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Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

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Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#31

Post by insert_nick »

motoko wrote: post #13
old-gregg wrote: post #7

Am I the only pessimist here? After being bombarded with "ideas are cheap" nonsense all I can see is the same old "share, sync, discover, publish" stuff re-packaged and re-wrapped with different version of rounded corners, peppered with the same old&boring punches like "groundbreaking", "easy to use" and "disruptive" over and over again? I mean come on, does anyone really believe that sharing a photo on the net is an…

As for not "hard problems," there's nothing disreputable about completing an achievable unit of concrete work for your own edification and profit. Maybe hard problems are hard because they don't fit into anyone's idea of an "achievable unit of concrete work." So, earning experience and capital by solving smaller problems to create tools which may help solve bigger problems is a respectable and intelligent approach to…

> I don't think the applications for that deep magic could be fully exploited yet.

No, they're not. That's why we applied for Summer 2009 funding. [...mystery song in background...]

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#32

Post by AlexTheFounder »

rantfoil wrote: post #16
old-gregg wrote: post #7

Am I the only pessimist here? After being bombarded with "ideas are cheap" nonsense all I can see is the same old "share, sync, discover, publish" stuff re-packaged and re-wrapped with different version of rounded corners, peppered with the same old&boring punches like "groundbreaking", "easy to use" and "disruptive" over and over again? I mean come on, does anyone really believe that sharing a photo on the net is an…

I suppose Google was just another me-too search engine and MS-DOS was just another copy of CP/M -- one that they didn't even write themselves. We are at a time where the Internet is changing the world in significant ways, and the biggest changes I expect haven't fully come to fruition yet. They are forged in the minds and the blood sweat and tears of lots of startups, including the ones that you just dismissed carte…

" I suppose Google was just another me-too search engine and MS-DOS was just another copy of CP/M "

I think you're wrong on both your assumptions here. Search wasn't a solved problem, even the simplest forms of spam succeeded these days.

Also OS in general aren't a solved problem either, coz the hardware keeps going and people's needs change

These problems were and are hard to solve and rare startup can do it. Even to tackle the problem lots of reseach needed.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#33

Post by AlexTheFounder »

old-gregg wrote: post #7

Am I the only pessimist here? After being bombarded with "ideas are cheap" nonsense all I can see is the same old "share, sync, discover, publish" stuff re-packaged and re-wrapped with different version of rounded corners, peppered with the same old&boring punches like "groundbreaking", "easy to use" and "disruptive" over and over again? I mean come on, does anyone really believe that sharing a photo on the net is an…

> "Ideas are priceless. If you are a programmer and you aren't "plugged" into the bubble money, a great idea is your only chance."

Think about plentyoffish.com - a multimillion one-man company. His 'priceless' idea was to let people to see others contact details for free, which in 2001 was quite new. Then all he had was to fight off spam, every day. Great execution really.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#34

Post by browser411 »

diN0bot wrote: post #4
ibsulon wrote: post #2

The one thing I'm not sure about foodoro is... I understand paying one shipping price if I'm buying from a food catalog. However, buying six things from six vendors gets expensive pretty quickly. (Ten dollars of shipping for three fairly lightweight items?)

Plus, I'd rather see a company encouraging people to buy local and depend less on high-energy infrastructure. I suppose specialty food shops could themselves buy local and avoid supporting mega-corp farms, and there are likely other 'goods' I'm not seeing right now. Nonetheless, this strikes me as the wrong direction. Maybe I'm temporarily blinded by recent 'rebuild better over the recession' optimism.

Shipping has gotten to be very efficient. There are studies that show that someone driving to a store (~15 miles roundtrip) produces a lot more carbon emissions than UPS delivering a package to their door.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#35

Post by KWD »

ibsulon wrote: post #2

The one thing I'm not sure about foodoro is... I understand paying one shipping price if I'm buying from a food catalog. However, buying six things from six vendors gets expensive pretty quickly. (Ten dollars of shipping for three fairly lightweight items?)

Not everyone gets the Amazon shipping rates. Shipping is actually one of the toughest areas to try and compete in for a small ecommerce site, and it's probably the number one complaint received since people have come to expect free or extremely low cost shipping.

