Asaf Lifshitz

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Great read, AG. Thanks!

Interesting that Intel had to invent this tool, as this problem probably applies to many other companies out there. I wonder if they’ll try to license or sell it to other parties.

Also curious if they’ve considered A/B testing – rather than trying to use existing data. This would take the form of segmenting the potential customers to many groups, along multiple dimensions, randomly allocating sales efforts, and tracking the results. As always, a more costly process, but gives more confidence in the results. With Intel probably having a large sales force, Intel could try many hypotheses simultaneously.

On November 21, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Driving in the direction of big data: Ford Motor Company :

Thanks for the post, ilny. Great read.

It’s interesting how there are many companies that are now trying to crack the model of user-specific insurance pricing. Typically you need to install a box in your car that tracks pretty much the same things Ford tracks. But Ford is at a huge advantage, as it’s “customer acquisition costs” are basically zero. It thus has immediate access to data all the insurance companies are working so hard to get. This means that assuming there’s a big variance in drivers’ likelihood of getting in car accidents, and that this variance isn’t captured by current models, Ford might be able to capture tremendous value. This could potentially make it more of an insurance company than a car maker. By the way, the value capture could be done either by offering the insurance, or by selling the user-specific data to insurance companies.

On November 21, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on The $1 Billion Agritech Company :

Great post, Damla. Thanks!

Curious what’s the best value capture mechanism with the new Climate FieldView technology. I’d expect the value delivered to be quite different across farmers (for example, if a farmer is already pretty sophisticated), so capturing it would pose a challenge. In addition, the act of convincing the farmer of the technology’s benefits might be difficult. Therefore, one approach would be to for Mosanto to buy the fields, rather than offer a service. This is a much more asset-heavy model, which isn’t ideal. However, it does enable Mosanto to capture all the value.

On November 1, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Crowdfunding in Agriculture: Feeding the World :

Thanks for the post, Charles. Very Interesting!

If I’m understanding this correctly, the value unlocked here is by helping farmers overcome their “pride”. They have land, which it doesn’t make sense for them to own (because ideally they should diversify) or cultivate (because of economies of scale, e.g., with machinery). Unfortunately, they’re unwilling to lease it to a faceless corporation. So really all we need is to give them a short list of investors, and possibly throw in a friendly meeting between the farmer and the investors, to make the farmer comfortable with the deal.

My concern would be that the farmers would very soon realize that they are, in fact, “selling out”. Still, this is definitely an innovative use of crowdsourcing.

On November 1, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Glassdoor is leveraging crowds to better inform job-seekers :

Great post, Noam. Thanks!

My two cents:
1. I’m curious to what extent Glassdoor will drive employer behaviors as they grow. If the repercussions of treating an employee really well (or badly) were typically limited to that employee’s circle of friends, the stakes today are much higher. Companies should thus be driven to be more cognizant of their employees’ satisfaction than before.
2. The problem I have with interpreting the reviews is that I feel that they reflect the difference between the employees’ expectations and their experience, and not the experience itself. For example, if Elgoog Inc has a reputation of being heaven on earth, but is just slightly below that, and Nozama Inc has a bad reputation but is actually an ok place, I’m not sure which will get a better review. As a user, I’m thus forced to think what the average employee’s perception of each company.

On November 1, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on eYeka: crowdsourcing creativity :

Great post, HelloSof. Thanks!

It definitely makes sense to me why the creative element is difficult, and that it is by no means a science. That just leads me to expect that creative agencies would be at a disadvantage vs. the crowds. Do you think maybe the traditional creative agencies are just better than the creatives at eYeka at understanding what the clients (i.e., the companies) want, and not necessarily what would be most effective. Without actually testing both approaches (traditional creative agencies vs. eYeka), with real campaigns, it’s hard to draw conclusions beyond those concerning the preferences of the clients.

On October 4, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on UberPOOL: The New and Improved Tinder :

Loved this post, Jess!

