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Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

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101–110 of 163 posts

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

#101

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 wouldn’t have expected a need for a “gendered” debit card - it’s pretty crazy that young women are so disproportionately “behind” in building their credit. I will admit I fell in that category a few years ago (didn’t get a credit card until a few months before I graduated college) and I’m still regretting waiting so long to start building credit. I hope you can help other young women not make my mistake!

That's the hope!

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

#102
post #99

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…

Love this idea! Have felt the problem myself and have seen my mother/MIL/wife struggle with the same thing. It's clear that you both have extensive experience in the space, too. How can I help / get involved? :-)

Spread the word, www.sequincard.com!

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

#103

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…

Are you familiar with Karius? They turnaround a diagnosis in a day (genomic). I could imagine both assays being run on the same sample.

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

#104

I'm curious what the recent data is on the success of YC companies - beyond raising large seed rounds. How are YC co's doing at the growth stage now, vs early batches.

I too am curious about this.

I imagine those at growth stage would comprise a refined batch of investment opportunities.

And perhaps also serve as good business case studies for Stanford et al.

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

#105

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…

real innovation saving lives. best of luck to you & your team

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

#106
post #105

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…

real innovation saving lives. best of luck to you & your team

Thank you!

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

#107

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…

Are you familiar with Karius? They turnaround a diagnosis in a day (genomic). I could imagine both assays being run on the same sample.

Yes! Karius is great. They detect resistance genes to provide antibiotic sensitivity. We monitor the metabolic rate, that is how we do it faster.

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

#108
post #84

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…

This seems like a great idea. I assume a forward looking city could hook directly into your apis to process things faster. By fair housing will become the biggest issue in the next 50 years or so. Would love to see case studies where your shown to reduce costs by a significant amount. Good luck !

Thanks!

Yes we definitely see a major use case in public projects which are notoriously wasteful and (sometimes) corrupt. Blockchain allows provenance of the data and the ability to have a better view of where the money goes. The audit capabilities are major benefit in situations like the one you describe....We're putting together some official case studies and we will share them. One of our clients is a billion dollar construction company that is using 2 of our products. They anticipate we will save them $1M+ this year as well as improving the budget and schedule outcome on their projects. Construction has over 150 typical workflows so the results here are significant.

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

#109

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 saw in Visa data that 70% of women's spend (concentrated around young women), was similarly on debit or cards in other people's names

That's so odd. Studies on this outcome would be interesting.

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

#110
post #79
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.
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