

Ask News YC: What market is your startup in? - robmnl

Hello, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm an applicant for this YC funding cycle, and would love to get to know some of you guys+girls.<p>I'm curious as to what market your startup/idea is in? If you feel like sharing.<p>Mine is about on-demand software/SaaS.<p>I expect all of us will be sharing more soon. I am missing community feeling on this board, hence this post to generate some introductions.<p>Really look forward to meeting you, these are exciting times.
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ALee
We want to change the world of politics- web-based CRM. App was for a simple
communications tool that would allow you to easily complain to government.

Our first product was Fantasy Congress <www.fantasycongress.com>, we made that
as a hobby first and then received amazing press coverage on it and should
have applied to YC last summer. We made the choice to ditch our post-grad
plans and are bootstrapping out of Washington DC (but man do we want to get
back to where the tech is). Our second product is an election game which we're
working on with a media partner, but the YC application we've submitted is
going to be the core of how we're going to help make political communication
more effective.

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robmnl
now that's interesting. I had a similar idea, not one I submitted, but an idea
for an app. Basically it would be for lobbyists, or groups working for a
common goal, that try to talk to politicians and convince them about issues.
So you'd have all these politicians in your tracking system, see who you
already talked to and who not, and where these people stand on the issue. That
way you can more effectively deal with their concerns.

Is that kind of what fantasy congress is?

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ALee
Rob, sorry haven't checked my threads in a while. Fantasy Congress is fantasy
sports for a political junkie. Instead of drafting football players, you draft
members of Congress. Instead of touchdowns and interceptions, it's votes,
legislation, and news. What happened was we created this cool tracking system
when we created Fantasy Congress and we didn't really know of its other uses
until after.

The CRM idea is cool because it would use the same tracking system.

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gibsonf1
We are making a collaborative business webapp that integrates project and task
management using constraint enabled workflows that you can template and
interconnect. In a sense, our system establishes workflow as the spine of
business networking, allowing businesses internally (staff) and externally
(with their customers and vendors) to collaborate on any project. We have been
coding since January and are finally launching our private beta next week.
(Email us if your're interested in a peek) <http://StreamFocus.com>

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robmnl
That's awesome - I'd love to, just sent you an email.

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gibsonf1
Hi robmnl, thanks for the encouraging comments. Unless your real name is
Louis, we haven't received an email from you yet to add to our private beta
test list.

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robmnl
That's strange, I sent an email to web@streamfocus.com - can you send me an
invite to my email? It's in my profile. Would appreciate that very much.

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gibsonf1
Ahhh, I just found it - google marked your email as spam for whatever reason.
Thanks! (and you sent it from a gmail account too - hmm - could be a problem)
I marked is as "not spam" so hopefully that will help for the future.

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anaphoric
Hi Rob,

    
    
     We are building a natural language interface to databases tool. I figure that forms, key-word and hyper-link interfaces have their limitations. Our orientation is mostly scientific/technical, but we figure that if we can deliver a solid, usable solution, there will be many, many uses. 
    
     But of course there are significant challenges. :-)
    
     take a gander at our demo clip for VLDB.
     
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWio8bHq4wQ
     
    
     

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gibsonf1
That was our first startup idea with Organon Technologies. We realized that it
was going to take us a couple years to build it out, so we switched to
streamfocus.com instead. Good luck!

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gibsonf1
I just looked at your demo - nice job! If you're interested, our application
streamfocus.com might be a great platform for you - perhaps we could
collaborate?

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anaphoric
Absolutely! I just looked at your website and I think there is an area of
possible collaboration. Let me study it a bit more. But a quick question, to
what extent are you using relational databases to represent base level facts
in your system?

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gibsonf1
Great! We're using Mysql for our database, so I think it would be the perfect
platform for seeing what you can do with real world company data and hopefully
adding excellent value to our service - a win win. (I've just emailed you to
get on the beta)

Business model idea: We could let people use your search free for the first
month, and then let them decide if they want to keep using it for an
additional amount of money on top of our base subscription per month.

