
Startups that launched at Y Combinator’s S18 Demo Day 2 - matdehaast
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/21/all-59-startups-that-launched-today-at-y-combinators-s18-demo-day-2/
======
chatmasta
There are maybe, _maybe_ 10 promising companies in the mix these past two
days. YC has really lost its prestige by diluting its batches so much, IMO.
There are better pathways to funding nowadays for promising startups that
don’t require surrendering 7% equity.

~~~
marmadukester39
I'm curious as to your opinion on the better ways right now.

~~~
chatmasta
Skip the accelerator and go straight to seed funding via convertible debt. No
need to give up any space on your cap table until series A, and you can
probably raise more than $150k or whatever YC is giving these days.

Of course this discounts other benefits of YC, but those are arguably becoming
less useful as the batches have been diluted with so many lackluster startups.
At this point YC almost seems like something people do not for their startups,
but for themselves. It attracts prestige collectors that are more concerned
with how they look on paper than how they perform in reality.

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claudiulodro
What is up with listing the pedigree of the founders? I noticed it on the demo
day 1 article, also. Does being an ex-FAANG employee correlate with
successfully running a startup, or is it just the easiest signal VCs have for
"This person is probably smart"? It seems like a lot of YC's current model is
to throw money at ex-FAANG employees with ideas.

~~~
throwaway2018i
As someone who went through YCombinator (my company failed), an Ivy-League and
one of the tech giants——I can certainly say they're screwing up. To invoke
Dyson, should you be investing in the frog or the bird? Let's see:

Every single company in YCombinator's portfolio these days, with rare
exception seems visionless, they're single product businesses, that's why they
always exit (how many went to IPO?); which is inherent with the 'people they
invest in'. What is the intersection of characters of the founders of
Microsoft and Apple, of Bill Gates and Paul Allen compared to Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak? One was an idea man, whose credentials or lack there of allowed
him to be, and partly the predisposition for the former to be the case, a
subversive generalist; the other was a technical specialist who spent much
time focusing on the intricacies of engineering. Who do you think will have a
better idea? The individual who did everything right because he was told it
was right or the man who didn't do everything right because he tried to trust
himself? The latter's neglecting of extreme specialization along with making
his own choices, which forbid him from certain credentials of supposed proof
of success, gave him the time to explore more areas than the exhausted
specialist. As a specialist I can tell you my ideas suck, I haven't been able
to understand the big picture yet because I've spent all my time thinking in
terms of these small technical details that don't allow for creativity. I'm a
frog, that's why my company failed.

The specialist chose problems because he was told to do so, he never had time
to exercise this broad judgement, while it's the opposite for the apparently
less successful generalist. Who would be more likely to correctly identify a
market niche in an overall anthropological system, the frog or the bird
respectively?

Regardless, given that this is controversial, should a VC really be investing
in people over the quality of the business? Whatever happened to finding
people who work smart not hard? Are VC's so inept that they can't trust
themselves on potential businesses and instead are forced to trust
institutional credentials which signal the exact opposite of a capability for
original rigorous, creatively destructive, thought?

The portfolio of YCombinator actually sucks. They invest in products that
almost always exit and get bought for their single product, they all sell
because they have no vision. Those products are almost always shut down
eventually too: they're just bought for insurance purposes of potential
disruption from the same VC delusion. Who doesn't sell? The people who have
vision, the people who don't have the credentials like the founders of Stripe.

Whatever happened to investing in the Goddards, the Newtons, the Wrights, the
Pitts, the Edisons's, the Jobs, the Rockfellers, the Jack Mas, and the Cubans
of the world? And let me tell you, you'll reject these people, everyone will,
but they're use to it——that's why they become so great. They'll find a way to
make the next Fortune 500 company without you.

