March
19, 2019

4 min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

How do you keep online trolls in check? Ban them? Require real names?

Dr. Srijan Kumar, a post-doctoral research fellow in computer science at Stanford University, is developing an AI that predicts online conflict. His research uses data science and machine learning to promote healthy online interactions and curb deception, misbehavior, and disinformation.

His work is currently deployed inside Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart, which uses it to spot fake reviewers. We spoke to Dr. Kumar ahead of a lecture on healthy online interactions at USC.

Dr. Kumar, how do you counteract online harassment using data science and machine learning? How does your system identify the trolls? 
In my research, I build data science and machine learning methods to address online misbehavior, which transpires as false information and malicious users. My methods have a dual purpose: first, to characterize their behavior, and second, to detect them before they damage other users. I have been able to investigate a wide variety of online misbehavior, including fraudulent reviews, hoaxes, online trolling, and multiple account abuse, among others.

How are you teaching the AI to spot these patterns? 
I develop statistical analysis, graph mining, embedding, and deep learning-based methods to characterize what normal behavior looks like, [and] use this to identify abnormal or malicious behavior. Oftentimes, we may also have known examples of malicious behavior, in which case I create supervised learning models where I use these examples as training data to identify similar malicious entities among the rest.

Your research is currently being used in Flipkart. What problem were they trying to solve and how are they measuring results? 
The key problem that I helped address on Flipkart was of identifying fake reviews and fake reviewers on their platform. This is a pervasive problem in all platforms; recent surveys estimate as much as 15 percent of online reviews [are] fake. It is therefore crucial to identify and weed out fake reviews, as our decision as consumers is influenced by them.

What’s the method called here? 
My method, which is called REV2, uses the review graph of user-review-product to identify fraudsters [who] give high scoring ratings to low-quality products or low scoring ratings to high-quality products. REV2 [compares] our recommendations to previously identified cases of fake reviewers.

Is it possible for AI to keep an eye inside social networks and raise the alarm when bad behavior is about to arise? Is this purely pattern-based analysis with sentient data crunching or something entirely different? 
It is possible to proactively predict when something may go wrong by learning from previous such cases. For instance, in my recent research, I showed that it is possible to accurately predict when one community in the Reddit online platform will attack/harass/troll another. This phenomenon is called “brigading,” and I showed that brigades reduce the future engagement in the attacked community. This is detrimental to the users and their interactions, which calls for methods to avoid them. Thus, I created a deep learning-based model that uses the text and community structure to predict, with high accuracy, if a community is going to attack another. Such models are of practical use, as it can alert the community moderators to keep an eye out for an incoming attack.

Do you see a logical extrapolation of your work used in “nudges” to prompt users to clean up their act prior to prosecution? Akin to a teacher at the front of the class keeping a wary eye on the troublemakers in the back row before they fall into criminal masterminded gangs? 
Absolutely! A natural and exciting follow-up work is how to discourage bad actors to do malicious acts and to encourage everyone to be benign. This will help us to create a healthy, collaborative, and more inclusive online ecosystem for everyone. There are many interesting challenges to achieve this goal, requiring new methods of interventions and better prediction models. Enabling better online conversations and nudging people to be their better self is going to be one of my key thrusts going forward.

Have you have personal experience with online harassment or was this more of an interesting AI problem to solve for you? 
One of the major reasons for me to follow this direction of research was seeing some of my friends being harassed by social media trolls. This led to look for non-algorithmic ways to curb this problem. Being a challenging task, it piqued the interest of the scientist inside me and I eventually learned to create data science and machine learning methods to help solve these problems.

March
18, 2019

3 min read

This story originally appeared on Business Insider

MoviePass is bringing back an unlimited plan.

Despite the recent exodus of executives and managers at the company, the movie-ticket subscription service has been working hard behind the scenes to bring back a plan similar to the one that got it so many subscribers two summers ago: a $9.95-a-month unlimited plan.

The launch has been delayed for weeks, according to a source with knowledge of the decision, who told Business Insider that it will likely be set live in the coming days. And there are other signs that MoviePass is on the cusp of bringing back the unlimited option.