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yrashk
mine is productivity combined with issue tracking [i.e. issue tracking
combined with effective planning methology] (issuesdone.com)

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louisadekoya
Your site seems to require Open ID and Firefox or Safari. Why ostracize a
large number of people this way?

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yrashk
The reason behind Open ID is to limit early users number by a kind of simple
barrier. We are not yet able to handle all users at this early stage. Early
adopters are usually advanced enough to sign up for OpenID (especially given
we have an affiliate program with myopenid)

The reason behind requiring Firefox or Safari is simple enough too. We have
not enough time yet to support every (even popular) browser. We'd like to
spend time doing essential things, not tweaking HTML and CSS these days.
Again, early adopters are those who are relly interested in using our app at
the early stages and they seems to have no problem using FF or Safari to
access our application.

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Halve
I am the affiliate coordinator over at Vidoop and just wanted to mention that
we have an affiliate program as well. It is a simple sign up process and is
basically the same as myopenid.com's affiliate sign up. Another point to make
is that offering users a few recommendations to a few "good" OIP's is good
practice and let's them know you are helping them select a reputable OIP. The
sign up is at affiliates.vidoop.com

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joeguilmette
our idea stemmed from a recent trip to tahoe. we were bummed because we wanted
to rent a sailboat, but we couldn't because they were all too expensive.

however, when we got there, we noticed that there were about, oh 2000 boats
sitting unused in the water.

i was an only child for 15 years, so my mom made it a point to emphasize
sharing :)

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robmnl
I like that, I wish there was a system that allowed us to share resources
wisely. The thing is, the burden to put your unused resources into a web
database is too high. This should be a system that would work automatically,
that connects you with the people that have a surplus of something you need.

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joeguilmette
i dont think so at all, look how much time people invest in facebook, and they
dont even get anything tangible or useful out of it.

now think about how much _more_ time people would invest if they got cheap
access to, say, a sailboat out of it, or conversely if they got a tidy return
on an otherwise dead investment.

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robmnl
true point. the thing is, are the people that own the sailboats going to use
it? and all the other people who might have useful stuff? the thing is to
reach a critical mass, I haven't done that before, but is possible for sure,
just takes some time. best of luck with you project, sign me up for beta
invites if you are going to work on it.

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cperciva
I'm not a YC applicant; but I'm doing online backups, with an emphasis on
security.

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robmnl
Thanks for the post. So you're already in the market and launched?

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cperciva
No, I'm still writing code. I'm not applying to YC because (a) I'm a sole
founder, (b) I can't move to the bay area (unless someone wants to pay my
medical bills, I need to stay in Canada where things are mostly free), and (c)
I'm busy leading an opera orchestra on the November 3rd/4th weekend.

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ryanspahn
I submitted my startup which is in private beta now, as well as detailed three
other concepts.

Im a sole founder, but didn't let that stop me from submitting!

I think I have an interesting story, as my startup has been created over many
months with the help from others all over the world(Washington D.C.,Sydney,
Mumbai, Helsinki & Prague).

We will see though.... Good Luck to everyone!

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robmnl
Any chance to get private beta invite?

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rms
Hi Rob, my cofounder and I are doing genetic testing.

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Tichy
That field is so interesting, however, I am not sure why people would want to
test for the "HIV-gene"? So that they can "screw around" with an easier mind
afterwards? But it doesn't seem to indicate 100% resistance, so what good is
it?

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rms
It provides peace of mind to certain individuals, it does not allow anyone to
have unprotected sex. It is more explicitly useful to those that have HIV
because the mutation indicates the disease's rate of progression.

I think this field is incredibly interesting and am looking forward to
watching this amazing technology improve over the next five years.

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rokhayakebe
voip startup, nothing social about it

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robmnl
why not? make it special

