
Companies that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 2 - clioharp
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/19/here-are-the-88-companies-that-launched-at-ycs-w19-demo-day-2/
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dalbasal
I'd be curious to read some coverage of what some of these companies achieved
during yc. What they had coming in, what did they work on, manage get done,
etc... Writing software, getting customers..

For example: "Withfriends: Membership programs for small businesses like bars,
theaters, and barbershops. So far they have 80 small businesses on the
platform, with over 5000 members*

How much of this was achieved during YC. Were they writing code in a flat?
Selling businesses door-2-door? Did they have product and get the customers?
Both? Neither?

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Hydraulix989
Generally investors tend to care more about growth (especially the second
derivative), so whenever I see only a zero’th order datapoint, I’m skeptical
and wary of strategic omission.

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nickparker
Allure feels borderline dishonest to me. Clothes are mostly designed to fit
perfectly on models. If you warp images of models onto other body shapes, I
think you'll get images of clothes which fit perfectly on those other bodies.

The actual article of clothing probably won't fit perfectly though. Taking
pictures of the larger sizes is a sort of proof of work that they can look
good on at least one real person that size.

I don't know, this particular use case feels acceptable-ish to me. I suspect
other versions of "ML-powered advertising doesn't necessarily match meatspace
product delivered" will be seriously annoying in the future though.

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longerthoughts
>increasing shopping conversion rates by 14 percent

To your point on fit, I suspect the 14% conversion rate they're claiming isn't
accounting for what could be a material return rate.

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traviswingo
How is a company like Allure an acceptable entrant? The fashion industry
already falsifies clothing fitment by photographing tailored clothing on
extremely attractive people. When you buy the same clothes, they don’t fit
like they do in the photo, and you definitely don’t look like the model in the
image.

Seems super scummy.

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skrebbel
YC has funded scummy companies before. InstallMonetizer comes to mind.

In their defense, I don't think YC claims to not find scummy shit. To me it
seems that they have a moral compass comparable most financial institutions,
i.e. none.

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LeonM
> Qwest: Lets people pay money to skip lines at venues like clubs and bars.
> They’re currently at 10 venues in 2 cities, and say they should be at 100
> venues in 6 cities this year. They aim to expand to events like music
> festivals and sporting events.

Aren't most lines created deliberately for security reasons? Like: crowd
control, maximum number of visitors, metal detectors, luggage checks, etc.

I can imagine that _some_ clubs deliberately create lines outside to give the
impression of popularity and exclusivity. But for any other situation it is of
economic interest to the owner to keep lines as short as possible (visitors
can't spend money while in the line).

What I'm trying to get to is: I don't get why any event organiser or bar owner
would want this.

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noodle
I actually consulted briefly with a company that tried to do what Qwest is
doing.

Popular bars and clubs have lines out front for a variety of reasons. It
exists, and while "we're at capacity" is one reason, its not the only reason.

The issue they encountered was that right now, "skipping the line" is
something you pay the bouncer to do in cash. They're also the ones you have to
convince to use this app. But you're asking them to use an app that kills that
revenue stream for them, it transfers all that $ to the club owner instead. So
bouncers would only half use it, or "forget" to use it, or quit and go to
another club.

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longerthoughts
Maybe offer commission to bouncers to encourage them to "sell" the crowd on
paid line skipping. Their earnings per person would be lower, but volume would
likely be higher since I suspect more people would be willing to pay through
an app when prompted rather than taking the initiative to grease a bouncer
with cash.

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noodle
Perhaps. The company I helped out built out rev share as well as other things
to help encourage bouncers to use the app, like a shared capacity counter so
that multiple bouncers on multiple doors (maybe one person doing an "in" door
and someone else on an "out" door around the corner) could keep an accurate
capacity count. Was still a tough sales problem. Had to sell the club owner,
had to sell the bouncers, and then had to reach and sell the club-goers.

FWIW the company closed down because they couldn't solve the business problem.

Edit: This is also a concept I've seen at like Startup Weekends before. IMO
for Qwest to make this work, they need some really strong business connections
or a really fresh take on it, which they may have.

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JamesBarney
I'm really curious to see how their pharmaceutical/medical bets play out.

This is a space that's very competitive with low R&D returns that seems
outside YC's previous domains. I think it will be rougher than they thought
breaking into it, but if they can prove out a better funding model for
pharmaceutical development that could have a huge impact.

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fillskills
I really like some if the companies this year specifically those with a social
aspect. Wish there was a YC fund that average people could invest in. It would
give a real opportunity to vote with money for more socially relevant
companies at early stages instead of waiting for them on the stock exchanges

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z5h
How is it OK for a company to be named "Woke"?

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pistoriusp
Isn't that the past tense of wake?

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z5h
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke)

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wtvanhest
I'm not drawing conclusions, but I do want to point you to the end of the link
you provided:

From Wiki: By the mid 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang
term and has been the subject of memes and ironic usage.[10] For example, MTV
News identified it as a key teen slang word for 2016.[16] In The New York
Times Magazine, Amanda Hess raised concerns that the word has been culturally
appropriated, writing, "The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to
get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between
allyship and appropriation."[12]

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z5h
I'm not clear on what you want me to get from that passage. I think the word
is too culturally loaded. It seems like the kind of potential problem one
would avoid when naming a company or creating a brand.

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wtvanhest
That the word seems to have multiple meanings to multiple people. This
particular team may not have thought about the word the way you (and others)
did.

I also recognize the parallels between this and say, a confederate flag. Some
people in the deep south truly believe that it is not racist. But... the vast
majority of people in the US believe it is a racist symbol.

You don't want your company name to be the equivalent of that. IMO, they
should probably revist and rename. More to your point, if I named a company,
I'd probably google the name a few times which would reveal the other possible
meanings.

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patentatt
Pet peeve: if you use the first sentence or two of your elevator pitch to tell
me what college you went to, you’re doing it wrong.

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chrisseaton
It's TechCrunch's reporting of them. They're not telling you - TechCrunch are.
I don't know if that was their elevator pitch or from some other information.

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jpmoyn
While that is true, the paragraph is a paraphrase of their demo day pitch.