A staging URL showing details of the plan was posted on StockTwits over the weekend, and viewed by Business Insider. By Sunday afternoon, the link was brought down:

The design of the MoviePass site when it unveils its unlimited plan, according to the staging URL that was live over the weekend.

Image credit: MoviePass

According to the details on the staging page, the unlimited plan will be available to new subscribers for a limited time for any 2D movie. But there’s a catch. In a clear move to limit power users, subscribers’ choices will be restricted in response to “excessive individual usage.”

For further explanation of what that means, they direct you to a section of the Terms of Use:

Section in Terms of Use addressing the unlimited plan.

Image credit: MoviePass

There it says that “MoviePass makes no guarantee on the availability to any particular theater, showtime, or title presented on the app.” It also states that it may use its algorithms to restrict users “based on their location, day of movie, time of movie, title, and the individual user’s historical usage.”

These restrictions are similar to ones MoviePass already has put into place, which remove some popular showtimes and movies from the app.

That’s not the only catch in the new plan. MoviePass wants subscribers to pay the $9.95-a-month price on an annual basis through eCheck of ACH. With MoviePass’ management turmoil and heavy losses, some subscribers might be wary of paying for a full year up front, especially before they know how much MoviePass will restrict the available showtimes and movies. The ACH option would also require subscribers to give out their bank accounts.

Image credit: MoviePass

Currently, MoviePass offers a three-tier pricing plan ranging from $9.95 to $19.95, depending on where you live in the country. MoviePass abandoned the unlimited plan last August after gaining millions of subscribers, but burning through hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for their tickets.

MoviePass has recently said it plans to “create a more closely connected relationship between our subscription service and original content production unit, MoviePass Films.”

So why go back to an unlimited plan?

It’s a move that has some inside the company baffled, and contributed to recent management turnover, a source close to MoviePass told Business Insider.

Last week, Business Insider reported that Khalid Itum, the executive vice president who was in charge of the day-to-day operations, had resigned along with three other management-level staff.

MoviePass was not available to comment.

March
15, 2019

4 min read

Mike Hannegan has surfed all over the world and seen his share of wild waves. But tragedy struck in 2014 when he encountered a giant swell in Newport Beach, California. 

“I took off on a big wave and then my nose dove down,” he says. “I thought I was diving through the back of the wave, and I just hit my head right on the bottom of the sandbar. I broke my C4, C5, C6, and cracked my brain stem.”

Image credit: Mike Hannegan

Doctors wanted to operate immediately, but Hannegan refused. “This happened over Fourth of July weekend,” he says. “I figured if I were a doctor, I wouldn’t want to be working on 4th of July weekend. I just assumed that it was the C-team. Why would I want to do crazy spine surgery with someone who is not the best doctor?”

CBD to the rescue

Although his doctor prescribed opioids, Hannegan soon realized they weren’t for him. After a difficult time quitting opioids cold turkey, he looked for alternative pain relief. That’s when he discovered CBD.

Related: CBD Is Taking the Cannabis Industry Mainstream

Says Hannegan, “I researched and tried so many different types of CBD and realized there are lots of different variances on the market;  some products are very good, and some aren’t, so you really need to pay attention to what type of CBD you’re taking, how much you’re taking, and what their certificate of analysis is. There’s a lot of phony CBD products out there. I wanted to make a good, strong product that customers could count on.”

Getting into the business

Hannegan had come across a CBD product called Elixicure that helped with the pain. It was manufactured locally in the City of Santa Ana. So he went to the manufacturing facility to meet with them. They were impressed by Hannegan, who has a successful digital marketing background. “We immediately started to talk about forming a partnership and building more brands and working together,” he says. “We’re going to be launching tinctures, creams and skin care products.”

In March of 2019, Hannegan launched Everything Hemp USA,  an online CBD market and storefront in Garden Grove, California. The store sells a selection of carefully curated CBD products. 