~~~
throwaway2018i
Just imagine if public equities were invested with this VC/YC approach. Our
economy would be dead—imagine Blankfein boasting, "who cares about potential
for future revenue, the CEO and his minions went to Harvard". Benjamin Graham,
Warren Buffet, et al. all invest without a single care for the credentials of
the education of the top 10 executives. Buffet invested in the Korean stock
market without understanding a lick of Korean.

------
eaenki
I can't help but wonder what would happen if YC and all its influence was to
be focused on only a bunch of startups per year doing truly far fetched things
- namely space, biotech, finance, robotics, computing and VR. Is focusing on
social networks for grandkids, instant food, the 50th sticker app and
countless B2B products truly worth it when it could be directed towards the
former? Who could possibly, genuinely want to work at such places by the way
(I mean, for anything else but money)?

As for this year, I'm extremely pleased to see so many startup trying to
replace meat and dairy. Ditto for aerospace.

~~~
wyattk
I get the point you're tryin to make, but, then again, who are we to judge
what is and is not worthy, especially this early? A lot of "unworthy" things
have been extremely value to us as a society in hindsight, let alone things
that have stemmed from them.

> countless B2B products truly worth it?

"B2B" is a very vague and extremely overarching term. Computers, internet, and
cell phones were all, at one point, very much "B2B".

> Who could possibly, genuinely want to work at such places?

For starters, I can imagine some people would fancy having a large impact on
the world and the subsequent 10-12 figures attached to their name from all the
value they created. Microsoft was "B2B", Amazon was an online bookstore (some
people would imagine "instant food" in a category close to that), etc. It can
be hard for many to see the value of something at its origin and not be able
to see how that would shape a society, let alone an exponentially changing
one. I think Peter Thiel would call some of these things "secrets".

~~~
eaenki
Microsoft owns the end user experience. I'd say it's as much B2C as it is B2B.

Being able to purchase any book (any knowledge) it's amazing. Definitely not
even close to instant food.

------
Rainymood
There are so many startups that are getting funded by YC of which "I had the
idea (first)". Of course I could think of the idea but this truly shows that
the nitty gritty part is actually building the dream instead of coming up with
an idea. On the bright side, if you ever find one of your own ideas or a
derivative thereof being funded try to see it as market validation and get to
work!

~~~
dnautics
There's one startup on the list where I've had the idea, done some non-trivial
work towards it in very garage-ey conditions, and applied to yc for it, and
failed to get in. Still looking for funding. Oh well.

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duncanawoods
I can barely read a list of 60 new start-ups without melting my mind. The
names and value props turn into soup after about 20. I can't imagine being
there, making decisions about all 60 and then coming back repeating for a
second day!

Does demo day work for the audience?

~~~
codegladiator
Demo day is i guess spread across a couple of weeks ?

> making decisions about all 60

Numbers game for them now ?

~~~
ngokevin
It's back to back days...back to back to back if you count Alumni Demo Day
where all startups go in one day.

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muhneesh
Anima seems really cool and ambitious; modernizing design <-> code seems like
an obvious necessity and next step to modernize workflows in the front-end.

My prediction would be that, if successful, this would empower designers and
commoditize front end developers (or optimistically, let them focus on more
complex logic)

Good luck to the team.

~~~
vevoe
Anima does seem really great. As a front-end dev seeing this stuff makes me
happy and slightly anxious for the future. On one hand, styling basic
marketing sites manually is boring and I would happily use this if it fits
easily into my work flow. On the other, I hope it doesn't start making complex
React apps soon or I'm in trouble :)

~~~
bsaul
Not sure if you're just starting your career or not, but every time i meet a
freshly graduated junior that tell me he's a "x developer" where X is a
technology, i make a point telling him "no you're not, you're a developper,
period. Don't think of yourself as being stuck to a given tech or you'll be in
trouble pretty soon".

