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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

#51

Post by physcab »

adsyoung wrote: post #27
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've really noticed a slow down in truly interesting startups over the past years/months due to a personal metric of mine. I'm finding fewer and fewer interesting announcements to share via google reader to all my slightly less techie friends that follow my shared items. I used to be sharing announcements from Techcrunch, Venturebeat etc like mad but now there seems to be very little to get excited about. Has everyon…

I share links from HackerNews quite a bit. Its the best news aggregator out there!

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

#52

Post by david927 »

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…

There's a bit of chicken and egg problem with this, though. I know of people working on hard problems and there's no funding at all. Maybe a grant if they're lucky.

The investors are just as into the get-rich-quick-scheme madness as the developers. It can be a terrible circle.

That said, I think there are really interesting ideas out there, and I'm proud of what a lot of people have done at YC, but this post is good reminder that it's easy to get lost in the superficial feedback loops -- and that what we all (ok, what I think most of us) really want is to come up with true innovation and honest steps forward into the next and better.

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

#53

Post by adsyoung »

physcab wrote: post #51
adsyoung wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've really noticed a slow down in truly interesting startups over the past years/months due to a personal metric of mine. I'm finding fewer and fewer interesting announcements to share via google reader to all my slightly less techie friends that follow my shared items. I used to be sharing announcements from Techcrunch, Venturebeat etc like mad but now there seems to be very little to get excited about. Has everyon…

I share links from HackerNews quite a bit. Its the best news aggregator out there!

Me too. It's more that there seems to be fewer and fewer startups worth telling less geeky people about as in "Here, this may be useful or interesting to you."

Don't know if I'm the only one noticing this.

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

#54

Post by unalone »

adsyoung wrote: post #27
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've really noticed a slow down in truly interesting startups over the past years/months due to a personal metric of mine. I'm finding fewer and fewer interesting announcements to share via google reader to all my slightly less techie friends that follow my shared items. I used to be sharing announcements from Techcrunch, Venturebeat etc like mad but now there seems to be very little to get excited about. Has everyon…

Partly it's because when stuff's new, it's exciting. If we went back to a few years ago, I'm sure we'd see all that stuff and think it was boring, because then everything was fresh and new, even when it was fresh and new and bad.

All these things go through phases. Look at the world of movies, where there're often a few slow years and then a few bursting years. But the world of startups is much newer and much younger, and so we haven't gotten used to these cycles yet.

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

#55

Post by unalone »

Tichy wrote: post #25

I like thesixtyone. I wish we could start over with music and eliminate all non-free music from the world. Sure, there is the one or other old gem I am still attached to (Radiohead for example), but the sacrifice would be worth it.

That's an awful mindset to have.

With all respect to TheSixtyOne, the minds in the world that are making the best music aren't putting their stuff into a social commune. They're aware of how talented they are, and as such they're looking for compensation for their ability.

In all of history, the vast majority of the best art has come to us commercially. There are always exceptions, and it tends to be that the free breeding grounds lead to the next generation's brilliant artists, but people do things for money. To quote a brilliant actor in a film by a gifted director, both of whom were paid substantially: "If you can do something well, never do it for free."

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

#56

Post by cstejerean »

inrev wrote: post #43
breck wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

> how come none of these startups managed to get a single dollar out of me? Am I alone asking myself this question? Count me in. :) > Dropbox is one that immediately comes to mind that has solved a very hard problem that I pay for. Not really... It is not so hard to setup SVN, Apache, WebDAV, and NetDrive, and you got your own Dropbox...

It's not hard, but not something I need to waste my time on, I got far more important things to do. Therefore Dropbox soved an important problem for me and I'm more than happy to pay them.

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

#57

Post by adsyoung »

unalone wrote: post #54
adsyoung wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've really noticed a slow down in truly interesting startups over the past years/months due to a personal metric of mine. I'm finding fewer and fewer interesting announcements to share via google reader to all my slightly less techie friends that follow my shared items. I used to be sharing announcements from Techcrunch, Venturebeat etc like mad but now there seems to be very little to get excited about. Has everyon…

Partly it's because when stuff's new, it's exciting. If we went back to a few years ago, I'm sure we'd see all that stuff and think it was boring, because then everything was fresh and new, even when it was fresh and new and bad. All these things go through phases. Look at the world of movies, where there're often a few slow years and then a few bursting years. But the world of startups is much newer and much younger…

That's true, although recently I've been hearing a number of so called important people saying that the whole computer/internet thing is done and is settling down to incremental innovation at about the pace of the rest of the economy from here on in.

Now of course the answer is that no one really knows what's coming but recently I have started taking that point of view slightly more seriously and have stopped taking the next big web cycle as such a given.

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

#58

Post by Tichy »

unalone wrote: post #55
Tichy wrote: post #25

I like thesixtyone. I wish we could start over with music and eliminate all non-free music from the world. Sure, there is the one or other old gem I am still attached to (Radiohead for example), but the sacrifice would be worth it.

That's an awful mindset to have. With all respect to TheSixtyOne, the minds in the world that are making the best music aren't putting their stuff into a social commune. They're aware of how talented they are, and as such they're looking for compensation for their ability. In all of history, the vast majority of the best art has come to us commercially. There are always exceptions, and it tends to be that the free br…

It's more complicated than that. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but the best artists also admit that they are standing on the shoulders of giants. A piece of music that I am not allowed to "use", other than passively consume, is worthless to me - as worthless as watching TV 24/7. It might be entertaining, but in the end I would wish that I had not wasted my time in such a way. In that sense I wish the "closed source art" would not even exist, because at the end of the day it is just a pain in the butt.

Take photography, for example: say there is a really nice building in a street, an architectural marble. Fine - only now I am not allowed to take a photo of my girl-friend in front of the building anymore and put it on the internet, because the architect has the copyright. I'd rather live in a world where I can take a photograph without having to consult a lawyer first. Ultimately the art is interesting to me because of it's meaning, not because of it's commercial value.

I am not at all against artists earning money, but I don't think TheSixtyOne is a piracy site, either.

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

#59

Post by dave_au »

gojomo wrote: post #5

The writeup describes Wattvision as being "whole-house only". For all I know, that's true. However, if it's got sufficient resolution to give "15 second" updates, it seems you could train it to recognize certain draws: holding everything else constant, turn individual items on at exact cues given by the software. (The software might even be able to form hypotheses about individual draws before they're exactly named.…

I'm sure that a lof of the people who this could help already know about it.

If you're in Queensland, Australia, the Climate Smart Home Service costs $50 and you get: - a wireless energy monitor - up to 15 compact fluro lightbulbs - a water/power efficient showerhead all with installation.

http://www.climatesmarthome.com/

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

#60

Post by danw »

savrajsingh wrote: post #26
gojomo wrote: post #5

The writeup describes Wattvision as being "whole-house only". For all I know, that's true. However, if it's got sufficient resolution to give "15 second" updates, it seems you could train it to recognize certain draws: holding everything else constant, turn individual items on at exact cues given by the software. (The software might even be able to form hypotheses about individual draws before they're exactly named.…

You're right -- there's a lot of stuff Wattvision can do with the data we gather today. There's no reason we can't make smart conclusions about what's running (as gojomo suggests) or or eventually expand to per-device sensors. We're just starting simple.

Combine those two ideas and you can do "Your washing machines energy profile has changed for the worse, perhaps you should get it serviced?"
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