Related: 5 Ways Hemp Is a Boon for Health

The process of launching a store hasn’t been easy. For one, many cities in the state won’t allow you to sell hemp-based CBD, even though it’s legal. “The local governments are still under the impression that CDB and THC are the same things,” Hannegan says. “You have to educate them.”

The power of influencers

Marketing has also required a learning curve. “You can’t use traditional pay-per-click or buy Facebook and Instagram ads because cannabis is still federally illegal. So you have to think outside the box,” Hannegan explains.

His solution? Work with a handful of key influencers to get their name out there. Hannegan is targeting different verticals for different products. For example, he’s worked with professional surfers and snowboarders. “We are piloting a program to become first CBD brand/company on the approved product list for professional sport,” he says. 

Related: 12 Cutting-Edge Marijuana Marketing Tactics That Work

Hannegan also has his sites on beauty influencers for his skincare line, and mom bloggers who used CBD for insomnia and stress. 

“Ultimately we want to be the GNC of CBD,” he says.  “We feel this will give customers and patients a marketplace where they can purchase quality and trusted brands that have already been, researched, vetted, and approved.”

March
14, 2019

4 min read

This story appears in the
March 2019
issue of
Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Ellie Lamonaca first entered the franchise world as a publicist, whose job was to help a franchise get media attention. But six years into her career, a new client captured her attention in a very different way. It was Conserva Irrigation, a sprinkler-system inspection and services company that helps homeowners and commercial properties cut down on water waste and bills. As a resident of South Florida, Lamonaca immediately understood the value of its business model — and saw opportunity. She texted her husband, Juan, and suggested they become Conserva franchisees, and in April 2017, the newlyweds opened their first territory, in Fort Lauderdale. They’ve since grown into two territories and are eyeing a third, and they’ve learned the value of investing in a strong team, taking the time to understand an industry, and putting in the hard work.

Related: The Top 5 Business Service Franchises From the Franchise 500

Ellie, you spent years doing PR for franchises. What about Conserva Irrigation made you want to change careers? 

Ellie: When we’d get a new client at [PR agency] Fish Consulting, we’d go to their headquarters for a huge, immersive onboarding meeting. I’d done this a thousand times with brands. Halfway through our Conserva orientation, I started texting my husband because I was intrigued by the concept and knew we could do this.

Juan: Ellie had never previously pitched me on a concept. But we talked for hours after her meeting with Conserva. I work in construction, and we own our own company, and I’ve always known irrigation to be the bottom of the totem pole; it’s where contractors cut corners to stay on budget. So once I understood the concept — not to mention the professionalism, the branding, the training — I was in. 

Image Credit: Jon Norris

Did you feel hyper-prepared to take this on, or was there still a learning curve? 

Related: Hurricane Maria Almost Destroyed This Entrepreneur’s $300,000 Franchise Investment. Here’s How She Moved Forward.

Ellie: I felt like I had a bit of a leg up — I had spent almost a year pitching the company to the media — but no matter what, when you become a franchisee, chances are you’re not an expert in the industry, so of course there was a learning curve. 

Juan: When we first opened, Ellie kept her day job, I kept my day job, and we were running our Conserva company at night and on the weekends. We quickly realized that in order to scale and meet the needs of our community, we had to hire a technician. Now we have three on our team.

Has hiring been a challenge? 

Ellie: It was one of our biggest lessons. In the service industry, your employees are not just a part of your business; they are your business. We could not have a team that wanted to clock in and collect their paychecks. We needed people who were invested in the success of this business. Once we found them, we had to involve them and incentivize them. We quickly implemented bonus opportunities to keep our team motivated. Other Conserva franchisees gave us great advice: Once you recruit one good person, treat them well and they’ll recruit their peers and people they’ve worked with in the past—and that’s happened! We take a lot of pride in that. 

Related: After Nearly Going Bankrupt, How Franchise Jersey Mike’s Fought Back and Won

You’re both millennials. How has being young business owners influenced the way you operate your franchise? 