~~~
vevoe
That's good advice. I've worked up and down the stack but recently have had
great success in marketing myself as a front-end dev. You're right though, I
shouldn't get stuck in that mindset. Thanks for the reminder :)

------
LeonM
There are some cringe worthy ones, but also a couple which I think are
suprisingly good. I think ShopWith is brilliant (although I expect HN is not
the audience to discuss this with).

~~~
no1youknowz
Apps like ShopWith are a good idea. However, what's going to break it is the
network effect.

For them to be found, the influencers on whatever medium they are on, be it
YouTube, Steemit, D-Tube, BitChute, YouNow, etc, etc then need to tell their
audience to install another app and find them on there to purchase "stuff".

It's this extra few steps that limit engagement and incur huge drop-offs.
Besides, with YouTube now adding in built in stores and Patreon like services.
It makes it easier for influencers on there to stick with YouTube. For the
other platforms that I mention, once they start doing the same. Well, the days
of ShopWith would be numbered.

Finally, will ShopWith fall fowl of the same problems as Busker.co as they
were forced to pay a Google/Apple Tax on purchases through the app and this
lead them to close. Having not used the app, I don't know if any purchases
then redirect to a webpage to do the purchase rather than on the app. Again,
an issue which may cause drop-off points. As genZ may just wish to push their
thumb rather than having to fill in a form, which may be a drag.

Disclaimer: I'm in the Ecommerce space and I think of this stuff down to a
minute detail. I know all the different verticals and competitors in the space
and what they are doing. I don't think I would have accepted them as the next
3 years are going to be very interesting and I don't think they will survive.

------
trebligdivad
64-x jumped out at me as having George Church as one of the co-founders; I've
read his 'Regenesis' book and it's a good detailed read.

------
yread
Monetizing game modding?! Nooo

~~~
fsloth
That's what Roblox is basically already doing. Except it's more like "create
your own game from these blocks" kind of thing, the content there seems to be
of remixing lot of existing ideas and concepts.

The monetization apparently works there:

[https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/21/the-deanbeat-robloxs-
kid-...](https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/21/the-deanbeat-robloxs-kid-
developers-make-enough-robucks-to-pay-for-college/)

~~~
yobw
Get Free Robux codes : [http://robuxcodes.ml](http://robuxcodes.ml)

------
toomanybeersies
I'm not in SV, and very much outside the startup community in the rest of the
world these days, especially since I no longer work in a coworking space.

I have to say, some of these legitimately look like parodies, like something
out of the Silicon Valley TV show. Emojer cannot be a legitimate company with
real funding. It just can't.

~~~
onion2k
_Emojer cannot be a legitimate company with real funding._

There's a very clear exit route to selling to a phone manufacturer that wants
to add more "fun" functionality to its camera app..

~~~
roadbeats
I honestly wish to have the skills of people who pitched and found investment
for Emojer.

------
yobw
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------
thisisit
I have been reading YC lists for so many years. And this list has set a record
for number of facepalms. Companies like Papa are stuff of nightmares. While
others like AnchorUSD, SparkSwap etc seem like an attempt to ride a wave which
was been gone for long.

~~~
gtbcb
I think Papa solves a legit need. By the time we (ie millennials) are old,
we'll be so damn connected, hopefully loneliness will be low. But between now
and 30 years from now, there are millions of seniors suffering from
loneliness, and I think Papa could help with the problem. I've definitely
thought about this exact idea before.

~~~
beaconstudios
it's attempting to use technology to solve a social problem - that we don't
value family or community any more. The root problem is that people just shove
their parents in a home as soon as they get old, and don't bother to visit
them.

~~~
lmm
Using technology to solve a social problem is usually cheaper and more
effective than other ways of trying to solve it.

~~~
beaconstudios
cheaper? yes. easier to approach? yes. More effective? hell no. Technical
solutions to social problems are papering over cracks in our society at best.
They trick us into thinking the problem is "solved" where we've just hidden
the problem from view. Do you think you can really solve the loneliness
problem for seniors by setting up a skype chat with a complete- or near-
stranger? There's no depth to that relationship, no intimacy or realness, it's
just more superficial social interaction. People need more than just a social
check-in with random college students to feel fulfilled.

volunteering to visit older people is already a thing. Yet loneliness in
seniors continues to be a problem. Perhaps the direction we're taking as a
society is wholly wrong? It's hardly the only social symptom.

