Dominika Sarnecka's Profile

This is a great article – thank you! My immediate thought was: why am I not using this application?! On a more serious note, I am really impressed by their predictive power – being able to predict prices a year in advance is a big achievement. My question is regarding the future direction that the company will go in: maybe predicting inventory needs of various goods companies could be an application of the powerful technology they own?

This is so interesting!! I echo the commentators above me – while reading your article I kept on asking myself: what is the next step? Is it wine, whiskey or maybe … flavored moonshine. I know this might not be the immediate option that comes to mind, but during my recent visit to Tennessee, I discovered a multitude of craft “moonshine” distilleries that pride themselves with an extremely broad range of flavors. Maybe using AI to propose personalized cocktails or “moonshine” flavors could be an interesting option for the company to explore!

This is a fascinating article and a very exciting innovative area. This topic is very current – China has stopped importing trash from other countries and US cities are scaling back their recycling programs. This makes me even more appreciative of your decision to include this article in this blog post – Thank you! I think recent developments make it clear that current technology is failing demands of the volumes of recycling needed to be accomplished. This makes me very optimistic about the AMP Robotics!

This is a great post! I think this is an excellent example of the necessity of network effects not only for business… but also for science. This is not what we often consider, as most of us has an image of scientist as a lone person spending countless hours on a lone pursuit of a breakthrough in an academic laboratory bended over a microscope. However, here – the more people submit their DNA samples to 23andMe the more accurate their results will be. So, in a sense, network effects matter not only in terms of presence or absence of multi homing but are the core essence of both the business, the product offered, and future scientific gains that might emerge. Good job!

I love this post! I had no idea that Met had developed this capability. First, I think it has huge benefits to democratize are and make it more accessible. However, I think the biggest benefit of it lies in the fact that this is another step in the direction of digital art – both consumption and creation. Concretely, there has been a rising niche of artists using new medium to create their art: the iPad. Some of iPad’s applications allow creators to produce work that is not accessible through other media. Having MET join the “digital art” space, provides a big positive push and legitimization of this developing phenomemon!

Thank you for the valuable information on how Disney is taking a nearly century old company into the 21st century age of data analytics. I love the idea of magic bands and using AI to recognize people’s emotions…. from Disney’s stand point. However, I worry about the privacy issues in the future. I could imagine that Disney will connect all the data it has about current customers to the same customers Disney Plus (their new video streaming platform) profiles. With the rise of watching videos on tablets and phones – both devices which have a customer facing camera, I could imagine Disney falling into temptation of taking advantage of the camera on those devices and observing people watching its content to gather data about emotional reactions from facial expressions. This has a potential to be a slippery slope.

This was certainty a great idea in 2010. However, while I do see value in the light asset set up of Instacart, I do think that it will be very hard, if not impossible, for them to compete with a behemoth like Amazon. Especially now, when Amazon is extending same day delivery, I can imagine that Amazon’s customers (especially prime members who don’t have to pay for delivery at all) will find it more convenient to do all their shopping on one platform, than to switch to a different platform to do their groceries and pay extra for delivery. Based on this, I do not believe that current business model of Instacart will allow them to be successful in the future.

This is super interesting but I am skeptical. As a PhD Student with sociological background, the first thing that jumps out at me is the question of exclusion. When I hear that the app draws boundaries between neighborhoods, I find myself asking: what effect will it have on all of the social programs to integrate neighborhoods, and lift up especially the underprivileged areas. It seems to me that having this app only make members of the top few percent of income distribution better able to exclude their communities and further solidify social closure.

I think it is a very interesting idea, but I am skeptical. My first reaction is that the price might be a barrier to a lot of customers. $150 per night for a space on the ground to camp is a lot compared to ~$20 charged by a typical camp ground. $150 is like staying at a hotel, and I am not sure if this is the price campers are willing to pay. I think part of camping appeal is that it is essentially free. My second reaction is regarding the location itself. The allure of campsites (and the reason why they are owned by governments) is that they are usually located on the grounds of national parks. I doubt public individuals own properties there that they would be able to provide to Tentrr customers. While it might be a great solution for a small portion of the camping market, I think that anchoring on the $24bn market size is a risky bet.

Very interesting post. A potentially challenge that I see to the company is issues related to user privacy. Having access to users both public and private information, the company will have to pay great care to their handling of potentially damning data.

Invisalign provides a great example of how business innovation is closely tied to technological innovation. Advancements in manufacturing techniques and digital scanning provide key support for the company’s existence. Invisalign was the first disruptive investor, however, increasingly new wave of competitors appears. Concretely, players like Smile Direct Club learn form Invisalign and use their second mover advantage and lower costs to capture customers.

Carvana appears as case example for outstanding use of advertising messaging. Their discourse in its messaging narrative is centered at elevating customer pain-point and positioning itself as the solution. I found it to be very persuasive.