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Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

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Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#151

Post by ericd »

pier25 wrote: post #148
ericd wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cruise was a small startup that got at least basic self driving working before they sold to GM. IIRC it was <10 people when I rode in one of their converted Audis. Lots of startups are working on NLP. I wouldn't be so pessimistic.

Cruise was founded about 5 years ago which is what I was saying on my previous comment.

Alright, there was a startup doing self driving trucks in YC this batch. It’s far from a solved problem, and scrappy teams can still make headway.

But anyway, the point is that there are a lot of new opportunities opening up because of that new enabling tech, and many of them are accessible to small companies.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#152

Post by Hermitian909 »

postscapes1 wrote: post #117

After a quick browse through lists on both days: - Where have all the IoT companies gone? - Cool seeing machine learning being used inside applications (The audio analyzer to separate and boost voices for conference calls comes to mind) - Surprised at how many "meh" reactions I had. Too many grocery/fashion and not enough bio/energy game changers and I left feeling mostly uninspired by overall visions. More power to…

> - Where have all the IoT companies gone?

Was talking to some VC folks the other day and asked this same question. The answer I got was under performance, not enough unicorns per investment and the number of companies even hitting profitability was much lower than other sections of their portfolio.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#154

Post by 323454 »

ben_e wrote: post #77

I'm quite confused my Tensil, is the training of the model moved to their chips, or the final model? If the former, then are the chips locked in to whatever model they were built for, e.g. this chip only trains a multi-layer perceptron with n layers? Or are the chips re-programmable or FPGAs? If the latter, don't most models run quite quickly on CPU after training anyways?

Tensil founder here: we take fully trained models, training doesn't happen on our chips. The model architecture is hardened but the parameters can be reprogrammed.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#155

Post by 323454 »

pontifier wrote: post #10

Here are the ideas that I think have the most potential... talar: Huge potential here. Cars are on their way out, and scheduled grocery delivery can replace it. spotless materials: Coatings can make a huge difference in the way we interact with materials... in fact, for the most part, that's all we interact with. better coatings make things better. encellin: I believe that interacting with our bodies on a more finely…

Thanks for the shout out for Tensil! Let me know if you're interested in chatting about it tom@tensil.ai

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#156

Post by toxicFork »

not_a_moth wrote: post #136
firtoz wrote: post #12

I am currently participating in another accelerator in London called Antler; and I have been exposed to ideas from 70 entrepreneurs. We are presenting to investors this week. Also I am in YC Startup School too, which allows you to see what's coming up in the world, and that's awesome too. It's amazing to see that a significant percentage (~30%) of ideas they have come up with have been also thought of by others e.g.…

What do you think about their fee and stake? Looks like it ranges 60-80k [after their fee] for a 10% stake. That feels pretty expensive for an accelerator, especially one that's new, with little network effect yet.

For me personally the benefits I already got from the program are worth a fee and stake, and without them I would have taken much longer to take that leap of faith into starting my own company. And it's fair enough especially for a first time founder like me, considering the risks involved. I am newer than them.

If I was someone more established with an existing network and knowledge of how these things work, that would be a different story.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#157

Post by not_a_moth »

toxicFork wrote: post #156
not_a_moth wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about their fee and stake? Looks like it ranges 60-80k [after their fee] for a 10% stake. That feels pretty expensive for an accelerator, especially one that's new, with little network effect yet.

For me personally the benefits I already got from the program are worth a fee and stake, and without them I would have taken much longer to take that leap of faith into starting my own company. And it's fair enough especially for a first time founder like me, considering the risks involved. I am newer than them. If I was someone more established with an existing network and knowledge of how these things work, that wo…

Yeah it looks like the program is mainly for super early stage, ie no cofounder, pre-idea folks.

I think if you already have a co founder and an idea and/or prototype, then that fee/stake for value might seem unacceptably expensive.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#158

Post by pontifier »

sorenn111 wrote: post #69
pontifier wrote: post #10

Here are the ideas that I think have the most potential... talar: Huge potential here. Cars are on their way out, and scheduled grocery delivery can replace it. spotless materials: Coatings can make a huge difference in the way we interact with materials... in fact, for the most part, that's all we interact with. better coatings make things better. encellin: I believe that interacting with our bodies on a more finely…

Why not Arpeggio Bio or Asher Bio?

I've seen very few microsurgery advances, and it looked like they might be transplanting single cells. Arpeggio and Asher both seem focused on their single treatment or process...

A microsurgical cell transplant system could usher in an entire class of new treatments that could be adapted in a variety of ways. I think its more likely to succeed, and could have a much larger impact.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#159

Post by pontifier »

jerrre wrote: post #49
m0zg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the thing is, I'm actually pretty certain there's close to zero value in the solid 3/4 of these ideas. I concede that maybe I just don't see it, but statistically my odds of being right are much better than theirs.

Isn't that the whole VC model? 1 big success pays for 99 failures? I think it's more about what could happen if one blows up, than about how big the chance is that it will.

In my mind, I like the idea of funding the companies that are building the type of future I want to live in. That way the future I like has a better chance of happening.

Alternatively, a strategy could fund the ones that are building a terrible, but profitable future, and using the money you make to live somewhere else.

It almost seems like a prisoner's dilemma sort of situation. If you don't fund the baddies, and someone else does, then you'll be poor in a terrible future.

Re: Startups from Y Combinator’s S19 Demo Day 2

#160

Post by udkl »

postscapes1 wrote: post #117

After a quick browse through lists on both days: - Where have all the IoT companies gone? - Cool seeing machine learning being used inside applications (The audio analyzer to separate and boost voices for conference calls comes to mind) - Surprised at how many "meh" reactions I had. Too many grocery/fashion and not enough bio/energy game changers and I left feeling mostly uninspired by overall visions. More power to…

> Where have all the IoT companies gone?

Previous discussion : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18710682

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