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All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

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Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#81

Post by VHRanger »

eps wrote: post #30

Gopher is a poorly chosen name for a platform - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) Dropleaf (Netflix for indie games) - at $10/mo for a 50-game bundle I can't see how this can attract any of the quality games and devs.

> Quality games and devs

You don't know the games industry, do you? Tons of amazing indie games make a pitiful amount of money. Mostly because of lack of exposure.

In the world we are, where the consumer is drowned with options, paying up front for a game requires some serious convincing of the consumer. Which is also why so many games are turning to F2P monetization (it's all that works if you're not a Jonathan Blow unicorn).

If a dev has a story to tell (not amenable to F2P) he's largely dead in the water unless some huge youtube gives him exposure.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#82

Post by dolevyao »

coolswan wrote: post #58
0bsidian wrote: post #57

Ubiq looks interesting, but I thought this space was already quite crowded. I wonder if they're going for SMBs / companies that are deploying video conferencing solutions for the first time.

It sounded like mid-size companies with a few conference rooms at least. Agreed that it's crowded but also there's been no great solutions either. Unless you have the $$ to get Cisco systems.

That makes sense to me.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#83

Post by martinald »

eps wrote: post #30

Gopher is a poorly chosen name for a platform - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) Dropleaf (Netflix for indie games) - at $10/mo for a 50-game bundle I can't see how this can attract any of the quality games and devs.

Keep in mind EA Access is $3/month...

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#84

Post by kuschku »

imaginenore wrote: post #72
rudimental wrote: post #63

Flock seems like it could help solve some crimes, but at a huge cost - privacy. You can't opt out, unless you live nearby and register with the company. "Residents of monitored neighbourhoods can opt-out of being tracked - but visitors, or people passing through, cannot." http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41008141 Do people like law enforcement collecting license plates and keeping them in databases indefinitely? Ho…

You can't opt out while being in public. That's unreasonable.

Depends on where you live. In Germany any CCTV recording of a public place is automatically illegal. There’s a handful of exceptions (for example, for the parliament), but generally, this holds true.

Opt-in is what’s legally required, and should be the default.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#85

Post by Lordarminius »

contingencies wrote: post #48

Feather seems very solid. If you guys want a China partner let me know. It's Ikea's fastest growing market.

They may or may not make money, but how is this in any way qualify as a tech startup ? Aren't they a leasing company ?

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#86

Post by zolthrowaway »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #74
imaginenore wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they had more than just an idea?

Of course. Most likely. What else can it be.. Colour me bitter..but my biggest weakness is that I am not 'technical' enough...but why is someone who has never tilled a field or known the rhythms of growing food in the natural world and knows the diff between dirt and soil be better qualified to make what we need? And keep us suckling on the giant teat(or whatever) of tech? Like Monsanto does..like John Deere and dmca…

Did you really expect them to fund you with just an idea and some domain knowledge? Not to sound rude, but that's pretty naive. How many people are out there who have a "million dollar idea" who just need someone to build it? The answer is a ton and a boatload of them apply to YC every year. Good ideas are abundant. Proof of concepts and prototypes are not.

Getting into YC does not mean that Modular Science is going to be a success. They still need a good tech team, people with domain knowledge, and a market to sell to. Your farming knowledge is definitely important to a project like this, but there is a much greater supply of it. It wouldn't be that hard to hire a couple farmers to be subject matter experts. It is and continues to be insanely hard to put together a team that can build autonomous robots.

Don't give up on your dream, but you need to realize that a farming robot is technology. That's what you're selling. You need people who can build the technology. Find them and build the company. Make a prototype. Use your domain knowledge to make it better than the competition's product. Don't just be a guy with an idea, be a guy who builds things.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#87

Post by ridruejo »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #74
imaginenore wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they had more than just an idea?

Of course. Most likely. What else can it be.. Colour me bitter..but my biggest weakness is that I am not 'technical' enough...but why is someone who has never tilled a field or known the rhythms of growing food in the natural world and knows the diff between dirt and soil be better qualified to make what we need? And keep us suckling on the giant teat(or whatever) of tech? Like Monsanto does..like John Deere and dmca…

You need to actually be able to build your idea, be it an app, a robot, an algorithm ... So if you are not technical enough, you need to get a technical cofounder that can. They are also not building this in a vacuum: they are likely talking to farmers, hiring experts, running trials, etc.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#88

Post by dagw »

eps wrote: post #30

Gopher is a poorly chosen name for a platform - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) Dropleaf (Netflix for indie games) - at $10/mo for a 50-game bundle I can't see how this can attract any of the quality games and devs.

I can't see how this can attract any of the quality games and devs.

Humble Bundle consistently gets great, high quality games that they give away for basically free.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#89

Post by lkbm »

robinjfisher wrote: post #73

As I'm in the industry, my thoughts on some of the recruitment-related companies: 10 BY 10 - I don't get it. Their website says they are a contingency search firm with a value prop of having resumes filtered by people with domain knowledge before submission to clients. Also that they deliberately hit a low acceptance rate on resumes because they try to submit a diverse field of candidates. If the goal is to get the h…

10 BY 10, going purely by your description, makes it sound to me along the lines of Malcolm Gladwell's pasta sauce realization[0]--if you want to find the perfect sauce for person X, you need to offer chunky, spicy, and "plain". None is inherently the best, so you offer three that are best in distinct ways.

[0] https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauc...

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#90

Post by dagw »

robinjfisher wrote: post #73

As I'm in the industry, my thoughts on some of the recruitment-related companies: 10 BY 10 - I don't get it. Their website says they are a contingency search firm with a value prop of having resumes filtered by people with domain knowledge before submission to clients. Also that they deliberately hit a low acceptance rate on resumes because they try to submit a diverse field of candidates. If the goal is to get the h…

If the goal is to get the hiring manager the right person, then the best resumes should be submitted without imposing some arbitrary diversity requirement.

I can see value in being offering 3 different 'types' of candidates instead of 3 different candidates of the same type, even if the latter 3 in theory have the strongest resumes.

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