startup

priceonomics – data mining and analytics with public data on the web

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

I came across the startup priceonomics and I love how it combines a clear expression of value with simplicity.  Search a product you like and it shows you the price range and distribution, price change over time, and also the option to receive an e-mail regarding the product if it appears at a good price.

What I love about this startup immediately:

*Data mining: these prices are pulled from all over the web

*Analysis: the distribution of prices is presented, and used to determine when there is a good deal for a consumer

*Design: all of this is under a simple to use interface- making the tool very accessible and easy to explore with.

*No sign up: I don’t have to sign up anywhere to use this. There is no social element. I don’t have to share. This is so refreshing.

I use some of these skills on a day to day: (1) getting public data from the web (scraping, APIs, or database download), and  (2) running some sort of data analysis.  Yes- I realize that’s very vague, but what I find most compelling is that this startup combines those skills with a simple interface and creates a consumer product out of it. What other products would be useful, following a similar approach: combining public data available on the web, analytics, and clear design?  I would love to see some consumer analytic products come out that are not open ended, that have some target sector, and that make use of publicly available data.

In some ways this reminds me of the sophisticated https://www.decide.com/, which uses machine learning of tons of consumer electronics data to help you know the best time to buy a product you’re interested in.  See this NYTimes Bits article  for more details on Decide.  The company was founded by Oren Etzioni  who is also behind Farecast (which was acquired by Bing Travel)- a company that helped you determine the best time to buy plane tickets.

What other sectors or problems could benefit with this type of product? I imagine it begins with thinking of where we would need it on a day to day- the sort of data we collect, wade through, and decide upon on a day to day.  Where is it frustrating and where can it be made simpler?  With priceonomics, on buying most products, with Decide, on consumer electronics, and with Farecast, on plane tickets.  I immediately start brainstorming in potential areas of opportunity- as jump off points- nutrition, health, education, and jobs.

Posted on May 5th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Peter Thiel and the Education Bubble

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

I remember when it first occurred to me that there was little barrier for tuition prices to keep rising in America. If they increased, students would just be expected to take out more loans.  Even as it is now, students are taking out loans far greater that anything they’ve dealt with before.  There is no intuition for what $40,000+ is.  Something felt predatory about lending people so young this much money.

I like groups like Sprouts for challenging the traditional education system.  They are focused on learning becoming something beyond institutions, to become something integrated deeply in one’s life.  They are focused more on creating a community than creating profits- and they are sustaining themselves.

Recently, Peter Thiel, of PayPal, introduced his plan to create a fellowship for students to leave college and pursue their start up dream.  He was motivated from his realization of our education bubble:

Thiel isn’t totally alone in the first part of his education bubble assertion. It used to be a given that a college education was always worth the investment– even if you had to take out student loans to get one. But over the last year, as unemployment hovers around double digits, the cost of universities soars and kids graduate and move back home with their parents, the once-heretical question of whether education is worth the exorbitant price has started to be re-examined even by the most hard-core members of American intelligensia.

It is stigmatized to not go to college- which is now resulting in students starting their lives out of school with mounds of debt.  I believe a college education is immensely important- but I hope such programs challenge the consensus that it is the only path a student can take.

Posted on April 17th, 2011 under Blog. Tags: , , ,