
Ask HN: What is your favorite startup that you are following right now? - tech_crawl_
There are so many awesome startups out there... what are some that people are consistently following?
======
msutherl
I have a list of favorite startups here: [https://www.are.na/morgan-
sutherland/good-startups](https://www.are.na/morgan-sutherland/good-startups)

Highlights:

[http://are.na](http://are.na) (private and collaborative research platform)

[http://un1verse.co](http://un1verse.co) (mobile card-based programming)

[https://www.notion.so](https://www.notion.so) (powerful collaborative
documents)

[http://mine.nyc](http://mine.nyc) (z-axis for content on the web)

[http://ascribe.io](http://ascribe.io) (registering content ownership in the
blockchain)

[http://urbit.org](http://urbit.org) (radically simple complete re-write of
system and network software/infrastructure)

[https://artadvisor.io/](https://artadvisor.io/) (artworld intelligence)

[https://graphcommons.com/](https://graphcommons.com/) (collaborative graph
databases)

~~~
miguelrochefort
That's a fantastic list.

Universe does sound promising, although they barely say anything. Do you know
where I can learn more about them?

~~~
tech_crawl_
Agree!

------
mgalka
I only just discovered this one, but it's one of the most interesting startups
I've seen in a while.

Premonition - [http://premonition.ai/](http://premonition.ai/)

It helps you choose a lawyer by analyzing legal data - which lawyers usually
win before which judges, whether or not they run up the bill, etc.

Seems like there could be some ethical issues, but the value proposition is
potentially enormous.

~~~
brazzledazzle
It takes guts to get in a space where the people you're evaluating can take it
upon themselves to sue you at no cost to themselves. And I sincerely hope they
succeed, no one should be untouchable.

~~~
mgalka
Yes. Along with politicians and police, lawyers and judges are able to operate
above the law. People don't talk much about it, but judges get away with some
crazy stuff. A little transparency would be great for the whole system.

On the other hand, if big business starts using this kind of analysis to
always beat the little guy in court, that would be pretty shitty. There is
already a big imbalance in legal power, and something like this could make it
much worse.

------
SilasX
I guess this is intended for learning of unknown startups, and it's a huge
one, so I don't think this is what you're looking for, but...

Uber

I've been querying for HN/reddit submissions a lot. I'm fascinated by all its
accomplishments and the issues it raises:

\- Viability of work-as-you-want, surge-as-needed supply model

\- Creating critical mass for carpooling and rides on demand to work (I don't
think anyone believed it was possible to convince upper middle class people to
carpool with strangers)

\- Being one of the few major instances of coordinating a shift away from
tipping

\- The spotlight they've shone (yes that shine's past participle) on the taxi
industry and the "unseen" improvements we were missing out on

\- The issues related to the contractor/employee boundary

\- The general logistics of on-demand infrastructure and things it enables at
scale

Most of that applies to Lyft too of course, though they're in the news less.

(In case I sound like a propagandist, let me note that yes their ethical
lapses do bother me and I know some people who would lose respect for me if I
ever worked there, so yeah it's not all wine and roses.)

~~~
neptunespear
I wish it came to Vancouver.

~~~
devbug
They're pushing for it.

Have you seen the new email campaign they're running?

~~~
neptunespear
I have not.

Council ruled a few days ago, no new taxi licenses, no Uber.

But it's hard to defend the company when they treat their employees like
garbage.

------
akg_67
My favorite is Digital Ocean
[https://www.digitalocean.com](https://www.digitalocean.com). While Google and
Microsoft are trying to take AWS head-on, DO is nibbling away on AWS at the
edges. AWS has become complex and as long as DO stays on simpler side, they
have good chance to build a decent business.

------
deftnerd
Plex at [https://plex.tv](https://plex.tv) is an amazing startup that has
created an ecosystem of media players on multiple devices

"Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox (Xbox 360 & Xbox
One), Playstation (PS3 & PS4), and other Smart TV platforms (currently
Samsung, VIZIO, & Opera TV)" [0]

The clients play media you host yourself on your home computer or server.

They're self-funded and remarkably successful in the cord-cutting community.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plex_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plex_\(software\))

------
neptunespear
Grouplend: [http://grouplend.ca](http://grouplend.ca)

I like Grouplend for three reasons:

1\. It uses cutting edge technology and Big Data.

2\. It's bringing B2B lending to Canada; finally, you can get a loan without
going through the big banks.

3\. Markus Frind invested in the company when he got his $575-million payout
after Match.com bought POF.

I just wish they paid more. On angel.co, they're offering $50-75K for junior-
intermediate engineers and $65K for intermediate-senior engineers at the low
end. I would have liked to see them offer at least $75-80K to new grads, at
least the well-prepared ones.

