Official Website of Shadab Farooqui
Building with “AI” for the last three years feels like the Miller’s Planet scene in Interstellar . On that planet, one hour equals seven years on Earth. Three hours cost 23 years. That is what AI feels like. It’s a paradigm shift of a different level. There is no steady state with continuous momentum and acceleration. Three years into building with AI, I’ve watched the market get flooded with AI…
Artificial intelligence has humbled us. It's turned the world into something of a blank canvas again and I feel lucky to be building during what might be one of the most creatively charged periods in human history. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to work across a range of industries, solving real problems and watching small ideas find traction. I found great joy in mentoring talented and…
I love automation because it creates capacity to do higher value things, and helps create optionality . My company Good Vibes Only AI ( https://gvo.dev) is the realization of that passion. It was founded with the principal of making product experiences that enable humans and organizations be at their 100x best. Automation has always been a defining force in the evolution of human workflows.…
Opendoor is a real-estate company that I have grown to admire because they are challenging the status quo of home buying and selling. Anyone can buy or sell their home using the platform. Following is a thought exercise for a new Opendoor product to help buyers make an offer that sellers will find attractive. Here’s a presentation to go with the writeup. **Note: I don’t work at Opendoor. I just…
What are “Medical Tests”? What are medical tests? What are they for? Preventive vs Proactive vs Diagnostic What are the categories of Tests? How many tests are there in each category? Biomarkers and how they are being used Who are the major players Testing & Reporting - ex: Quest, LabCorp Insights - ex: WellnessFX, Forward Health, OneMedical Billing - Insurance, Self-Pay Volume of tests Global for…
What’s Fast? Fast offers sellers a Fast Checkout button which can be implemented on an e-commerce product page or the shopping cart. Shoppers with a Fast account can checkout with one click, without having to sign-in again at stores that accept Fast. The UX feels minimalistic, limiting the number of fields during signup. The shipping address and payment method defaults to the information you enter…
One thing that I really admired about NYC was the street cleaning that happened on both a daily and weekly basis all over the city. The apartment buildings "adopted" the sidewalks and kept it clean by washing them with water, each morning. This is not to say that New York is the cleanest city in the world, but I admired the dedication and resolve with which the doormen washed the streets with a…
The Real Estate landscape is interesting, particularly the category of companies that promise you the 'most qualified agent for your sale or search' using publicly available agent performance data. Following are from a growth brainstorming session for one such marketplace of agents, buyers and sellers. Value to Marketplace: (1) New User Acquisition (Buyer, Seller or Agent) (2) Revenue from…
Omni (BeOmni.com) delivers a magical experience in executing their value proposition. The three-part act is unlike any other in its category. In the 1997 movie "The Prestige" -- Cutter (played by Michael Caine) breaks down magic into three acts, which I'm going to use as an analogy to describe Omni -- Cutter: "Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The…
Learning Stages and Channels: Stage 0: Unknown-Unknowns <— Explore Twitter Stage 1: Known-Unknown <— Explore Google Stage 2: Familiarity with topic <— Explore and Exploit Google & other content Pipes Stage 3: Comfortable with topic <— Practice via actual or simulated projects and situations Stage 4: Advanced Knowledge <— Practice, Teach and share knowledge via various mediums and distribution…
Facebook and Google are the most formidable threats to the entire ad industry. The depth of Facebook targeting is unprecedented and it will continue to add unique 3rd party data sources to go deeper. "When combined (3rd party data from Axiom, Epsilon, Experian) with the information you’ve already given Facebook, you end up with what is arguably the most complete consumer profile on earth: a…
Tod Sacertodi sold Brightroll to Yahoo for $640M with 8 years of hard work. Started 2006, sold 2014, $640M. Bullet points from a talk he gave at Yahoo, where he shares his learnings: (#1) If you invested 100k in A round, you’d make 6M in returns. Know when to overspend. It’s not a linear curve. Pay above market to the "top of the industry” execs / rockstars. Lesson: You can’t overspend on great…
Can Alexa replace Google? Lets see.. In 2016, commerce/transactional searches are 'transaction-enabled' via vertical apps and services. As people move towards using apps that in addition to providing the information queried, enable the related transaction. Ex: Amazon helps you research *and* buy the product. Yelp helps you *research* and make a reservation or delivery from/at a restaurant. These…
It's gonna happen - and there's only one thing you can do about it -- learn to hack.
“ The line between disorder and order lies in logistics… ” — Sun Tzu Uber is building an army of people (with a car for now) ready to MOVE (anything) at moments notice. The have the potential to disrupt any and all verticals such as: - Travel - Security - Shopping/Delivery - Hospitality - Advertising - Healthcare Facebook: Make the world more OPEN and CONNECTED -- Facebook digitally connects…
Is there is a correlation between the increase in Selfies versus the growing trend of teens leaving Facebook? They key in understanding the future of each of the services is in their mission statements: "Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected" The mission was shared with Zuckerberg around IPO time, and also explained in detail in his letter to investors. The…
I previously wrote about the design flaw in Facebook Star Ratings , which was addressed by Facebook sometime in January 2014. The same design flaw applies to mobile, which leads to erroneous/accidental submission of star ratings. There needs to be a "Submit" or "Done" or "Review" button which explicitly confirms that the rating is being submitted. Others have complained about this issue on…
Mashable published an interview with the Friendster Founder Jonathan Abrams. Following are key takeaways - some may seem obvious. Ideas are dime a dozen - f'in execute! If you can't scale after 2 years, expect to get fired Fire your board if they are forcing you to focus on features vs helping users log in Too little too late. Ship stuff Make the best of what you have Mashable interview with Josh…
A list..not in order of priority: 1) Have mentors in family, friends & business circles who you can call anytime, any day 2) Nurture relationships systematically 3) It's never too late to learn, un-learn or re-learn something 4) Live in the present (Power of Now Stuff) 5) Start something, anything 6) Be the person of your word 7) Say "No" more often (choose commitments wisely) 8) Tangibly (verbal…
I was in the process of installing an app that replaces my home screen on Android. Until the following (screenshot below) data access screen made me take a step back and think for a bit: The app was requesting permission to have access to my SMS with the ability to receive, reply and delete without my permission. Out of curiosity, I tweeted them asking the reason for such access (no response yet),…