Avi Schiffmann
CEO at friend
About
I'm the CEO of friend.com, and I built nCoV2019.live, one of the first real-time COVID trackers.
Experiences
- CEO at friendBuilding friend, an AI pendant that's always listening
Friend is an expression of how lonely I've felt. It hangs around your neck, listens, and texts you back.
- Early lifeCoded a stick-figure website in elementary school
In middle school I sold video games online. I taught myself the rest on YouTube, growing up on Mercer Island.
- TakeShelterLaunched housing sites after the Turkey quake and LA fires
Our team went 48 hours without sleep to launch TakeShelter. For the LA fires I made a site to offer spare rooms.
- UkraineTakeShelterSaw Ukrainians pleading at a rally, and built a housing site
Marco Burstein and I worked three days straight. Over 100,000 refugees found a place to sleep through it.
- nCoV2019.liveBuilt a COVID tracker in high school before it left China
It hit tens of millions of daily users. I turned down a multimillion-dollar offer to monetize it.
- Founder at InternetActivismMade sites to find protests after George Floyd's murder
I built another one with information ahead of the 2020 election.
- Founder at friendTurned how lonely I've felt into Friend
I left Harvard to build, and I live an extremely isolating life. Friend is an expression of how lonely I've felt.