If using UPS/Fedex, you get the fuel surcharges, residential charges, and rural charges that can make a small profitable order become unprofitable (and cuts into profit margins of others). It can even be almost $10 to ship a 1-lb package in-state if to a rural area. And then you have to consider box cost, and void fill cost. I switched to USPS last year for 90% of my shipping, and it's still a loss at times from what I charge for shipping.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#36

Post by coglethorpe »

breck wrote: post #12
old-gregg wrote: post #7

Am I the only pessimist here? After being bombarded with "ideas are cheap" nonsense all I can see is the same old "share, sync, discover, publish" stuff re-packaged and re-wrapped with different version of rounded corners, peppered with the same old&boring punches like "groundbreaking", "easy to use" and "disruptive" over and over again? I mean come on, does anyone really believe that sharing a photo on the net is an…

>> Come on, I am a computer-savvy, technology-loving, ad-blocking geek with a huge PC-per-capita ratio and a hefty tech gadget/software monthly budget, how come none of these startups managed to get a single dollar out of me? Am I alone asking myself this question? Dropbox is one that immediately comes to mind that has solved a very hard problem that I pay for. Also keep in mind that these startups are 10 weeks old a…

> Also keep in mind that these startups are 10 weeks old and are at most 3 people.

Yeah, that is one thing that will always keep YCombinator companies from taking on the huge problems first. As talented as some of the founders seem to be, there is only so much three people can do in 3 months. A pitch has to be a very consise idea that can be executed quickly.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#37

Post by floozyspeak »

old-gregg wrote: post #7

Am I the only pessimist here? After being bombarded with "ideas are cheap" nonsense all I can see is the same old "share, sync, discover, publish" stuff re-packaged and re-wrapped with different version of rounded corners, peppered with the same old&boring punches like "groundbreaking", "easy to use" and "disruptive" over and over again? I mean come on, does anyone really believe that sharing a photo on the net is an…

Just about every startup in the web scene since 2004 has been banking on the momentum of the scene.

Its pretty proven that niches can gain substantial visibility ie, a twitter, and the hope is that alone can break off and big a big cash cow, and you better do it while the trend is hot.

Most really good ideas are based around perfect timing around the convergence of technologies and mindsets. Your right about the endless signup fatigue people experience but openid tackled that and still hasnt caught fire probably because its trying to change the behavior of the user, and it hasnt integrated itself into every angle where a user could use it.

Lately I've been seeing web2.0 startups like art. They are expensive art. People are addicted to going to gallery hops to see all the new artists and their related works. Its a big show off fest. With the barriers to create and maintain so low, these pieces of art could be around for a long time, even if they make nada, they can still be there, we see that now. Eventually they will fade or other artists will snatch them up either to destroy that piece of art or to play off of it.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#38

Post by floozyspeak »

Another thing people aren't factoring in is the rush YC gets from being the "great uncle" to all these startups. Incubators are in, they are popping up all over the country. They themselves are a biz model thats attractive to investors. Seed money into multiple projects, get a window seat on all the advancements.

YC is in the biz of banking potential IP.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#39

Post by dpnewman »

I would say that no problem is ever "solved". So, while "me too" offerings are ever abundant, it's always gonna be a few that offer something that resonates on a greater level, and offers yet a better way sometimes in arenas that we don't even see as problems.

I also think that beyond the login issue -- the whole social network concept ultimately has to be pulled from being site-centric into being web-centric. The web itself in its entirety is my social network; and I bring different friend combos and profiles with me to the different places I go -- gracefully evolving these rather than constantly recreating them.

Certainly there needs to be a "lightly branded" API for friendship/profile but beyond that I think the missing piece is a best-of-breed UI that sites can be "inject" to leverage the API. Should only require a few lines of Javascript code to add a friendship system. FB Connect can be learned from in this ... paving that road -- it's limitation in my opinion is the heavy branding and assumption that we only will need 1 set of friends or 1 profile and. Of course ...the challenge is adoption... without the easy add injected UI, complete coverage of friendship and profile management ...a simple API alone or universal login system is not enough.

Re: Six best start-ups from Y Combinator demo day

#40

Post by rantfoil »

AlexTheFounder wrote: post #32
rantfoil wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose Google was just another me-too search engine and MS-DOS was just another copy of CP/M -- one that they didn't even write themselves. We are at a time where the Internet is changing the world in significant ways, and the biggest changes I expect haven't fully come to fruition yet. They are forged in the minds and the blood sweat and tears of lots of startups, including the ones that you just dismissed carte…

" I suppose Google was just another me-too search engine and MS-DOS was just another copy of CP/M " I think you're wrong on both your assumptions here. Search wasn't a solved problem, even the simplest forms of spam succeeded these days. Also OS in general aren't a solved problem either, coz the hardware keeps going and people's needs change These problems were and are hard to solve and rare startup can do it. Even t…

I know those two assumptions are wrong. Because those assumptions were made by most everyone when they first heard about either company.

The point is, as others have pointed out more concisely, it's unclear what startups will be big and what will be niche, and part of the process is just damn hard work and sweat over the course of years. You're not going to be able to predict where these 3 month projects turn out. Especially from 2 line blurbs in techcrunch.com.

In short, I am urging people: Lets not armchair startup it.

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