Juan: We fall into the stereotype of the hardworking millennials. We work day and night; we’re not 9-to-5. If a customer calls us at midnight, we pick up. And we’re hiring a lot of peers who also relate to that work ethic. Plus, we’re out there with our employees — we don’t sit in our office. I let our guys handle the situations, but I’m out there with them in the field, and I think that earns us some respect. They’re not laborers — we all work as a team. 

March
12, 2019

2 min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s call to break up Facebook because the company has too much power was met with an ironic response on Monday: The social network decided to pull several of her political ads.

The ads had been promoting Warren’s recently-announced plan to split up Facebook, Google and Amazon for their dominance over the internet sector. But the social network reportedly decided to take down the ads, not for their content, but because they used a corporate logo, a Facebook spokesperson told Politico.

However, the social network was quick to backtrack on its decision. “In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads,” the spokesperson added.

So far, the company hasn’t elaborated on the whole incident, which comes as Warren is running for president. But Facebook probably reverse coursed after realizing the ad removal was only proving Warren’s point about the company having too much control over the internet.

“Curious why I think FB has too much power? Let’s start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power,” Warren said on Twitter in response to the news. “Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn’t dominated by a single censor.”

According to the social network’s own archive, Warren began placing the ads calling for the break up of Facebook on Friday, when she announced her plan to split up the three internet giants. The particular ads in question feature a video that briefly uses the “f” symbol inside a dialogue box to symbolize Facebook.

The “f” may seem innocous, but the company’s advertising policies on “brand usage” specifically ban employing the letter as a symbol meant to reference Facebook. “Back in the bad old days, advertisers would often invoke Facebook as a feigned endorsement,” explained Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former Facebook ad targeting manager, on why the policy was put in place.

It isn’t clear if any other political ads were affected by the brief takedown. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with more information about Facebook’s ad policy.

March
5, 2019

4 min read

This story appears in the
March 2019
issue of
Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Not everyone can afford a great manufacturer, distributor, or other big partner when they’re first starting out. So what then? Consider the unconventional route these three entrepreneurs took when they chose to supercharge their businesses by actually bringing their partners into the company. 

Shira Berk

Image credit:

Courtesy of Goodie Girl

Advantage: Grow faster

Founder and CEO: Goodie Girl

Shira Berk had spent most of her career as a publicist, but in 2010 she started making gluten-free cookies and selling them at her children’s preschool. The side hustle took off. Five years later she was operating her brand, Goodie Girl Cookies, out of a commercial kitchen, selling $25,000 in product a year, and she wanted to go bigger — fast. “I didn’t want to take the time to raise the money and go on all the interviews with all the incubators,” she says. As it happens, a manufacturer, Greg Toufayan, of the bakery company Toufayan, wanted to get into the startup game. So they came up with a plan: Toufayan would invest in Goodie Girl and focus on production, logistics, and financing, and Berk would focus on sales and brand building.

Does Berk miss having full ownership of Goodie Girl? Nope. “It has given me the ability to do things I never thought I’d be able to do,” she says. In one year, sales shot to $1 million. “I’m able to go into retailers and say, ‘I’m partners with one of the largest bakeries in the U.S. — what do you need?’” Once, Walmart’s buyer requested a gluten-free fudge-stripe cookie. Goodie Girl whipped up a batch and sent it to Walmart within weeks. The buyer loved it. Today, Goodie Girl’s national sales exceed $10 million.

Michelle Cordeiro Grant

Image credit:

Courtesy of Lively

Advantage: Coordinate suppliers

Founder and CEO: Lively

After years as a Victoria’s Secret exec, Michelle Cordeiro Grant knew one thing for sure: Lingerie is a business built on partnerships. “It can take 25 to 40 suppliers each supplying a component to make one bra,” she says. So when she set out to launch Lively, a direct-to-consumer lingerie company that makes stylish but comfortable undergarments, she prioritized building that network quickly.

