Curtis Christensen's Profile

wonderful post. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for the post. very interesting article.

Fascinating post. As a potential customer of SoFi, I have been really excited to see their work. However, I did not realize all the challenges they face. It is interesting to think about in these days were loan balances are shifting. I think in the past, it was very much predictable with people having a mortgage, some school loans etc… But now there are so many other aspects to our spending habits.

I think they will need to differentiate much more on the customer service element and ease of use/transactions as they move forward. I don’t think it will be enough to simply try to compete on prices and competitive offerings. Thanks for the post!

Wonderful post. Thank you for sharing. As I read it, I’m wondering about security. With consumers potentially going toward this direction, I wondering what it would look like in this age of computer hacks and such. While there is definitely a lot of potential here, there is also a significant amount of risk. Maybe they could partner with current utilities/tech firms to ensure both the integrity of the system as well as its efficiency.

Very interesting post. Amazing to see all that they are doing! I wonder what the implications of HIPAA are in this. While the data is anonymized, can they truly leverage it to make the impact they are hoping for?

As you mentioned, as healthcare is moving to the outcome based model, this data is going to be increasingly more valuable. I’m wondering if they could form partnerships (maybe with state medicaid such as MassHealth) to increase the integrity of their data.

I wonder what it will look like with the further development of AI? While consumer data is of vital importance (thinking of Facebook most recently) I also think there is great potential here to develop the technology such that it can help with nefarious acts. I think the IRS is often one step behind the criminal. Thanks for the post!

As a Fitbit owner, I really want them to succeed. But I am short their stock. I purchased their Ionic device which is perfect for my needs. However, I think I am a very niche customer. I love that it doesn’t have too much technology, but can still play music wirelessly. But I don’t think this is a very large market. And as you mentioned, their advantage right now is not very defensible from competitors. I think if they can transition to a more health-focused company, they will have a much better chance of success.

I also wonder what it looks like going forward. Airbnb can simultaneously make some neighborhoods more attractive and detract from the value of others. Maybe there is a way to thoughtfully make properties attractive while maintaining the value of the current neighborhood.

Thanks for the post Jay. I wonder if there is another type of competitor that could come in. Just as Robinhood has done with the investing world, I wonder if something similar might disrupt turbotax. By nature, the have a very sticky product. I just wonder as time progresses is there might be an easier alternative.

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Thanks for sharing. This industry definitely has promise, but there are, as you mention, some serious barriers. In these 2-sided markets places, there is a large difference in expectations between something like having your home cleaned vs being transported via Uber or Lyft. The latter is much more commoditized. While I don’t have a good solution for this, I do have some thoughts on disintermediation. I think they can differentiate themselves on superior customer service. To that end they can also add some sort of insurance or money back guarantee. This is unlikely to happen if the parties disintermediate and there is a problem in the future. For the customer, they can establish some sort of loyalty program or “punch-card” system which could help make customers stickier. For the cleaners, they could offer marketing services to increase their business. This marketing service is likely cost-prohibitive for each cleaner to do in an effective manner. Thus, having Homejoy offer this service would increase the likelihood that the cleaners would stay on the platform.

Thanks for sharing James. I’ve used GasBuddy and find it very convenient. However, with gas prices generally low, I tend not to be as price sensitive and focus almost exclusively on location. Another challenge for GasBuddy is competition from Google/Apple. On both of their maps apps I’ve started seeing prices show up when I search gas stations. I think GasBuddy will really have to leverage their up-to-date data stream as their key competitive advantage in order to keep up with the other tech giants.

I really like the idea. I think there is a lot of potential here. One of the main problems that companies like IKEA face as they scale is maintaining a local feel while leveraging global scale. I think this bootcamp will increase their flexibility and their responsiveness to changing trends. In addition to the IP rights, I think it’s important to consider how the ideas will be vetted to ensure the quality that is associated with IKEA. Their brand image can be damaged if they are not careful in curating only the best ideas. Thanks for sharing!