Josh Elman

I have been very lucky to work on or invest in many products I use every day including this. Now finding and helping the next great consumer companies at @a16z

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

1/ I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining @a16z as a partner to help find and support building the next generation of great consumer companies. Let me talk a little about why.

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

https://t.co/0yMldDd0z5

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@ben_mathes Doesn’t need to be humble upstart. Just needs to keep delivering great products. Like Siri now :)

Lots of claims here that are easy jabs but much harder when you get into the real debates

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

Amen

[Ray Wong @raywongy]

People are so mad that Apple spent two years eating shit only to deliver with Siri AI, even when it's just early innings

That's the Apple difference: STFU, put your head down and get to work fixing shit if something is so damn important

It was the same case with Apple Maps, only that was harder because it required actually going out into the world to map blocks so it took longer

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@ben_mathes Off base when? Certainly a bummer it took a lot longer to deliver Siri at this quality than originally anticipated. IAP overstated but sure that is real. And the difference of 1st party direct behavior vs tracking is real and not talked about enough

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@ben_mathes Don’t overthink it. And read more about cloud and the models - it is fine. Lots happens back and forth with content on device too. Anyway - fine to be skeptical but I would just tune you to optimism on this one :)

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@ben_mathes Just try it :). I worked on it. Much better than the “barely” but plenty ahead still to do

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@TheOriginaliTE @mattcassinelli @verge @Davidimel Very cool!

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@EKeric13 Yup it is good.

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@Robert_Topkifer Yeah - it really depends on the service. One option is to just do price testing and see what the market bears. Another is to create packages of pricing and then use that as differentiation - wedding vs bar mitzvah DJ or family portraits package vs engagement shoot

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

Best consumer insight I have heard in a while. Pay-for-trust

[Maia Bittner @maiab]

one of the things I don’t think most normal people understand is how much you pay for seemingly small amounts of increased reliability (more 9’s).

like the advice not to tell vendors you’re hosting a “wedding” but just a party? weddings cost twice as much because the vendor knows you are expecting a once in a lifetime experience and everything needs to be perfectly on spec and on time. perfect costs like, 2-10x as much as “best-effort that probably turns out fine”.

same with childcare. a nanny who shows up every day on time costs like twice as much as a best-effort/90% of the time nanny.

your life circumstances might dictate that either is best for you: cheaper or perfect!

but the mistake people make is that they think taking a nanny from 90% showing up to 100% showing up should be ~10% more expensive while anyone who has worked in computer reliability probably understands why it’s like 2-10x more 😂

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@hiproductminds Yup but you can also collect one piece of data and deliver value at every step without it feeling like an inquisition

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

I have often said that longer (great) onboarding is better than short onboarding. https://t.co/qZm24jWJ8b

Great proof point from one of the hottest companies and acquisitions of recent times:

[Jake Castillo @jakecastilloooo]

2 years ago we broke a sacred app “rule” while building Cal AI and our competitors thought we were crazy

We intentionally made our onboarding flow longer, which should have killed conversions…but it made them explode

Every additional step we added was another opportunity to remind the user of the pain point they were experiencing and why they needed our product to help them relieve that pain

Yes, fewer overall people got to the paywall

But those who did usually converted

The drop off in paywall rate was WELL worth the boost in conversions and retention on the backend

because people who paid were more committed and intentional about their desire for change

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@Robert_Topkifer If you are a regular DJ and do a lot of parties you may have an expected level of commitment and fault tolerance. If you are doing a wedding, you may need a different level of fault tolerance so you charge more for that — and what the market will bear for that increased focus

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@bznotes I have questions….

But I also have educated on this one so not anymore :)

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@zoink So this is the first time I have ever thought of you as grumpy or old 👴. I talked to someone in the generation about why they liked it and it is somewhat infectious - a meme that is just funny because they all think it is funny. They laugh together. I kinda loved it after that.

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@venturetwins @omooretweets @tbpn Congratulations!!! 🍾

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

A rare year to say it is so worth upgrading your OSes and jumping on the public beta. Worth getting the upgraded experience now. Very stable. And Siri AI and the other AI features are great.

[Greg Joswiak @gregjoz]

Public betas are live! 🚀

More responsive, reliable, and delightful. Tap into the all-new Siri AI, transform your images with new Clean Up and Extend tools in Photos, and so much more.

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@_DanielSinclair You can always file bug reports :). Not sure why it wasn’t working for you , but once it does I hope you are impressed.

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@Darkolorin @illscience I think the analogy with the brush is that the new tools allow us to create technology products with our imagination and words rather than needing to learn complex languages and master unique skills. Same way any kid can pick up a paint brush. That participation is what’s special

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

Empowering people to spend time better is the most powerful benefit we are going to get from AI. Not efficiency but being better humans.

Well said @illscience !

[Anish Acharya @illscience]

https://t.co/BNnRp4EMsP

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

@mignano All built on other platform rails. Still should be able to void, etc but this is a bit of a complex pile.