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Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

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Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#271

Post by vishalkgupta »

dang wrote: post #262
vishalkgupta wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE WedWell: Thanks for the comment. Funny enough we're moving slightly from "WedWell: Vendors bid for your wedding" more towards "WedWell: A more efficient way to plan your wedding". (Dang- Depending on how long the voting is going, we'd love to change our title!) It's really less about cost savings (which may happen anyway with scale/competition among vendors), but more about efficiencies in the process. Less face t…

Ok, sure, we changed the title for you.

Thank you! Very helpful for our message

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#272

Post by shanacarp »

vishalkgupta wrote: post #238
shanacarp wrote: post #177

I knew very quickly that Feynman Nano was an in for me. I read through the comments, and when they mentioned they could coat grout, it became a definite in. While it is really obvious to coat medical implants, iv leads, ect - I know that pending material review, I'd be happy to buy a cutting board coated with the stuff for chicken and meat. I even think they would be smart to figure out how to coat woods, granite/sto…

RE WedWell: Thanks for the comment. Funny enough we're moving slightly from "WedWell: Vendors bid for your wedding" more towards "WedWell: A more efficient way to plan your wedding". (Dang- Depending on how long the voting is going, we'd love to change our title!) It's really less about cost savings (which may happen anyway with scale/competition among vendors), but more about efficiencies in the process. Less face t…

I'm not sure efficiency is what you are looking for either - very cold word for describing a personal, life changing event.

Beyond we're not ready to set a date yet for a bunch of complicated reasons that have nothing to do with you as a startup or HN, in practice I'm far from the ideal/typical customer for extraneous reasons once there would be wedding planning (mixture of volunteers for tons of services from friends/family across the country including potential locations, food, music depending on where we host the wedding in the US, issues with my family being unhappy, I have orthodox jewish friends which makes catering questions interesting if they show, he has frail grandparents who are very important to him, ect, ect).

Still, I have some definite thoughts, including vendors you NEED!!!!! to add, how to get there, and some differences/similarities I've seen across the country (because budget), and maybe, if you are lucky, how to sidestep parts of the saturation of people throwing stuff at engaged people.

Best way to talk to you before I start playing around?

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#273

Post by vishalkgupta »

blazespin wrote: post #149

I know we weren't supposed to comment on this, but the truth is, it's impossible to evaluate these like this. Doing such a shallow pass is just completely unfair to the founders here. I think a better idea would be more of a facemash approach, where you have to evaluate just two and pick which one is better. That way you can do a deeper dive and say something sensible with your vote rather than something stupid. I vo…

I second the idea that a facesmash like approach could really be a much better idea of how to handle this. It's easier to view one startup vs another instead of looking at voting on 20.

There are some stand outs that may just run over their opponents, but maybe there's some way to normalize that to some degree.

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#274

Post by shanacarp »

tomplace wrote: post #227
shanacarp wrote: post #177

I knew very quickly that Feynman Nano was an in for me. I read through the comments, and when they mentioned they could coat grout, it became a definite in. While it is really obvious to coat medical implants, iv leads, ect - I know that pending material review, I'd be happy to buy a cutting board coated with the stuff for chicken and meat. I even think they would be smart to figure out how to coat woods, granite/sto…

Shanacarp, Tom from Utiliz here, thanks for the feedback. To clarify we have zero exposure to energy fluctuations. We don’t hold any credit, counterparty or price hedging risk as the contract is still ultimately between the supplier and the consumer. We are operating as an authorized agent of the consumer. If a given supplier mis-hedges and goes insolvent, their customers’ incumbent will step in as the supplier of la…

Hi Tom!

First, it is just Shana. (first a is hard, second a is soft) Carp is my last name.

I would love to discuss this further. what is the best way to get in touch with you?

The reason I stated what I did is in the previous apartment my fiance and I were living in, there were these guys who would come by every so often to offer the ability to switch electrical suppliers while also locking in the price paid per kilowatt hour in advance (This is in NYC, btw) - Con Ed I think had fluctuating prices instead based on both demand and not specified but also obvious if you looked at it, the oil market and coal market. So this contract I was being offered effectively was a form of a forward. At the time, I was trying to convince the sales guy that I should be able to reset the contract every month because oil still hadn't hit rock bottom (he was very confused by this idea), and I was thinking that electric prices per Kilowatt hour was going to drop further in response.

In that sense, I would be the type crazy enough to switch hourly if that was doable, as well as bet on the fact that I know my schedule better than my electric company(s), who only see me in aggregate.

I also think my fiance would not allow me to run that bet and determine it too risky :D (I have a measurably higher risk tolerance than he does, it is good he says things like that)

I still have to wonder if you hold liquidity risk, as well as how my risk as an end buyer is handled (and yes, I do understand that most of your users are not going to be like me)

So best way to get in contact?

