Is Tech Helping or Hurting American Communities? (Guest: Prakash Janakiraman, Co-Founder, Nextdoor)

Prakash Janakiraman is the Co-Founder and CTO of Nextdoor - the 'other' social network that we all use, but rarely discuss publicly. Nextdoor has quietly amassed a huge userbase across multiple countries and is growing in influence. But are people using Nextdoor for more than just crime alerts? We explore this and more on today's episode of TIYLISV. 

We talk to Prakash about his time growing up in Hayward, CA and his HS mascot. Prakash talks about his time at Berkeley during Jason Kidd's tenure in Cal Sports, and the influence tech had on his life from a young age. He talks about living at home in college and joining Cal as a 16 year old. 

Prakash talks about his early career, and the first dot com boom. Prakash talks about the original idea that pivoted into Nextdoor - focused on sports. And how it morphed into ND based on the power of a NYT column from Charles Blow. 

We learn what people use Nextdoor for, and whether people use it for just crime alerts or more. It turns out the number one use case is not what you'd expect. We talk about competition in the space, and how FB and Amazon may be thinking about communities. 

We discuss Bay Area sports and whether Andrew Wiggins would make a great Warrior. Or whether Kyle Shanahan should have just run the ball in the 4th quarter. You'll enjoy this fun episode of the pod.