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Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #8

news.ycombinator.com

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

#131

Post by azinman2 »

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…

Why did you go the YC route versus traditional biotech funding sources? And why did YC accept this versus “things that scale” like software?

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

#132

Post by taurusismysign »

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…

Congratulations! Could you tell me what has been the most challenging part of operating in Indian Fintech ecosystem?

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

#133

Post by sunil_loanmeet »

taurusismysign wrote: post #132
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…

Congratulations! Could you tell me what has been the most challenging part of operating in Indian Fintech ecosystem?

The most challenging part in the beginning is finding a good partner bank.

Once you found a banking partner, you need to win trust of your potential customers, as customers only want to work with trusted financial entities even when you are giving credit.

Once the above two issues are sorted, the compliance issues drown fintech startups. There is always something new one needs to do every month.

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

#134

Post by newusertoday »

debarshri wrote: post #18
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…

Me and my current co-founder did face this issues or atleast were discussing about this issues. It is a big problem. Also, problem is india is just simply incorporating a company. It becomes even more difficult when both the founders do not live in India. Relevant problem, huge market. Good luck! We will probably be a customer if you guys execute well. One of the things that I love about brex and if you could replica…

why do you want to incorporate in india?does your product has some regulatory requirement?(fintech/govt. sector) otherwise you can sell your products/services in india from whereever it is easier for you to incorporate or i am missing something?

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

#135

Post by Grustaf »

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…

What is the purpose of putting the documents "in the blockchain"? If customers trust you, why not just build a normal database and put it there?

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

#136

Post by Grustaf »

beaconstudios wrote: post #122
verdverm wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how do you know that what is on the Blockchain matches the real world? This is the core to if a Blockchain can be trusted for anything which does not originate on the Blockchain.

By uploading said information you are claiming it is true. Whether other people believe it to be true depends on whether they trust you or otherwise have verified for themselves (which can also be asserted cryptographically). No digital technology can solve epistemology and tell you what is true - but that's not the point, and blockchain applications are not unique in this.

> No digital technology can solve epistemology and tell you what is true

Exactly. So what is the point? Why is this better than GitHub?

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

#137

Post by ravi_b »

downvote_korok wrote: post #125
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…

Very good idea. Are you operating in the northeast part of india (Assam). I am from barpeta (781301) a small town in assam, india. Here charging is a big problem the ASEB electricity supply is not reliable. We sometime can not operate for battery. enerjazz can change our life.

Thank you. We are currently not in Assam. From what I understand, Assam has a decently good density of erickshaws as well. A couple of our employees come from there. We would love to launch there.

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

#138

Post by ravi_b »

uranium wrote: post #75
ravi_b wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

We will get into electric scooters soon. Focussed on commercial delivery scooter (like for Zomato and swiggy) initially.

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

#139

Post by nikanj »

Grustaf wrote: post #135
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…

What is the purpose of putting the documents "in the blockchain"? If customers trust you, why not just build a normal database and put it there?

Instant valuation multiplier for the startup.

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

#140

Post by paulcole »

ravi_b wrote: post #138
uranium wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

We will get into electric scooters soon. Focussed on commercial delivery scooter (like for Zomato and swiggy) initially.

So are you able to reduce the cost of a lithium battery by 50% or not? And if so, why are you not just licensing the technology to Tesla?
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