~~~
gozo
4\. It's doubling the 40 hour work week.

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-
busi...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-
growth/how-i-get-my-employees-to-work-80-hours-a-week/article27047497/)

~~~
neptunespear
So it's replacing MDA as the Canadian version of SpaceX?

------
mfkp
[https://prestodoctor.com/](https://prestodoctor.com/) \- online CA mmj
recommendations, clean design and solid customer service

~~~
brazzledazzle
I've been following this one as well. But I can't imagine legalization is more
than five years away in California.

------
atroyn
I think Zirx - [http://zirx.com/](http://zirx.com/) has a lot more to it than
meets the eye.

At the moment it seems like it's just another part of the on-demand economy, a
kind of reverse-uber for people who own cars in the city.

But if and when self driving cars appear, Zirx are the company that will know
how to run the infrastructure and facilities for autonomous vehicles in and
around cities, and other forms of transport.

------
adamjin
[https://getfinal.com/](https://getfinal.com/)

One card to rule them all.

------
vonnik
Orbital Insight

[http://orbitalinsight.com/](http://orbitalinsight.com/)

------
tedmiston
Genius [http://genius.com/](http://genius.com/)

~~~
joelrunyon
Does anyone else think it's actually difficult to use genius?

Also, the white text on black background makes it notoriously difficult to
read & seems like a choice made by someone designing a geocities site. Not a
great choice for something that's core feature is "readability"

~~~
i336_
Yes.

I remember reading an article on Genius about Heroku (FWIW,
[http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-
annotated](http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated)) and
hadn't initially bookmarked it.

I eventually remembered the "Genius" bit, so went to genius.com to locate the
arti--

"...Wait. This is a lyrics sharing site."

"Uhh, what?"

I had to use my browser history (and my now-dented, slightly-less-certain
hunch it _was_ genius.com) to find the article.

I like the yellow on black with the hollywood-style hatch-like design, but
yeah, it doesn't "have it" just yet.

------
tvvocold
I don't know my favorite startup , but here are some cool startups you can
check:

[https://www.cloudflare.com](https://www.cloudflare.com)

[https://coding.net](https://coding.net) (It's for Chinese developers but you
can try [https://ide.coding.net](https://ide.coding.net) also)

[https://www.quora.com](https://www.quora.com)

~~~
jaflo
[https://ide.coding.net](https://ide.coding.net) looks similar to
[https://www.nitrous.io](https://www.nitrous.io).

~~~
ivan_burazin
And codeanywhere.com as well.

------
Danilka
[https://luciding.com](https://luciding.com) \- very simple, but promising
technology. The team seems to be smart.

~~~
lappa
Do they have any third party customer reviews? Their video claims 80% success
on the first try, but since it isn't sold on eBay or Amazon I can't find any
trustworthy reviews.

~~~
Danilka
It's too early in the process. They just started shipping first units. You can
get in touch with founders, though.