They could also take it a step further and maybe partner with dating apps to increase your chances of aligning your UberPOOL matches with your dating app matches 🙂 Or, for the more conservative users, your LinkedIn profile for someone with similar professional interest.

I also think that we’re at the peak of matching potential among of UberPOOLers. As penetration increases, two average poolers will be like any random two people waiting in line at the post office – not the same generation, and not too like-minded. So… we should take advantage while it lasts?

On October 4, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Just Venmo me. :

Great post, SC!

Really curious to see how they plan to capture some of that value they created. At the moment I’m guessing they’re probably getting interest on all the money users have on the app (i.e., their balance – money that Venmo “owes” its users). I would assume (or hope) they’re subject to limitations similar to other banks, so maybe the amount invested, and the types of investment, would hinder returns.

On October 4, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Pandora: The More You Listen, The Better It Gets :

Thanks for your comment, NoSocks!

Hmm… embarrassingly, I was not familiar with SoundCloud to be honest. This does look like a very good platform to get an artist some real time feedback I must say. One thing I would be concerned about, if I had to think of one, is that maybe the SoundCloud audience isn’t representative enough? I’m guessing it’s the people looking to find new and obscure music have a different taste than 99% of music listeners out there. Again, not a real concern, but something to keep in mind.

On October 4, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on DoorDash is Leveraging Network Effects to Fight Hangriness :

Great post!

I think this whole shift to hourly, on-demand employment (DoorDash delivery people in this case) has its challenges to society, but definitely has some merits. For example, I was talking to an Uber driver recently who’s looking for a full-time job, but drives for Uber during surge hours – making unemployment not as bad as it used to be. DoorDash is a great addition in that sense – a person can now multi-home not just across competitors, but across industries: Uber in the morning/afternoon commutes, and DoorDash around lunch/dinner times.

DoorDash de-integrated the two steps of food preparation and delivery. I’m curious whether they’ll offer even more de-integration: separation of the front-end and the operations/back-end. For example, DoorDash could offer an API to fulfil orders. This could allow many entrepreneurs to try many types of front-end implementations and customer acquisition methods, and DoorDash would scale fast.

On September 13, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Get a Slice of This: Domino’s Dominates Pizza through Digital :

I see Rob’s point, but I suggest that maybe Domino’s could even benefit from the emergence of food delivery platforms (like DoorDash), and their use of contractors, by outsourcing that task to them. There really are three different parts of the value chain: receiving order (Domino’s or DoorDash’s app, Twitter, etc.), making the food (Domino’s and other restaurants), and delivery (currently done by both Domino’s and DoorDash). I see room for both to coexist in the first part of the chain, and a way to efficiently partner for the last one.

On September 13, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on Quip and the end of the paper communication protocol :

Like Rob, I can definitely see the appeal of moving away from the now-almost-irrelevant 8.5″x11″ paper.

I was skeptic, at first: do users really prefer to edit text on their phones? I personally still do 99% of my writing/editing on my laptop, with its big screen, mouse, fast processor and keyboard. Plus one of the most important things for me is compatability – I want to be sure that when I send someone my Word doc, the indentation won’t be all messed up on their end.

But then I found a TC article saying they have ~30k businesses using it, including Facebook, CNN and others, so I guess I should at least give it a shot.

On September 13, 2015, Asaf Lifshitz commented on LinkedIn: Winning with Professional Data :

Very interesting post. I’m curious to see what else they can make of the valuable asset they have. I can imagine things like career consulting (e.g., “People who chose this company on average get promoted within Y amount of time”), resume validation (“Pay $X and we’ll confirm that you studied where you said you did”), pay-per-hire (charging the job seekers) and many more.

One thing I feel that they still haven’t cracked is what your network has to say about you. Yes, you can get endorsed, but I personally don’t find it a reliable mechanism (as someone who’s been endorsed for coding in languages I’ve barely heard of).