

Ask HN: Heard of any good startups? - markchristian

Three times a week, I write about a new startup at Venture Pimp (http://venturepimp.com/). It's actually really hard to find cool things that haven't gotten much press.<p>So, as always, I'm on the hunt for interesting startups. If you've got a startup, or have heard of something nifty, let me know. I'd really appreciate it. :)<p>Happy Sunday, folks.
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kordless
<raises hand>

Loggly - <http://loggly.com/> is a cloud-based log management service funded
by True and Trinity. Logs are normally a real PITA, especially on something
like EC2, but we make dealing with them fun and easy.

Basically you point your logs at our servers where we catch them and store
them safely away. We apply a fulltext index to the logs to make them
searchable. Results can be processed with custom scripts you write and then
run from our shell-in-a-browser interface. Our API provides a way for you to
programmatically view raw data, searches, facets of searches, or results of MR
jobs to drive charts, graphs, or other mashups. We'll also support streaming
of logs in via a persistant HTTP connection (and Mongrel2!) so you can send
data from webapps or other client based applications.

We're planning on launching a public beta in the Fall, and we have a fun
madlibs form you can fill out to be notified when we're getting close to
release: <http://loggly.com/signup/>

~~~
richardhenry
Just a quick point: Your beta signup form (<http://www.loggly.com/signup/>)
requires far too much thinking in order to complete.

After almost a minute of figuring out how I can fit what I want to say into
your pre-structured dialog, I gave up.

~~~
spokey
I'll second this feedback, and add one other minor point: I wouldn't use the
acronym (or is that an abbreviation since it is not pronounceable?) "IaaS" as
part of that signup form. I do a lot of work with SaaS and it took me a minute
to figure out what you were talking about. (It didn't help that in your chosen
font upper case I and lower case L look quite similar. At first a thought you
mean "logging as a service" which seemed like a strangely narrow expression.)

For what it is worth, I would either spell that out, or even better, change it
to something a little less jargony, such as "cloud based services" or
something like that (which is still a little jargony).

------
paraschopra
My own startup: Visual Website Optimizer <http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/>

And, yes, we haven't gotten much press. Proof:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1520001>

~~~
dhotson
Oh Hi. It's funny who you run into here. :-)

I'm a developer at 99designs and we've been using Visual Website Optimizer to
do A/B testing. Our marketing guys love it.

~~~
paraschopra
Hi Dennis, glad to find a customer here on HN!

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felideon
Stormpulse <http://www.stormpulse.com>

Bootstrapped, just went profitable, 2 co-founders, recently hired employee #1
(me) and #2.

~~~
Elite
How do you guys make money? Sorry, didn't have time to explore the entire site

~~~
anthonyb
Looks like they have a 'pro' account, which gives you access to a lot more
data (radar maps), plus email alerts.

------
smallegan
TimeInB5 - <http://www.timeinb5.com>

This is an angel backed startup from Grand Rapids, MI. The idea behind the
site is to build a communication platform for mass transit (namely flying).
The site allows semi-anonymous posts between those waiting around at the same
airport. There is a chatbox feature for live anonymous chatting.

------
rupurt
<http://www.nearmap.com>

Based in sunny Perth, Australia :)

We have high-res PhotoMaps of the major Australian cities and allow you to see
change over time by flicking through the dates of places we have captured.

[http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-31.959417,115.859435&z=17...](http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-31.959417,115.859435&z=17&t=k&nmd=20100529)

~~~
markchristian
Very cool.

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rantfoil
My faves include <http://jamlegend.com> <http://gotreehouse.com/>

------
markchristian
Thanks for all your suggestions, folks — this has been a great turn out. I'll
check each and very one of them out.

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chitabox
Chitabox - Mobile Video Start-up. 3-4 Weeks away to launch for private alpha
participants, iPhone's required to be in this!

Really could do with peeps from here. Bootstrapped Non-programmer sysadmin
founder, outsourcing webdev team. Time is very scarce, up late nights and most
weekend, but persistence it key.

Thanks to all here for the great articles. They provide great support and
motivation for someone in my shoes. Shout-out to
<http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/>. HND saves me an hour each day!

Android users - Apologies in the delays. App planned for late September
release, ready for Beta.

And before people say it...no were not harvesting emails. Any email given will
only be sent one email invite!

Chitabox Team (Me and my fish!)