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#275

Post by josh_carterPDX »

dang wrote: post #176
zeckalpha wrote: post #167

This is only six hours old, but voting is closed. Is that intentional? Seems like an odd time frame.

We closed it because the rankings hadn't changed in a while and I was hoping to wrap it up in time for the YCF virtual kickoff meeting tomorrow. That was the original plan. But the people complaining about that being too little time are obviously right. The solution would have been to have this ready earlier, and normally we would have, but some unrelated things happened to prevent me from being able to work on it so…

When will voting close?

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#276

Post by dang »

josh_carterPDX wrote: post #275
dang wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We closed it because the rankings hadn't changed in a while and I was hoping to wrap it up in time for the YCF virtual kickoff meeting tomorrow. That was the original plan. But the people complaining about that being too little time are obviously right. The solution would have been to have this ready earlier, and normally we would have, but some unrelated things happened to prevent me from being able to work on it so…

When will voting close?

It now has.

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#277

Post by ig1 »

danieltillett wrote: post #261
ig1 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And on a few more: Jury Board: SaaS note taking to enrichment (third-party api) to ML; solid long term strategy. Real user interest. With a large unique dataset you could essentially build a monopoly business. Founder seems to understand the space, but perhaps not commercial/sales side. Selling to legal firms will probably mean a salesforce which results in a much higher per-unit cost but that’s potentially sustainab…

On Trusert I am curious why you think the market is employers? A few people have raised this exact same point yet I am unsure why as I explicitly said they are not - there must have been something I said that makes you think this.

It was this paragraph:

Since any potential employer can't rely on a candidate's certificate/degree to indicate that they actually knows the material (or can apply it), they are forced into retesting every candidate (i.e. the dreaded technical interview). This is an incredible wasteful process for both candidates and the employers. What is needed is a certification process that can't be gamed that measures true retention of knowledge and skill.

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#278

Post by tomplace »

shanacarp wrote: post #274
tomplace wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shanacarp, Tom from Utiliz here, thanks for the feedback. To clarify we have zero exposure to energy fluctuations. We don’t hold any credit, counterparty or price hedging risk as the contract is still ultimately between the supplier and the consumer. We are operating as an authorized agent of the consumer. If a given supplier mis-hedges and goes insolvent, their customers’ incumbent will step in as the supplier of la…

Hi Tom! First, it is just Shana. (first a is hard, second a is soft) Carp is my last name. I would love to discuss this further. what is the best way to get in touch with you? The reason I stated what I did is in the previous apartment my fiance and I were living in, there were these guys who would come by every so often to offer the ability to switch electrical suppliers while also locking in the price paid per kilo…

Sure. Shoot me an email to info@utiliz.co

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#279

Post by danieltillett »

ig1 wrote: post #277
danieltillett wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Trusert I am curious why you think the market is employers? A few people have raised this exact same point yet I am unsure why as I explicitly said they are not - there must have been something I said that makes you think this.

It was this paragraph: Since any potential employer can't rely on a candidate's certificate/degree to indicate that they actually knows the material (or can apply it), they are forced into retesting every candidate (i.e. the dreaded technical interview). This is an incredible wasteful process for both candidates and the employers. What is needed is a certification process that can't be gamed that measures true retent…

Thanks for the reply. I guess you (and others) were confused over who might benefit from who will pay. I guess I assumed that everyone recognised that no employer will pay for this service because of the way it works - you can hardly pay to have candidates tested when the testing might not occur for another 12 months.

Not that it matters too much at this stage, but I would encourage you to read through the whole discussion - the idea is not as obvious as it appears on the surface.

Re: Poll: Apply HN Runoff – Which two startups should YCF fund?

#280

Post by vishalkgupta »

shanacarp wrote: post #272
vishalkgupta wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE WedWell: Thanks for the comment. Funny enough we're moving slightly from "WedWell: Vendors bid for your wedding" more towards "WedWell: A more efficient way to plan your wedding". (Dang- Depending on how long the voting is going, we'd love to change our title!) It's really less about cost savings (which may happen anyway with scale/competition among vendors), but more about efficiencies in the process. Less face t…

I'm not sure efficiency is what you are looking for either - very cold word for describing a personal, life changing event. Beyond we're not ready to set a date yet for a bunch of complicated reasons that have nothing to do with you as a startup or HN, in practice I'm far from the ideal/typical customer for extraneous reasons once there would be wedding planning (mixture of volunteers for tons of services from friend…

True-- Efficiency may not be the best term for marketing this thing (to anyone beyond the YC community). I'm all ears for sure.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can reach me at info@wedwell.co

Thanks again, we're still early here. Plenty of room to evolve the product. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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