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Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

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Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#11

Post by longerthoughts »

giarc wrote: post #3

> Bento Club: Customers pre-order food from a select set of restaurants, and Bento picks it up and brings all orders to a shared pickup spot within one block of the customer’s office. Unless it's 10x cheaper, I don't see how this is any better than Uber eats, Doordash etc (that actually bring food to your door).

Seems like they're trying to squeeze somewhere between pickup services (e.g. MealPal) and delivery services (e.g. Uber Eats). Cheaper than delivery thanks to reduced labor and logistics costs, more expensive than pickup services because those costs still exist. I guess they're banking on people being willing to pay a little more than pickup service rates in exchange for more options.

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#13

Post by xiaolingxiao »

sharkweek wrote: post #2

First, congrats to everyone launching. Second, existential crisis time. I clicked the link and saw "Here are the 85+ startups that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 1" and closed the tab. These used to be some of my favorite articles every six months, kind of a view into what's coming next. But they felt digestible, with a few dozen startups featured each time. Now it feels like a fire hose. I'm not convinced there's goi…

could you elaborate on your outlook on startups? specifically "darker and more cynical"?

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#15

Post by FreedomToCreate »

draz wrote: post #12

Had the same idea as Keynua. I quickly (foolishly?) dismissed it because of Deep Fake. How would they ensure trust in the video?

I don't think it was foolish. Its definitely going to be a challenge to identify fake videos in the near future

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#16

Post by GraffitiTim »

OisinMoran wrote: post #10

Really impressed with this batch! These companies seem to be targeting a lot of really cool hard tech problems which is great to see. In particular, a lot of super cool next-gen transportation: electric planes (Heart Aerospace), jetpacks/bikes (Jetpack Aviation), hydrofoil cargo ships (Boundary Layer Technologies). Also seems to be a big focus on India, China and Africa, and a big increase in the proportion of bio/me…

I want to put a plug in for Boundary Layer Technologies. Their crazy Demo Day goal was to build a freaking hydrofoil ship during YC.

The founders I know who worked with them before said "They may actually be able to pull this off."

And there it was, right out front on Demo Day.

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#17

Post by longerthoughts »

>Basement: A social network for your close friends

Seems like this would impose some serious limits on ad revenue generation (assuming that's how they plan to monetize). With only close friends the volume of friend-generated content would presumably be much lower than that of Facebook or Instagram (even if those individuals are generating more content), meaning you have a much lower threshold beyond which you start pissing off users with ads due to relative volume.

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#18

Post by AznHisoka »

sharkweek wrote: post #2

First, congrats to everyone launching. Second, existential crisis time. I clicked the link and saw "Here are the 85+ startups that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 1" and closed the tab. These used to be some of my favorite articles every six months, kind of a view into what's coming next. But they felt digestible, with a few dozen startups featured each time. Now it feels like a fire hose. I'm not convinced there's goi…

I haven't gone through anything that has resembled dark burnout, but I also share a similar sentiment.

Years ago, I would be amazed at all the cool startups and tools people were building. Now, my reaction is more.. "OK, so what? You build AirBnb for X... so what?"

Re: Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 1

#20

Post by _uhtu »

longerthoughts wrote: post #17

>Basement: A social network for your close friends Seems like this would impose some serious limits on ad revenue generation (assuming that's how they plan to monetize). With only close friends the volume of friend-generated content would presumably be much lower than that of Facebook or Instagram (even if those individuals are generating more content), meaning you have a much lower threshold beyond which you start p…

But also, possibly, you'd have a lot more and a lot deeper interaction. This could be the kind of app Facebook was originally, where you added your friend and shared basically anything random without a focus on getting likes. Dumb inside jokes, unfiltered photos, etc.

Kinda like the texting groups friends often have these days. That's market that could potentially use some optimizaiton as texting isn't a great format to communicate with ~5-10 people.

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