Nextdooor believes that he can manage things with artificial intelligence; He has a lot of riding on him

Social media is often widely, however NextDoor I have long bet on something different: that it can grow a large company of smaller communities.

For years, the plan has worked. The 15 -year -old company has always been a dominant platform for the neighborhood -based conversations, as users are connected to everything from lost pet alerts to local business recommendations. Then at some point, growth stopped. Users have found a lower reason to interact with the application that exceeds the use of transactions. What also stopped them: the wrong, racist information and simple fossils on the platform, which perpetuates shareholders who do not know better or not care.

Now, Nirav Tolia is on a mission to transform things. He has a strong motivation to demonstrate that he is capable. Tolia founded the company and led it until 2018, when it was And according to what was expelled By the council, unlike the potential acquisition. In 2021, Nextdooor followed the public with a special purpose acquisition in A. 4.3 billion dollars evaluationBut in the face of falling growth and the interest of the exposed advertiser, the Board of Directors asked last year from Tolia to return.

Tolia also has a lot at stake financially. He says he is the largest individual shareholder of the company in Nextdoor, where the market ceiling now hovers about one billion dollars. Benchmark, one of the oldest supporters of the project in Nextdooor, is the largest institutional contributor to the company. Tolia claims that “none of us has been sold since the public subscription.”

Tolia says he has confidence in the company, thanks to the pieces he puts largely. He also makes progress. NextDoor mentioned 45.9 million weekly active users As of the end of September, an increase of 13 % of the same period in 2023. One of the most valuable pieces, apparently, is the special data that Nextdoor generates from the statute – data that, Unlike RedditFor example, NextDoor does not have any intention for sale to Openai or Google.

However, with the long ascension, and given the challenges facing a relatively small NextDoor company – including the inability of the larger institutional investors to participate as shareholders – some clear questions include the amount of time Nextdooor has this transformation, and whether it may be Better as a private company.

We talked to Tolia about these things, as well Listen here. Meanwhile, excerpts from this chat followed below, edited for length and clarity.

I have been on a media tour recently. Why?

In the first few months I returned, it was more important for me to talk to people internally, but with work internally to assemble our plan, and think about how to start our potential, it is woe to be increasingly important for us to tell this story externally as well. Because one of our challenges is that Nextdooor is a company that has been in 14 years and has 100 million neighbors verified [registered on the platform]. So it is not small. It is a company that we believe does not have the importance that it can enjoy and does not achieve the possibility of achieving it.

You said you are planning to change the product.

We deeply believe that there are many ways that our neighbors can help us. We also believe that staying in contact with our local community is important to keep us aware, maintain our safety, and keep us smart on the purchase decisions we make in the local community. But we realized when we looked at the product that we had no enough information that you need to stay aware. . And when we had this information, we did not always give it the right way. Thus, creating a new product – which we call internally, “Nextdoor” – is related to making it more powerful for users to feel associated with their local societies.

What are some specific transformations that you will make?

Nextdoor has always been a place where the UGC content and the neighborhood are 99 % of what you find. But we realized over time that the neighbors do not always have a wide range of information you are looking for, and there are many entities in your area, whether they are schools, local companies, influencers, or the effects that depend on them, and these people can be publishers of local news as well. They all have content that must be shared with neighbors. Thus, one of the big initiatives [is to bring in] New content from new sources can expand the value proposal when reading the content on Nextdoor.

I stopped using Nextdooor because I was a little anxious about what it was [being said by neighbors]. A lot of your challenge is certain [users] Do not start from bars, without accusing them of suppressing freedom of expression.

It is really one of the great challenges facing all social media platforms. I will say two things. The first is that we can always do a better job to ensure that mood and sensitivity to conversation are more constructive and positive. Another piece though. . I think that with the emergence of artificial intelligence, there will be more technological leverage more than ever. Consequently, the combination of us, which reminds our neighbors that this is related to society and gathering together, then using new and innovative AI tools … I am very optimistic that we … we can improve [users’ experiences] A very big way.

Will Amnesty International use to reduce political talks?

Our official policy is that we do not allow national political talks. Of course, people will continue to raise things often. One thing is that we can create groups intended for political conversation – and this is something we do – because it turns out that some users really want to hold these discussions, and in some respects they become more angry when we say, “” This is not a place for political discussion. Go to get this on x [or] On a different platform. So part of it leads it to an area where you are not part of the circular experience, but it is still available. Then it is really part of it. . . [applying more AI].

