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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

#31

Post by ai_ia »

AznHisoka wrote: post #18
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?"

Off the record, your comment reminded me of this Douglas Adams quote:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

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

#32

Post by nck4222 »

AznHisoka wrote: post #18
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?"

>You build AirBnb for X... so what?

I can't stand this template anymore. There's probably a natural cycle/rise-and-fall for these things.

1) Problem identified, "how do i quickly and efficiently describe the purpose of what we're doing"

2) "[existing popular company everyone knows] for [different market that it can be applied to]" is passed on to others to solve that problem. Phrase becomes popular, more people start using it.

3) Everyone starts using it, phrase becomes overused.

4) People begin questioning whether it still has the same meaning or if it's changed contexts since it was originally suggested.

5) People despise hearing it.

I'm right around step 4 there at the moment, heading towards 5. All I keep thinking is "so you're using the same phrase everyone uses, yet you're telling me you're revolutionary, and groundbreaking."

I get that it's just one phrase, and I'm starting to make assumptions here, but I think at some point it becomes more formulaic. And it's hard for me to believe you're hacking, innovating, and revolutionizing when you're following a formula. It's just more "I'm in-the-club" language now.

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

#33

Post by seizethecheese »

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…

For what it's worth, there shouldn't be any less signal in these batches than earlier ones. The acceptance rate this batch was the lowest ever. It's just that startups are now global and in every industry.

This is more like your favorite author writing books on a lot more subjects, than just putting out a longer more rambling book.

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

#34

Post by xmly »

elliekelly wrote: post #25
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Perhaps 2FA through facial recognition + voice authentication?

Check this https://modulate.ai/

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

#36

Post by fernandorojo »

_uhtu wrote: post #20
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…

Fernando here from Basement. This is pretty spot on. The greater level of intimacy leads to far more interaction since you're pretty free to be yourself and post content that is meant for your actual friends to see instead of random people viewing your perfect life. The intuition is naturally that fewer friends would limit usage, but in fact, it's responsible for the high levels of interaction.

As for the revenue – there are certainly cool opportunities to run relevant ads when you have high levels of attention from someone and their close friends (think group experiences, people buying things at the same time that their friends, etc). That said, we don't like what ads have done to current social platforms. They misalign incentives where the more money the product makes, the worse the product tends to get for users. Snapchat was pretty fun until it went from only seeing friends to seeing celebrity gossip and repetitive ads. Because of that, we're planning on doing a subscription model down the road, similar to what WhatsApp tried out before it got acquired (first year free, then a small fee.) Certainly a new model for a social app, but we think it's the best direction for us long-term.

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

#37

Post by nck4222 »

jatsign wrote: post #9

"VanGo: An on-demand ride service for getting your kids and teens around. The founders say that, because “moms trust other moms,” 85 percent of drivers on their service are moms and all of them are women." Is that legal?

It appears so, because I remember thinking the same thing when https://www.gosafr.com/ launched (uber for women).

I recognize there are different safety concerns for men and women, but I do have a problem with companies like these. At least with safr, their advertised safety benefits for women come down to:

1) App/Tech features that would be beneficial for either gender (like extra monitoring by safr through the phone app, and "thorough" vetting/background checks of drivers).

2) Marketing relies heavily on "It's safer because your driver is a woman." which seems to be part of van go's pitch as well, and as a man i find particularly offensive that i'm being deemed unsafe around children/women simply because i'm a man.

That being said, I'm obviously not the target audience. And I believe it's legal because they don't discriminate against men who apply to be drivers/riders, they simply only target women in their marketing, so the people end up being almost entirely women. I would guess this is what vango will end up doing/saying about the gender split as well.

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

#38

Post by fernandorojo »

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).

This one might seem like a minor shift for the consumer experience, but a key difference with other services is that it's actually a sustainable business model. Because they do batched deliveries with hub-and-spoke distribution, the cost for deliveries is lower, so they'll have way higher profit margins than something like Postmates. Uber eats will be able to hold out since profits realistically don't matter to them, but I think the main stronghold something like Bento Club could have is the fact that the current courier model doesn't really work in the long-run.

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

#39

Post by Beefin »

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?

There are a couple methods to detect "liveness" including depth perception of stereo-capable cameras, measuring reflection of IR emitter, eyeball movement, etc.

Source: work at an FR startup

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

#40

Post by longerthoughts »

fernandorojo wrote: post #36
_uhtu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fernando here from Basement. This is pretty spot on. The greater level of intimacy leads to far more interaction since you're pretty free to be yourself and post content that is meant for your actual friends to see instead of random people viewing your perfect life. The intuition is naturally that fewer friends would limit usage, but in fact, it's responsible for the high levels of interaction. As for the revenue – t…

Completely agree with your perspective on existing social platforms and think it's awesome that you guys are trying to break from ad-generated revenue. Any chance you'd go with a freemium model vs. free trial?
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