~~~
markchristian
Send me an invite?

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joshschiffman
Hi Mark,

Xtify - <http://www.xtify.com> \- We're bringing the supposed "holy grail of
marketing" to a smartphone near you - efficiently (and judiciously) delivering
a notification to a consumer based on that person's location.

Xtify provides application developers (publishers, marketers) with a platform
for creating and managing mobile push notification campaigns across multiple
smartphone platforms - and offers the ability to trigger those messages based
on rules including user preference and location.

We are based in NYC and backed by Acadia Woods and Seventy-Six Ventures. Many
great businesses live and coming live soon (real estate, retail, web
publishing).

Thanks! Josh

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spokey
Hi Mark.

You've already covered my startup, a bike reference for cyclists (VenturePimp
writeup at at <http://venturepimp.com/post/673622703/brightspoke>; my site
lives at <http://brightspoke.com/>) but I'd like to thank your for your kind
writeup.

For what it's worth, your post sent a few hundred visitors my way, and they
seemed more engaged than those from some other blog links we've had.

Thanks for your blog, it's great to have a feed of new stuff people are
working on, especially when presented in such a clean and straightforward way.

~~~
markchristian
Thanks — that's great to hear. :)

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majhonger
CareCloud <http://www.carecloud.com>

~~~
atomical
It sounds a bit risky to put your medical records in the cloud.

~~~
clstrfckr
The idea is that with your medical records in the cloud, an ER doctor in
europe treating the ankle you broke skiing in the Alps would know right off
the bat whether you were allergic to any particular meds. It would prevent the
need for redundant tests if they had your access to your health data, thus
saving money in an industry fraught with wasteful spending. I personally think
this is a great idea, and to encapsulate the service in such an elegant and
refined user experience is the stuff of startup success.

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msencenb
I'll throw in my own startup here as well:

www.adsreloaded.com - It's an alternative iPhone advertising platform.

I'm a 21 year old student founder, and am always open to answering any
questions you might have, just let me know.

------
waterside81
@markchristian

Sending you an email with more info, but in the meantime, check us out
<http://www.repustate.com>

And we're Canadian, too. Double-double anyone?

~~~
markchristian
I would kill someone for some Tim's at this point. ;)

~~~
AlexBlom
Wow. I must be the only person living in Canada (though not Canadian) who does
not like Tims. Though timbits are a different story.

~~~
what
Tims coffee is gross, brown water.

~~~
chitabox
I Live in the UK, but I get some Timmies imported. I dont even drink coffee,
but try The French Vanila Coffee, Abso. Awesome!

And Don't forget the Garlic Cream Cheese Beagle,Apple Fritter, Boston Cream,
Blueberry Fritter.....

Why have you done this to me!!!!

------
rooshdi
Favetop <http://www.favetop.com> : A social web desktop for saving and sharing
favorites. Check it out and let us know what you think.

------
tomh
I'll put my workplace out there: Akaza Research
<http://www.akazaresearch.com/> <http://www.openclinica.org/>

We create open-source solutions for the clinical research field.

Also of note: <http://opower.com/> \- tracks energy efficiency with solar
power + software. Something like that.

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pclark
some that aren't mine but I'm finding useful recently:

<http://pinboard.in> # delicious alternative

<http://extension.fm> # collects mp3 players from sites you visit

<http://invisiblehand.com> # offers cheaper price listings for products inline
in web pages

~~~
shadchnev
That's <http://www.getinvisiblehand.com> :)

~~~
pclark
thanks! can't update the comment now. good plugin btw.

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geez
Check out Gigayo in the online banner and advertising space
<http://www.gigayo.com>

------
thefool
GuruFi - <http://gurufi.com/> : Service for directly connecting essay editors
with clients.

We are still very much an alpha site, but we are bootstrapped and breaking
even. We hope to add transparency to an otherwise obscured industry and to
generally give people a chance to get writing help from experts.

