Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 163 posts

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#31

Post by candu »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #23
VrindaGupta wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm Vrinda Gupta. I worked at Visa Inc. for years, launching popular credit cards. But when I applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (the credit card I helped develop), I was rejected! I'm now the CEO and Co-Founder of Sequin, a debit card that builds credit for women risk-free with no credit history required. My co-founder, Mark Thomas, spent over a decade at PayPal leading ACH products in various EM roles. I wa…

> I was rejected from the credit card I helped launch because, despite having a high income, I lacked credit history. This happened to me. I got a job in Petaluma, CA where I was rejected for internet service because my credit history was "Unknown risk", i.e. I had no credit history. I was in my early 20's. It was kind of a bummer to hear that this product is only for women, but seeing as it was a bummer to be a woma…

Another use case where this is potentially useful: relocation. I've been rejected for financial things before after international moves, since I have no credit history _in that place_. Income? Doesn't matter. Previous history elsewhere? Doesn't matter.

This is _also_ an issue for self-employed people, contract workers, or...well, basically anyone who doesn't fit the "I stayed in one place and work full-time" mould.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#32

Post by ravi_b »

jeswin wrote: post #19
ravi_b wrote: post #4

Hi HN, we're Ravi and Pratik of Enerjazz ( https://www.enerjazz.tech/ ). We make battery swapping stations (like gasoline stations) for electric vehicles, swapping discharged batteries with charged batteries in 2 minutes for light commercial EVs. Commercial EVs or electric rickshaws have 2 pain points. One high upfront cost of battery (can be up to 50% of the total cost of vehicle). Two, high charging downtime result…

Good idea, and extra credits for not being another software and services platform. India needs more companies who actually build/manufacture, will be rooting for you.

Thank you so much. Unlike a traditional manufacturing company, we are going to be asset light though which will enable us to grow fast.

We started Enerjazz with the simple goal of solving our customer's problems. We kept talking to customers just like what YC recommends. After living for many years in Amsterdam, I often had to go to many e-rickshaw driver houses in renowned ghettos (godforsaken places) of Noida to fix their chargers in the early days. This is because they did not have proper charging infrastructure and their chargers will often go bad. With swapping, we also address this issue of bad quality power access to e-rickshaw drivers.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#33

Post by zinodaur »

VrindaGupta wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm Vrinda Gupta. I worked at Visa Inc. for years, launching popular credit cards. But when I applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (the credit card I helped develop), I was rejected! I'm now the CEO and Co-Founder of Sequin, a debit card that builds credit for women risk-free with no credit history required. My co-founder, Mark Thomas, spent over a decade at PayPal leading ACH products in various EM roles. I wa…

What a great idea!

Why aren't debit cards normally hooked into the credit history system?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#34

Post by VrindaGupta »

zinodaur wrote: post #33
VrindaGupta wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm Vrinda Gupta. I worked at Visa Inc. for years, launching popular credit cards. But when I applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (the credit card I helped develop), I was rejected! I'm now the CEO and Co-Founder of Sequin, a debit card that builds credit for women risk-free with no credit history required. My co-founder, Mark Thomas, spent over a decade at PayPal leading ACH products in various EM roles. I wa…

What a great idea! Why aren't debit cards normally hooked into the credit history system?

We built a credit reporting engine on top of a traditional debit card. Traditional debit cards are meant to access your checking account directly.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#35

Post by avernon »

robdigibuild wrote: post #5

Hi, we’re Rob, April and Ivan, cofounders of DigiBuild ( https://digibuild.com/ ). We build construction software powered by blockchain. Our tools help large companies, like VCC Construction, improve the schedule and budget on projects and save over a million dollars annually. I grew up in construction with my dad and saw first hand the issues companies face everyday. The building process involves 50-100 stakeholders…

Is the chain open source with permission-less validators?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#36

Post by uranium »

ravi_b wrote: post #28
thoughtstheseus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Super cool! I’m always super skeptical of people claiming battery improvements. Is the benefit more of the lithium ion to lead acid switch? Or swapping batteries between use? Keep up the good work. I’d love to see videos of the e-Rick shaws.

You mean another start-up by another professor in another university on another battery chemistry :). we get that a lot. You are spot on. Almost 96% of 2M e-rickshaws in India still run on lead acid battery (because of lower upfront cost). The only way to switch them to better tech (lithium-ion) is by making it more affordable for them.

Yeah, everything here sounds great except for "We also have a patent-pending technology that reduces the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50%." That's a huge claim, which would immediately be many times more valuable than your swapping business. Is this cost reduction perhaps just vs. small-volume retail prices, in India, for specific battery formats, or some other reasonable limitation?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#37

Post by BilalBudhani »

sunil_loanmeet wrote: post #7

Hi HN! We are a rather unusual team of six founders (Pei, Amit, Sunil, Jack, Bo, and Kartik) spread across India and China, building Karbon Cards ( https://www.karboncard.com/ ). We help companies in India get instant access to a corporate card. We came across this problem separately while Amit was doing VC and Sunil was running his own fintech. We saw that a startup with $1M in the bank was facing mind-numbing issue…

This looks great.

I run single person company (proprietorship), do you think KarbonCard can help me in running my business in any way? or it is designed for bigger companies?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#38

Post by mritchie712 »

VrindaGupta wrote: post #6

Hi, I'm Vrinda Gupta. I worked at Visa Inc. for years, launching popular credit cards. But when I applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (the credit card I helped develop), I was rejected! I'm now the CEO and Co-Founder of Sequin, a debit card that builds credit for women risk-free with no credit history required. My co-founder, Mark Thomas, spent over a decade at PayPal leading ACH products in various EM roles. I wa…

When you report, what are you saying the credit limit is? Utilization is a huge factor in your credit score and you technically don't have a credit limit for this product.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#39

Post by Sharife76 »

robdigibuild wrote: post #5

Hi, we’re Rob, April and Ivan, cofounders of DigiBuild ( https://digibuild.com/ ). We build construction software powered by blockchain. Our tools help large companies, like VCC Construction, improve the schedule and budget on projects and save over a million dollars annually. I grew up in construction with my dad and saw first hand the issues companies face everyday. The building process involves 50-100 stakeholders…

Proud to be a part of the Digibuild family

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

#40

Post by Sharife76 »

robdigibuild wrote: post #5

Hi, we’re Rob, April and Ivan, cofounders of DigiBuild ( https://digibuild.com/ ). We build construction software powered by blockchain. Our tools help large companies, like VCC Construction, improve the schedule and budget on projects and save over a million dollars annually. I grew up in construction with my dad and saw first hand the issues companies face everyday. The building process involves 50-100 stakeholders…

Proud to be part of the Digibuild family
Post reply on HN