A meeting with Yossi Nasser, the third-­generation CEO of lingerie manufacturer Gelmart, proved serendipitous. He’d spent years circling an idea for a direct-to-consumer business, but he didn’t have the experience needed to make a product resonate. Cordeiro Grant saw opportunity. If she could build a relationship with this manufacturer that went beyond just manufacturing, she’d solve some of her biggest problems. Over eight months, they solidified a deal. Gelmart would invest in Lively, incubate the brand, and handle its supply chain. “The Gelmart design and technical teams are constantly traveling the world meeting with new suppliers, so we have access to their ideas,” she says. And as Lively has grown more than 100 percent annually, its manufacturing hasn’t missed a beat.

Melissa Ben-Ishay

Image credit:

Winnie Au

Advantage: Gain the perfect support

Cofounder and President: Baked by Melissa

Few people know Melissa Ben-Ishay’s full name, but many millions know her first name: She’s the original creator and namesake of Baked by Melissa, a booming New York–based bakery known for its bite-size cupcakes. But the name is misleading, she says; it implies she built it alone. “People always ask me, ‘How did you start the company — where did you get your capital?’” she says. “We didn’t raise money. I surrounded myself with people who had skills that I didn’t.”

That includes two important vendors. The first was a caterer, Ben Zion, who had access to influential events throughout the city. The second was a café owner, Danny Omari, who had an available commercial kitchen and retail space. Both loved her cupcakes, but she couldn’t pay for either’s help. “What money did we have? Here I was just baking product, getting paid, and buying more ingredients,” she says. So she offered both men equity and made them cofounders — and they, in turn, became her brand’s champions, giving it the reach it needed to pop. Now she sells more than 30 million cupcakes a year. “It’s virtually impossible,” she says, “to do this alone.”

March
4, 2019

9 min read

This story appears in the
March 2019
issue of
Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Since 2010, Lilly Singh has been lovingly known to fans as Superwoman — a moniker she has more than earned after amassing 14 million YouTube subscribers, producing and starring in a live world tour, and writing a best-selling book, among other projects. The actress and comedian catapulted to YouTube fame with her observational videos that tackle everyday life, and as her own celebrity grew, she started attracting top talent as collaborators: Dwayne Johnson, Priyanka Chopra, and Selena Gomez have all appeared on her channel. Now the 30-year-old is making plans for the next phase of her career and thinking hard about her own needs as a creator. She’s taking a closer look at her professional path, investing in her team, and shooting squarely for the traditional media world. 

Related: 9 Top Social Media Influencers Marketers Need to Follow

You started your YouTube channel in 2010, and over the past nine years, it’s grown into an entertainment empire. When did you realize this could be a sustainable career? 

Even after I reached a million subscribers, I was like, This is just a fluke! I’m sure this is just luck! I was the last person to really believe this was a career path. It wasn’t until I did an international gig in India, appearing there as part of YouTube’s FanFest. Seeing the audience reaction there, understanding how many people knew me there, it was a major realization: Oh my God; the internet works! Seeing people in a different country, across the world, relate to my content and interact with my business was really eye-opening. 

Once you processed that, did it change how you thought about projects? 

I realized my worldwide appeal more than ever, so I really made sure that my content was more universal and relatable no matter where someone lived and no matter what their environment was. And from a brand partnership perspective, I realized I had a responsibility to be selective about the brands I work with. My audience is diverse; I didn’t want to create content through partnerships that excluded anyone. 

How transparent are you with your audience about those decisions? 

Transparency is everything in this business. My fans feel like they know me, feel like I’m accessible to them — they come up to me on the street if they see me, treat me like their big sister — so my relationship with them is all about authenticity. And if I partner with a brand I’ve never talked about before and start preaching about their product, my audience will know it’s not authentic. And if I make a mistake — just as a person, or through a partnership — ­I try to practice what I preach and admit it. No one is perfect. We’re all growing, we’re all learning. It’s a new culture of doing business as a human, not as a corporation. 

In December, you spoke out about gender equality on YouTube after Forbes published its annual list of the top 10 earners on the platform, all of whom were male for the first time in years. Why do you think that is? 