~~~
lmm
> Do you think you can really solve the loneliness problem for seniors by
> setting up a skype chat with a complete- or near-stranger?

I think there's a better chance of solving it with that than by looking at
"the direction we're taking as a society". (Note I'm not saying a good chance)

> There's no depth to that relationship, no intimacy or realness, it's just
> more superficial social interaction.

What does that even mean?

~~~
beaconstudios
> I think there's a better chance of solving it with that than by looking at
> "the direction we're taking as a society". (Note I'm not saying a good
> chance)

as I say, we can use tech to paper over the cracks. That's better than
nothing, but it's not a great solution. We don't really have a way to solve
societal issues yet.

> What does that even mean?

Do you think superficial social interactions relieve loneliness? Think casual
bullshitting/small talk at work, on facebook, and so on. In my experience, the
thing that takes away loneliness is real interaction with people you're close
with. Talking about real issues that matter to you. It's basically what
therapy is a substitute for. Do you think senior citizens talking to college
students is going to provide this kind of deeply personal interaction, or
something more superficial? I suspect the latter.

------
gls2ro
I am curious what it is exactly the process of this Demo Day?

Is the normal flow: pitching for a couple of minutes, then Q&A and then at the
final day a decision?

If someone who participated could share, that will be great!

~~~
glennon
There is a FAQ at:
[https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday/faq/](https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday/faq/)

Each startup gives a two to three minute pitch with slides, one pitch after
another. No questions. They have 15 to 30 minute breaks every 20 pitches or
so.

Investors can express interest via a web app, and meetings are set for later.
It is also possible to talk to founders during the breaks and in the hallway.

------
frakkingcylons
Titan sounds interesting, but I feel like the value they provide is dubious
for the fee (1% of AUM!) they charge.

------
bobmarley1
Frankly I've found both days completely underwhelming and the only companies
that have even a hope of approaching unicorn territory are the Pharma startups
and even then they don't seem terribly groundbreaking.

YC has gotten stale.

------
statictype
In depth analysis here:
[https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1031952446795522048](https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1031952446795522048)

~~~
roadbeats
I wouldn't call that tweetstorm "deep analysis". It's just pinboard arguing
about other people's startups, meanwhile its own search doesn't function
properly.

~~~
statictype
More like Pinboard making fun of YC. Obviously, I didn't really mean it was
deep analysis.

------
blackmario
Great but no chance!

------
boxcardavin
Click link, ctrl-f "robot" or "autonomy"

:(

------
ttoinou

       According to Ixora, major film studios produce 100 blockbuster
       films each year that feature than 1,000 CGI shots —
       each costing them roughly $10,000 a pop
    

English is not my mother tongue, does "a pop" mean each second ? Anyway
USD/(second of VFX) is a bad metric. Curious about the startup though, looks
like they are putting the idea out there to see if people are interested
because there's no information online about this

~~~
sokoloff
“A pop” means “each” in this case.

------
gfaure
Looks like a typo in the very third word of the post.

------
haaen
Great batch. I'm especially impressed by the hard tech companies that produce
atoms. But unfortunately, on demo day 1 there was a company that makes the
world uglier and is supporting the massive ongoing trend of middle class and
sometimes even upper class people imitating an aspect of the underclass. On
demo day 2, there was a shamelessly partisan company that makes the world
worse. It wants to get more people to support a process that, contrary to
entrepreneurship, brings out the worst in people who actively engage in that
process.

May the companies from the S18 batch flourish, except those two.

~~~
RobLach
Which companies are you referring to?

