Kieran Snyder, co-founder and CEO of Textio, explains how machine learning was applied to Kickstarter project descriptions to predict fundraising outcomes prior to publication.
“We got over 90% predictive on minute zero of a project as to whether it was going to hit its fundraising goal based solely on things like how long is the text and what kind of fonts are you using and how many headings do you have.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Kieran Snyder
Insight
Snyder: Kickstarter success depends on text structure rather than idea quality
“The quality of your idea doesn't matter just looking at the content aspects we could predict.”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 4:12a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
AssertionSupported
Snyder: 'Abrasive' appeared in 17 female performance reviews, zero male reviews
“The word abrasive, which has been talked about since then ended up, you know, being used in 17 out of a couple hundred women's reviews and zero times in, in men's reviews, right?”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 27:51a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
AssertionNot publicly verifiable
Snyder: "Fast-paced environment" in job listings statistically reduces female applicants
“So the difference between fast-paced environment and rapidly moving environment, it's almost head-scratchingly tiny, but statistically, one of them draws many fewer women to apply.”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 25:44a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
Insight
Snyder: Kickstarter campaigns succeed when formatted like a "ransom note"
“You want it to look like a ransom note, so you want to mix and match types. You want lots and lots of headings.”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 3:48a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
Insight
Snyder: Longer project descriptions perform better on Kickstarter
“Longer is better where Kickstarter is is concerned kind of counterintuitive.”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 3:29a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Snyder: Mentioning off-street parking harms higher-priced home listings
“So we saw when we were prototyping out the real estate stuff that if you say off street parking that really moves the needle for low income homes, but for high income homes in terms of the number of people who go to your open house and then the eventual sale p…”
Kieran SnyderJan 2, 2019▶ 7:15a16z Podcast | It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- When Language Meets Big Data
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