Avi Schiffman
Founder & CEO, Friend. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderengineer@AviSchiffmann ↗avischiffmann.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Avi Schiffmann gained international recognition for developing nCoV2019.live, an early global COVID-19 tracking dashboard, and the refugee housing platform Ukraine Take Shelter. After leaving Harvard, he transitioned into consumer AI hardware, creating the Tab wearable and founding the companionship device Friend.
1shows
1appearances
12statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Avi Schiffman said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Schiffman: Y Combinator Is Evil and Has Ruined Startups
“I also think that Y Combinator is, is evil and has ruined startups. I think it's turned it into this absolute slop.”
Schiffman: Consumer mindshare is the only true business moat
“I think that the only real moat is consumer mindshare or just, you know, mindshare as a concept of, you know, when people think of a certain category or
Topic, you know, their mind immediately goes to just one project or one company, right?”
Schiffmann: Seed VCs Care About Founder Storytelling, Not the Product
“I think to raise venture capital, the more you talk about your products and what you're working on, I actually think the harder it really is. Because I don't think any seed or lower investor gives the fuck about what you're working on. I think it's almost enti…”
Schiffmann: Founders Should Cultivate Self-Confidence Over YC Advice
“Personal confidence is what most founders should be working towards rather than like YC advice, because if you are confident enough in yourself, and again, you need to act like, I think the thing is that you still need to actually have good ideas and you need …”
Schiffman: Viewing Startup Work as Art Eliminates Competition and Anxiety
“You know, if you view your work as art, you have no competition and you have no fear of failure, and I think it just removes this anxiety that you have over it needing to be perfect or anything like that.”
Schiffman: TikTok is the only post-2010 consumer social app to dethrone incumbents
“I think TikTok is the only consumer social product that came out after, you know, the OG ones in the early 2010 that actually succeeded in, I think truly be kind of becoming king in a way that I got a TikTok is great.”
Schiffman: Netflix will always beat Apple TV due to entertainment mindshare
“And I think that's why Netflix will still always beat something like Apple TV”
Schiffmann: Venture Capital Is Inherently a Peer Competition Social Game
“Everything VC is a social game. And these VCs are inherently just kinda trying to get a better You know, they're competing against their coworkers and their friends at other funds. And like, that's what they really care about. They care about who's involved in…”
Schiffman: Friend Caused Significant Increase in Backlash Against Him
“And with a specifically friend, I will say that it has significantly upticked the amount of people that just do not like who I am and do not like what I'm working on.”
Schiffman: Public Criticism Lets Founders Experience Their Artwork From Outside
“100% the way I view a lot of people's feedback is it allows me to experience my own artwork from a different person's perspective, and I love that.”
Schiffmann: Friend Originally Started as Tab for Nonprofit Networking Tracking
“Like, let's say what I'm working on right now, it's friend, right? It started out as tab and it was originally made because I was fundraising for a nonprofit and I wanted to keep track of the people I was meeting. So I felt that if I wore like an always on mic…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Avi's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 STARTUP IDEASLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Friend | 1 | 12 | 100% 1/1 | full record on the Startup Ideas Podcast → |