------
pdq
SoundCloud - [http://soundcloud.com](http://soundcloud.com)

This is the YouTube of music, and has been exploding in popularity.

~~~
sfsylvester
YouTube is the YouTube of music.

While there is probably room in the music sharing market for SoundCloud to
grow (and fall out from YouTube's copyright policy), there is so much around
the YouTube to MP3 environment that it's going to be difficult for anyone to
take that market lead away from Google.

I hope I'm wrong though.

------
janamysc
[http://www.goguin.com/en](http://www.goguin.com/en) – relocation for free

Great for digital nomads and those who move often. These guys had the most
awesome idea to match people in different cities who move, so if you are lucky
can save tons of money on renting the apartment and buying/selling the stuff.
Will definitely use when I decide to relocate next time.

------
kitwalker12
[https://www.tutum.co](https://www.tutum.co) The community around it is really
helpful and amazing

~~~
tech_crawl_
Solid

------
bradavogel
Mixmax is tackling the next generation of email. Many startups claim they're
reinventing email, but they're just creating better tools to triage email.
Mixmax is actually rethinking the form of email and how communication can be
richer with interactive, information dense content.

------
nirmal5307
[http://mobirise.com/](http://mobirise.com/) This is a desktop application
that helps anyone make a basic web page for you startup. It' s Free. Made for
Mac and Windows.

------
binaryjohn
I'm absolutely enamored with [http://imgur.com](http://imgur.com)

\- They continually refine the product

\- They are careful of feature creep

\- The community they've cultivated seems to feel incredible ownership of the
product.

~~~
BorisMelnik
they really are crushing the game, and you are right they give a new meaning
to the word(s) "loyal following" and "brand ambassadors" imgur.com users are
insane!

------
colloqu
[https://www.stomt.com](https://www.stomt.com) You can give feedback by just
finishing a sentence. Like a mix of Twitter and reddit. Looks promising but
seems to be still in Beta.

------
DiabloD3
My favorite: Exelion

[https://exelion.net](https://exelion.net)

We're doing bare metal without the high cost.

Disclaimer: I'm the founder.

Other disclaimer: Did anyone notice I'm in the top 100 for HN points now? \o/

~~~
leesalminen
I've been debating switching from Rackspace to bare metal a lot lately. Their
managed DB product proved rock solid for several years, though the last bit
has been less reliable.

I always ask myself if I would truly be better at managing a MariaDB cluster
than RS.

Would you say it makes sense for a one man ops team to run bare metal?

~~~
DiabloD3
For many years I was a one man ops team, before I founded Exelion, and yet
again a one man ops team for the first two years.

I prefer bare metal so I'm assured very specific things, such as data
security, overall latency (CPU, disk, etc), and also IO flow between VMs, and
ALSO the choice of whatever hypervisor I want on servers I use VMs on.

Outsourcing hypervisor management to a third party sometimes makes sense, and
sometimes doesn't.

That said, Rackspace DOES have bare metal offerings, but I find them to be far
more expensive than they are worth. Exelion does it less expensively with
better service quality, but of course, what I say is just a smidgen biased. ;)

------
deftnerd
I love what Taiga.io is doing. They're making an Agile/Scrum solution that's a
pleasure to work with by focusing on UI first. They're even open-source.

------
Chos89
[https://airtame.com/](https://airtame.com/) Really looking forward to this.
Time to get rid of the cables

------
mn3m
[https://wake.io/](https://wake.io/) \- Design sharing site, process oriented

------
izolate
Half of these aren't even startups. Can you really a call a company a startup
after a few years and solid revenue streams?

------
tech_crawl_
These are all really awesome!

------
orph
Magic

------
fscherer
Enlitic and magic leap

------
giis
www.sysdig.org Because its interesting linux tool.

------
akbar501
AirWare

------
danielbnelson
Mattermark

------
subliminalzen
Emulate Inc, a biotech startup that designed organs-on-chips, a technology
that could potentially stop animal testing.[1]

I also follow Beyond Meat. Google's Sergey Brin invested in them.[2] They are
working on cruelty-free "cultured meat".

[1][http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/medical-
technology...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/medical-technology-
that-could-eliminate-need-for-animal-testing-wins-design-award-10337887.html)

[2][http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/06/silicon-valley-fake-
meat-b...](http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/06/silicon-valley-fake-meat-
burger.html)