Just to give you a very specific example, we have something called a kindness to remind, where, before your message goes to the site, we operate it through Amnesty International technology that is looking for a language or hot expressions that you may describe as not due. Before we allow you to publish to the site, we got a message saying: “Hey, you may want to reformulate the words that you used in these ways.” We can do a lot on this front.

Was Amnesty International developed at home?

Certainly at home. This is something I feel very much. When it comes to AI, we already have the three ingredients you need as a technology company to do really great things. The first thing is that you need engineers, so we have developed everything at home. The second thing is that you need your own content. You can go to the content. The license content is what many companies do today, but it is much better if you create your own content, which is what happens in Nextdoor. Then the third thing is that you need an audience that you can test LLMS against them, because this is how they become more intelligent. And with 100 million users, it is clear that we have a very large fish container.

Are you licensed before?

It is something they ask for all the time by investors. I have a very strong view on this, [which is]If you can find Nextdoor content, whether Google, Openai or Microsoft Passport, then why do you come to Nextdoor? So my personal opinion is if there is a platform containing a content of the content that is the reason for their visit to their users, this is very dangerous for them after that to give this to one of the places that consumers prefer frankly, go first. I will never say. But the strong view I have: if you want the Nextdoor value, I want you to come to Nextdoor.

I knew [famed VC] Bill Gorli for years. It is on board. According to the information, he designed your overthrow, then contact you again after growth has been settled. Is this an accurate narration?

No, it’s not accurate. But look, no one about the company was enthusiastic about its path. I mean, we were exposed to the public and our stock fell 90 %. Nothing was Bill Gorli, something Nairrav Tolla, or any single individual. It was clear that we needed to do something. Bell is a person I have known since 1996. I have worked with him since 1999 when he funded my first company. I don’t know that there was anyone who was more influential in my career from Bill. I think it is very from it. We do not always agree, but we had an amazing working relationship through three different companies, and it was invaluable to me, and it was invaluable when I left Nextdoor and was invaluable when we were on the blackboard together, and nothing was happy. Not only me and me. It included Sarah Ferrar, who was the CEO at the time. We all want to try to make this company great, and we are just trying to find a way to do this.

Do you want to do it as a public company? I wonder if there is any benefit, with all you want to do, to take Nextdoor Private again. Did you talk to any? [private equity] Buyers about that?

We do not comment on these types of things. but [it’s] A truly interesting question, which is, in theory, will we think about a special transition. Just a return to Bill, many talks were held with Bill on this topic, because it is clear that Bill was primarily an investor of a private company and I was primarily the CEO of a private company, so this is a comfortable place, because we did so for several decades.

When a public company, the quarterly results are very important. When you are a public company, your degrees, which is the price of your arrow, is something you see in the actual time every day, while as a private company, as long as you have a good relationship between your investors and management, you can take long -term bets, and you can do things that may affect short standards The term without really feeling the pain of an immediate external reaction at the same time.

What Bill spoke to me, if you really want this company to be great, then you need to do this as a public company. It is a kind of equivalent, do you want to play in major championships or minor tournaments? I mean, private companies are still simple league tournaments. When you are finally exposed, there are more responsibilities. You are closely followed. You have more doubts around you. There are people who are deeply interested in performance in the short term as well as in the long run, but all these muscles that you need to build anyway. I [also] Think about the cost of moving to the private sector and then slowly, but definitely building the thing back and eventually public relations in the future, that would feel like he was walking in a large circle.

Who owns NextDoor at this stage? I know you have a big position, as did the measurement. I saw that the ARK Woods’s Ark’s Cathie Woods has recently launched 4 % of A.

Yes, of course. This is all general information. So I am the largest individual investor. Bell and the standard are the largest institutional investors. None of us has been sold since the public subscription, so you should know that we are very confident that Nextdoor’s potential is greater than today, and we are working every day to make it true, not only for all our shareholders, but this includes us as major shareholders.

Cathy is a person we feel very lucky to have taken a great position in Nextdoor, but there is something interesting in our industry: we are a sub -company, currently with a billion dollar market roof. Everyone understands a kind of challenge to you. One of them is most of the big investors and institutional investors – they are not even allowed to buy jobs in companies of $ 3 billion or $ 4 billion in the market. Thus we want more investors, long -term investors, and investors, but we have to do it slowly but steadily because we are a branch at the present time, and until we prove ourselves a little more, we will not have that opportunity.

It only returns to the same thing that we were talking about a few minutes ago, which is: We have to prove our value, and this is something that begins with a better product that proves more value for our users, which allows our advertisers to have a better experience, allowing our financial standards to be better, and in The end, all these things will take care of themselves. But at the present time, we are in a place that we should do better.