I’m super proud of YouTube and the digital community because I think we’re actually great examples of equality, and I think traditional Hollywood could learn from us. That’s why I was so shocked to see that the top earners were all male. And all those men deserve it — they’re earning it! But it just leads to the question of why? Is it that people don’t feel female content is as universal? Are they not as willing to watch it? Do brands want to work with men more? I don’t have the answers, but I’d like to ask those types of questions. 

Related: How Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp Evolved Along With Her Brand

Where do those kinds of conversations need to take place? 

Well, I made the error of believing that Twitter was the right platform for that conversation — and it is not. It’s a layered conversation, and it can’t be reduced to x amount of characters, and I take responsibility for that. But we should be having these conversations on panels, at conferences. I’ve had several sit-downs on gender equality with the heads of YouTube. Those are the outlets where change and action happen. 

You began by posting videos you recorded at home. But you’ve since gone on a world tour, written a book, launched an apparel line, and started a social campaign to support girls and their education. How have you built a team to support these projects? 

A lot of digital creators feel like they have to do everything themselves. It’s the nature of our business. It’s almost a layer of guilt we feel: I’m an entrepreneur, and I must do everything myself! But building a team has been the best, most crucial thing I’ve ever done. And I approach it in a simple way: I want people on my team who are excited about what we do. I’ve learned time and time again that no level of achievement on a résumé can replace passion. You need people who are willing to step out of their comfort zone and learn new things. 

Image Credit: Smallz & Raskind | Getty Images

As more opportunities come your way, how do you decide which projects to pursue? 

I used to try everything that came my way. Someone asked me to do stand-up, so I did. Someone asked me to write a book, and long-form writing seemed like a new challenge. But now my schedule is not as lenient, so I examine the impact a project will have on myself and others. If it’s meaningful and positive, I’ll consider it. But I don’t have to say yes to everything anymore. 

Last fall, you published a video explaining that you were taking a break from posting content for a bit. Why? 

I was just mentally not in a good place. I was pushing out content at a crazy rate — there’s this fear that if you don’t publish constantly, you’ll become irrelevant. I love making content and I love YouTube, but too much of anything is not good. So I took a couple of weeks and I didn’t shoot, didn’t write a script, didn’t vlog. I spent hours a day just thinking: about my team, my career, my family. It sounds ridiculous, but I just didn’t have time to do that before. I started writing down my goals, journaling, eating better, and getting more sleep, and it made such a difference. 

Related: How LaurDIY Went From Dorm Room Blogger to YouTube Star With 8.4 Million Subscribers

Do you think it will change how you operate moving forward? 

I realized I no longer enjoy being creative on such demand. I know there are deadlines and sometimes you have to make things happen, but the rate I was working at was taking away from the magic of creation. I never want to be in a position where I’m putting out work that I’m not 100 percent proud of. If something about a project doesn’t work for me, I want to take the time to fix it. I’ve earned that. 

Was it tough to tell fans you needed a break? 

Absolutely. My brain kept telling me I was being weak and lazy. But you can’t be the best creative version of yourself if you’re not the healthiest version of yourself. People questioned my decision to publish a video about it, but I didn’t want my fans to think I ghosted them! Plus, if my story can help someone else or start a conversation about mental health, I’m happy to swallow that pill. 

Tell me about why you recently launched a production studio to focus on more long-form content. 

It’s called Unicorn Island Productions, and I love it! The goal here was to not only diversify my business but to make premium, longer-form content that won’t necessarily work on YouTube. I want to make things I didn’t have growing up, create stories and characters I didn’t see. 

Has it been an adjustment to build something in the world of traditional media? 

People are so willing to take risks on YouTube. Now when I’m sitting in pitch meetings for my production studio, there are people I have to pitch, then they pitch their boss, and there’s a whole gang of people who will decide what an audience will like, even what a character will look like. There are a lot of gatekeepers. And that’s different for me, having someone tell me what they think is going to work when I have an audience of 14 million! I’m very tempted to be like, “I know what will work!” But it’s a ladder you have to climb. You’ve got to play the game to change the game. I did that on YouTube, and I will respectfully do the same thing in traditional Hollywood.