Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8 • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by quickthrower2 » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

MustafaAlAdhami wrote: post #3

Hi HN. My name is Mustafa Al-Adhami. I am the founder and CEO of Astek Diagnositcs Inc. ( https://astekdx.com ). We have a platform to determine antibiotic sensitivity in one hour. Every year, 1.7 million Americans are evaluated for sepsis - and too many die while waiting days for the correct antibiotic. Imagine a one-day-old baby having to wait twice as long as they have been alive to receive accurate treatment. Or…

I love the mosquito story, your equivalent of Newton’s apple i guess!

Will this tell you what type of bacteria it is? Will it tell you for example if you have Limes disease? I think the current tests for that (at least available to me) aren’t too accurate.

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

#72

Post by uranium » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

ravi_b wrote: post #69

uranium wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$70 < [cost of lead-acid battery] < [cost of lithium-ion battery], so how often does a customer trade the deposit for a battery?

$70 is a refundable deposit they give us when they join us. They pay us per swap. We sometimes get customers who had their lead acid batteries stolen and who now have no money to buy a new battery. With us they pay as they earn.

What I was getting at was, if $70 is a lot less than a lithium-ion battery costs, do people just steal the batteries and give up the $70?

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

#73

Post by avarun » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:00 PM UTC

VrindaGupta wrote: post #66

EMM_386 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our first product, the Sequin Card is the first debit card that builds credit for women Serious question ... why only women? I know you list reasons such as "women were disproportionately being rejected by credit cards", but at the end of the day isn't this something that can help out anyone? I'm curious why you are throwing out 50% of your potential customer base. I don't fully understand what a "credit card for w…

I'll answer here. :) Banks spend 13x more advertising to men than women. Young women have the largest spending power of any demographic ever - this is a seismic shift in the market. Credit card rewards target where men are spending 60% more of the time, versus where women are spending 60% more (and control 85% of GDP).

Wow, those numbers are fascinating. I'd love to see the sources if you have them, so I can read up on the topic more.

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

#74

Post by ravi_b » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:00 PM UTC

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…

Congrats karbon cards.

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

#75

Post by uranium » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

ravi_b wrote: post #68

uranium wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Even with half cost, we are more expensive than lead acid batteries. Typically lithium ion batteries are three times in price compared to lead acid batteries. Erickshaw drivers are very cost sensitive to upfront battery cost. We wanted to give them the most affordable battery solution.

Sure, but if you can reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50% in general, why are you not just licensing that technology to Tesla and others for gigabucks? Or is your cost reduction quite specific to the batteries that eRickshaw drivers need for some reason?

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

#76

Post by ravi_b » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

iamstg wrote: post #2

Hi HN, we are Manas, Swapnil and Sailesh, co-founders of AlgoUniversity ( https://www.algouniversity.com/ ). We bridge the gap between the CS curriculum taught at universities in India and the skills that are required by the tech industry. We offer live classes, industry-relevant projects, and learning products that prepare students for software engineering jobs at top tech companies. We started AlgoUniversity in our…

Congrats guys.

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

#77

Post by MustafaAlAdhami » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #71

MustafaAlAdhami wrote: post #3

Hi HN. My name is Mustafa Al-Adhami. I am the founder and CEO of Astek Diagnositcs Inc. ( https://astekdx.com ). We have a platform to determine antibiotic sensitivity in one hour. Every year, 1.7 million Americans are evaluated for sepsis - and too many die while waiting days for the correct antibiotic. Imagine a one-day-old baby having to wait twice as long as they have been alive to receive accurate treatment. Or…

I love the mosquito story, your equivalent of Newton’s apple i guess! Will this tell you what type of bacteria it is? Will it tell you for example if you have Limes disease? I think the current tests for that (at least available to me) aren’t too accurate.

It won't tell you what the bacteria exactly is. It only tells you whether it is a bacterial infection and what antibiotic you should use to treat it.

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

#78

Post by MustafaAlAdhami » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #64

MustafaAlAdhami wrote: post #3

Hi HN. My name is Mustafa Al-Adhami. I am the founder and CEO of Astek Diagnositcs Inc. ( https://astekdx.com ). We have a platform to determine antibiotic sensitivity in one hour. Every year, 1.7 million Americans are evaluated for sepsis - and too many die while waiting days for the correct antibiotic. Imagine a one-day-old baby having to wait twice as long as they have been alive to receive accurate treatment. Or…

Wow, very cool.

Thank you!

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

#79

Post by ravi_b » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:11 PM UTC

uranium wrote: post #72

ravi_b wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$70 is a refundable deposit they give us when they join us. They pay us per swap. We sometimes get customers who had their lead acid batteries stolen and who now have no money to buy a new battery. With us they pay as they earn.

What I was getting at was, if $70 is a lot less than a lithium-ion battery costs, do people just steal the batteries and give up the $70?

Great point. If erickshaw drivers steal the battery, we can remotely lock the battery. So these batteries will not charge or discharge and will essentially become useless. We also take documents (similar to social security in the us) from each customer before we onboard them.

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

#80

Post by samstave » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:17 PM UTC

candu wrote: post #31

sillysaurusx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Well gee... there should be a passport depository box for workers who go to a foreign country to work but are robbed of their passports and forced into slave labor.