Melekot's Profile

Great article Emma! Peer-to-peer lending not only opens up access to credit for borrowers, but also provides debt investing opportunities for the common man and woman. Apart from the authentication issues you mention, once concern I have is LC’s and other fintech firms hesitation to be forthecoming about the actual NPL performance of their books, especially for loans on the bigger end. Sustained performance improvements will be critical to widespread adoption.

Hotel Tonight has helped me in a many hours of need so a big fan! But I do agree that the company needs to be vigilant in finding new ways to expand its competitive advantage. As mentioned by several learned scholars in earlier comments, everyone in the hotel/accommodation/travel industry is heavily gearing toward machine-learning driven digital strategy. Two of my favorites – SPG and Airbnb – have apps that do HT’s core functionality as good or better than it does. Perhaps HT’s real edge will be in the non-big brand name boutiques around the world, or in innovating a more professionalized alternative to Airbnb (e.g., for executive/serviced apartments).

Super interesting topic. In answer to your second open question, I believe Equifax’s greatest advantage is the depth of its existing data on consumers. My opinion is that Equifax would be best-served in growing its business by partnering with the new machine-learning driven credit assessment companies in the world. Transunion and Experian, for example, have started to form partnerships with East Africa based alternative credit data start-ups to supplement their existing data sources and scorecards. These companies jealously guard their performance data (i.e., the incremental efficacy of using more quantities and types of data), but the rapid adoption by banks indicates a positive outlook.

Awesome article! The topic of food security is near and dear to my heart. The Descartes solution reminds of a similar company in the space – Gro Intelligence. That company has found commercial success by finding a wide variety of clients for its satellite-driven data analytics on weather patterns’ impact on production. It helps commodity traders predict prices, governments form agricultural budgeting policy, and financial institutions lend to farmers, among others.

Thanks Akash! A future world of ADS-B enabled commercial flight is superbly interesting, awesome promising, and slightly scary. One of my key concerns is on the system’s susceptibility to hacking and other nefarious activity, I concern I also share for ground-based automated vehicles, and even airport air-trains! Government electronic security agencies routinely warn about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, like power grids, for example. I wonder what sorts of controls need to be put in place to minimize these risks.

This was a super informative article on a topic that I had barely understood until reading your article. Similar to a few others who have commented, my concern is also about safety. Do you think Boeing can try the durability and safety of 3D printed materials on non commercial aircraft in the earliest phases of use? For example, drones and other types of un-manned aerial vehicles?