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Avi Schiffman

Founder & CEO, Friend · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

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.

12statements → 4claims → 1claims resolved → 3.83/5average certainty → 2.92/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 3 assertions · 2 opinions · 5 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Avi argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
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 It started out as tab and it was originally made because I was fundraising for a nonprofit and I wanted to keep track of the people I was meeting.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…”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 24:33 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Avi Schiffman on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Avi Schiffman said on the Startup Ideas Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
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.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 3:51 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Insight
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?”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 12:32 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Insight
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…”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 17:33 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Insight
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 …”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 19:13 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Insight
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.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 3:30 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 10:18 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Prediction Not checkable as stated
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”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 13:40 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Opinion
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…”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 18:12 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 48:23 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Insight
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.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 48:30 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Assertion Supported
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…”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 24:33 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products
Disclosure
Schiffman Would Pay the Most to Solve AI Memory Infrastructure
“I mean, honestly, this is the problem I would pay the most money to solve. It is my real problem.”
Avi Schiffman Dec 30, 2024 ▶ 42:16 "Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Viral Products

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
"Y Combinator Is Overrated" - Inside the brain of this 22-Year-Old who built Multiple Vira Dec 30, 2024 37m
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