Chris Dixon of Hunch #172

TWiST #172 Chris Dixon of Hunch
Jason met up with Hunch founder Chris Dixon while in New York and the two dove deep into subjects like pre-cognition and behavioral influence, just some of the cool tech the Hunch team is working on.

0:00-0:30 Welcome everyone, to another episode of This Week in Startups.
0:30-2:00 Thank you to GoToMeeting for sponsoring the show and let’s look at their new HD Faces video conferencing service.
2:00-3:00 I’m here in NYC with Chris Dixon the co-founder of Hunch.
3:00-8:00 Thank you to Hiscox for sponsoring the show. Let’s check out how easy it is to get an insurance quote online atHiscoxUSA.com/SmallBiz.
8:00-9:00 On the program today is Chris Dixon, angel investor, blogger and entrepreneur.
9:00-10:15 What was the origin of Hunch and how has it evolved?
10:15-11:45 So what was the original goal of Hunch?
11:45-13:00 So what is machine learning as a subset of artificial intelligence?
13:00-15:00 What was the second idea?
15:00-17:00 Is the first product decision trees? What data sets are you analyzing?
17:00-19:00 After you have all that information, what do you do with it?
19:00-21:00 Is going through a ten-question survey more complicated for the user than a decision tree?
21:00-23:00 So is it like a Minority Report-style pre-cognition? When will you be able to predict when someone is going to murder someone?
23:00-25:30 Did you now decide to be an API and let the world decide how to use this?
25:30-26:30 Does Facebook have this technology yet?
26:30-27:45 Can you tell me who I would like or who I should date?
27:45-29:30 You could build a whole Y Combinator class out of all of these verticals.
29:30-30:00 How many people are at Hunch?
30:00-31:00 Why not sell the company?
31:00-32:15 What was the mission of Site Advisor?
32:15-33:30 You actually managed to change people’s behavior on the Web.
33:30-34:15 How did you have that idea to have a virtual set of boxes that tests bad behavior?
34:15-36:00 Are Twitter and Facebook your virtual machines at Hunch?
36:00-37:00 Can ethical people win on the Web or do you have to be willing to break the rules?
37:00-38:00 What about social networks? Would you have done what Zuckerberg is doing with facial recognition technology?
38:00-40:00 On a philosophical basis, is it old fashioned to let the users make the decisions?
40:00-42:00 So the stuff Dave Winer was preaching three, four years ago, you agree with?
42:00-43:30 What is the system paralleled and you could maintain the same identities and cross-post?
43:30-44:00 What if you pulled in all the messaging from Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc?
44:00-45:00 Is that the only way to kill Twitter or Facebook?
45:00-46:00 Are you actively angel investing today? What do you look for as an investor?
46:00-47:00 So you found a promising entrepreneur who built something that captured attention?
47:00-48:15 People like Ze Frank have a true gift that is in some way innate.
48:15-50:00 Are 3D printers going to work?
50:00-51:30 Thanks for coming on the program, Chris. Everybody check out cdixon.org. Email api@hunch.com if you’re a developer looking to change the world.
 

Support This Week in Startups and independent media by joining the TWiST Producer Program at TwistList.co!

Multilingual? Translate this episode of TWiST into another language and email the transcript to translate@thisweekin.com 

 

FOLLOW ON TWITTER

Jason: @jason
Chris: @cdixon
Hunch: @hunch

Keep up with the latest from our sister company LAUNCH: 

• Google Hands Justice Department Antitrust Gold--Invests in WhaleShark Media
• ZocDoc Raises $50M, Tied for 3rd Largest Deal of Q3 2011
• Famous for Getting Charlie Sheen on Twitter, Ad.ly Launches Open-Source Analytics Software
• SimpleGeo to Offer Flat-rate Plans for Developers
• Facebook Wins Last Week's Social Media Wars -- Google+ in 2nd and Twitter Distant 3rd

Special Thanks to the members of the TWiST List Producer Program!
Executive Producers

• Louis-Eric Simard
• Benjamin Gifford
• Jacek Artymiak
• Octavian Mihai
• Will Paoletto
• Geoffrey Clapp
• Eien Hyett
• Jeff Hoffer
• Kyle Lonzo
• Austin Miller
• Rashaun Sourles
• Robb Kunz
• Greg Berry
• Sean Lynch
• Mary Ann Halford
• Jim Joyce
• Morgan Howard
• Margaret Johns
• Kyle M. Brown
• Paul Cole
• Nick Duncan
• Magnus Ingvarsson
• Amir Ayalon
• Carlos Zaidenweber
• Avery Keitt
• Joshua Shipsey

Producers

• Eli Coler
• Ted Inoue
• Radek Rybicki
• Hunter Owens
• Ben Altieri
• Cam Collins
• Ildar Khakimov
• Matti Hallanoro
• Rodrigo Dauster
• Rodrigo Fuentes
• Anthony Ortenzi
• Daniel de la Cruz
• Michael Hofmann
• John Meneses
• Mike Sunyich
• Sami Rageb
• Michael Lustig
• Alex Deli
• Ethan Jones
• John Davies

Associate Producers

• Brad Pineau
• Kat Ganesan
• Nicholas Christian
• Mau Frontier
• Kyle Braatz
• Serena Ehrlich
• Nathan Hangen
• Lauri Hahne
• JD
• Trudy Baidoo
• Ian Gerstel
• Julian Hearn
• Alex Lotoczko
• James Kennedy
• Benoit Curdy
• Asher Nevins
• Mike Kaltschnee
• Paul Higgins
• William Doom
• David Lee
• Jake Kerber
• Sarp Coskun
• Giuseppe Taibi
• Tyrone Rubin
• Keno Vigil
• Paul Peters
• Jamal Waring
• Nick Ostroff
• Alex Binkley
• Tom Altman
• John MP Knox
• Zon Petilla
• Bryan McCormick
• Marcos Trinidad

Supporters

• Ryan Hoover
• Michael Cranston
• Josiah Thomas
• João Fernandes
• Petrus Theron
• Michael Wild
• Adrian Grant
• Dale Emmons
• Kieran McGrady
• Tim de Jardine
• Alejandro Vasquez
• C. Dain Miller
• Joshua Opatz
• Milan Babuskov
• Chris Rowe
• Nelson Melo
• James Dawson
• Toddy Mladenov
• Daniel Torres
• Chris Macke
• Piotr Zuralski
• Armand Konan
• Brian Vogel
• Paul D
• Jennifer Sun
• Zach Fogelson
• David Kolb
• George Gecewicz
• Sue Marrone
• Eugene Granovksy
• Matt Caporella
• Will Blackton
• Ryan Dodds
• Brett Arp
• Jason Cresswell
• Edwin Orange
• Daniel Bradley
• Shawn Daniel
• Priidu Kull
• Marc Kohlbrugge