shown some skepticism about privacy, it should be noted that all records are de-identified, Amino is HIPAA compliant, and they have a pretty comprehensive privacy policy as well (https://amino.com/privacy/)

(b) I certainly do. As the first company to receive national claims data from the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Amino has also received a stamp of approval from CMS to create new healthcare quality measures. This could be a huge move towards standardizing homogeneous HC data.

(c) It currently seems like they are partnering with a variety of institutions that want access to their de-identified data/trends/analyses. They also offer their service to employers as a benefit – in this version the service is customized to their specific plans, and may offer additional features.

Great Post, Amy! Do you think Kaggle’s demise was strictly project-supply driven? I wonder if previous Kagglers simply rose to higher data science positions in their full-time employment and thus had less time to dedicate towards a relatively time-intensive hobby. Answering a question on Quora can take a few minutes, but laying out an innovative DS solution can be a part-time job.

Great post! I’d imagine that the existing market size of foodies that currently go direct to cattle ranchers to purchase entire steers/heifers is pretty small. I’m speculating, but I’m guessing there is probably a bigger market of buyers that care about where their food comes from, but are able to source locally-produced grass-fed meat from other channels. Do you think Crowd Cow can sell these buyer pain points well enough to ensure steady growth?

Great post! As you mentioned, the 12 hours of content per minute makes the platform popular but also competitive for newer artists to make a name for themselves and become the next Kygo. Platforms like Youtube and Vimeo have the same problem – becoming a hit comes down to virality spurred by a few mega users, the artist’s friend base, and a bit of luck. Thoughts on how SoundCloud might try to make it easier for someone to get noticed?

Hi Chun,

It’s a good question. Although UI and pricing work to Etsy’s favor (at the time of the publications), it is also Etsy’s strong brand established over that years that has given it such stability. Furthermore, I think it would take a while for Homemade to garner enough quality artisanal craftsmen onto their platform to become a threat – Amazon’s brand itself is much less focused on a particular demographic. The number of repeat purchases on Etsy’s platform speaks volumes to their accomplishment in this regard. Lastly, I believe that sellers that might eventually sell on Amazon would have much higher volume sales and inventory. Again, this might play to Etsy’s flavor since their core offering is an inventory of unique non-mainstream items.

Great post! Interesting that they are launching in the biggest cities. Intuitively this makes sense for most of Amazon’s pilots, but in this case I would imagine that a Flex service would actually make the most sense in smaller cities with a smaller number of Amazon customers. In bigger cities with a larger Amazon user base, wouldn’t the asset utilization of 3rd party carrier trucks (e.g. – UPS) make more sense?

Great post Brandon! I see this as a low-end consumption play on the part of Turo – appealing to renters who care less about the type and model of car they will drive for the weekend due to Turo’s smaller inventory compared to an Enterprise or Avis. Do you think this will force car rental companies to move up-market and serve increasingly higher-end cars? How have they responded thus far?

Great post Anish! Do you think Yelp has been able to successfully communicate it’s evolved and broader offering of services (e.g. – you mentioned plumbing as an example)? For me, it still stands as the go-to for restaurant reviews which it built out so well at its inception, but I don’t think Yelp when I’m trying to find a contractor to remodel my house. The reason I ask is because of other offerings like ThumbTack which have tried to carve out a niche for services like plumbing, electricians, etc… Are these services a threat to Yelp? How do you think Yelp will respond?

Although the digital marketing employed by Trump’s campaign team was data-backed, calculated, and strategic there were a number of other things that happened too like an unprecedented featuring of fake or misleading news on Google and Facebook, and a braggadocious candidate that captivated the media and gained incredible amounts of airtime. How much of his success would you attribute to the digital marketing alone? Do you think future candidates will copy the digital strategy that was employed here?

Can’t believe they were acquired after just one year! In terms of their relationship with channel partners, I’d imagine that their content creators are spread throughout the country (and even the globe). On top of the physical sound stages and video editing facilities that AwesomenessTV gives partners access to, have they shipped software/hardware packages (premium audio software, higher-quality cameras) to their content creators as well? Or does ATV just happen to have multiple site facilities across the country?

What do you think prevents like-minded content creators from grouping up by themselves and agreeing on similar revenue-sharing terms?

It will be interested to see whether or not Waymo will succeed by essentially functioning as a Tier 1 supplier direct to OEMs (which it sounds like it’s done with Chrysler already from your post). Another challenge they face is the popular skepticism regarding the reliability of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles in current times. Recent Tesla crashes have cause the company to stop using Mobileye chips (and accompanying software) in their systems. With more capital than a Mobileye though, I wonder what Waymo is doing to make sure this doesn’t happen to their partners?

ah sorry – see comment below

Hi Alice! Thanks for the question. First, digital health companies certainly have an easier time selling to self-insured employers. The clinical rigor that is needed to convince these organizations is less stringent compared to that which is required to sell to a health plan or integrated delivery network (IDNs). It just so happens that health plans and IDNs have significantly higher reach in terms of patients/users for a digital health service. Once Omada gains a foothold with players like Humana and InterMountain Health (which they’ve already done to different extents), Omada will gain a large user base all at once which it can then in turn learn from iteratively. Additionally, these players (health plans and IDNs) are also less likely to switch services. Lastly, Omada’s competitors may not lag behind on building an engaging lifestyle-changing experience, but generating the data to prove outcomes will take much longer.