~~~
markchristian
This is a great idea. A while ago, I had brainstormed something like oDesk +
Etherpad for writers that would be based on reputation/ratings, and it looks
like you're well on the way to something similar. Best of luck. :)

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pramit
(Self referential) The Great Books Project: The Great Books Project aims to
distill the wisdom of the greatest and most useful business and self-
improvement books of all time. Till date, they have done 120+ books
<http://thesuccessmanual.bighow.com/greatbooks.html>

------
harrygold
Wordzoku - Site a friend and I created. <http://wordzoku.com> \- free service
to help people improve and learn vocabulary. Take a new word and use it in a
sentence. Site live but still in development. By creating a sentence with the
word you're given, you put word to use and into a context.

------
paul9290
We're launching this week (Sleep.fm) an updated site (<http://sleep.fm/coming-
soon/>) to announce our iphone app.

We just learned & became skilled at Objective-C; stoked to finally be
releasing a product outside of web browser. Appreciate any/all feedback on new
site UI/UX.

~~~
woodall
The "Stop" button, used when testing, needs to be more... conservative.

Until I click "Set Alarm" I have no idea what those icons at the bottom do.
Title them so that I can also click them. It will save users a bunch of time.

I know I shouldn't, but if I type www.sleep.fm/[special_char] I get a 503
page. Make that fancy or forward it with htaccess.

I really like the voice, as well as, it telling me my flight, weather ect. All
of that is awesome.

~~~
paul9290
Hi thanks so much for the feedback.

Re: icons at bottom yeah they are just static - they add color to our dark
design. Though I have heard this comment before, so I'll c how it looks
without & a bigger clock window.

Re: [special_char] ... when it goes live will get our alarm links working as
they do on live site (<http://Sleep.fm/7am>, <http://sleep.fm/8am>, etc).
Maybe that' what u meant?

Not sure what you meant by "Stop," button. Is it too big?

thnx again

~~~
woodall
A fellow Raider! I'm doing my final semester of Criminal Justice, along the
way I learned how to program and I'm too lazy/far in to change majors.

Here is a rough idea of what I had in mind: <http://imgur.com/5HHOQ.png> . The
Rooster is active so the "Test" link appears under it. When you click "Weather
Alarm" a test link will appear under that and disappear from the under the
Rooster. You can arrange the icons any way, but I think labeling them would
help the user know what they do.

I wasn't aware you weren't fully live yet, it looks nice so far. I would
recommend creating a nice 404 page so that users who go to
[http://sleep.fm/<>](http://sleep.fm/<>); or <http://sleep.fm/7> are either
directed back to the homepage or to a pretty 404 page telling them they messed
up.

>Not sure what you meant by "Stop," button. Is it too big?

Yes :). A simple stop would be more than enough, although the big button did
work- i.e. I knew how to stop the test alarm.

I see potential here. The name is awesome, there are some nice design aspects.
Give it a few more features- tweet the alarm time, intergrate
pandora/last.fm/grooveshark- and I think you have a nice piece of work.

Good luck!

~~~
paul9290
Thanks for all the helpful feedback.

So what languages are you skilled in? Feel free to say hi im ryan@sleep.fm or
ryanspahn on Twitter.

------
stevenwei
<http://www.chompstack.com> : A mobile website builder for restaurants.

The biggest source of traffic we've gotten so far is the Ask HN thread I
posted 2 weeks ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492184>

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Concours
Hi Makchristian, great idea and thanks for helping us get the word out.

<http://www.gmbhnews.com/> is my try, bootstrapped but not yet generating
revenue (still in Beta RC), it targets mobile devices and webkit browsers with
the goal of bringing the web/blogs to mobile devices.

------
PStamatiou
Notifo - Mobile Push Notifications platform <http://notifo.com>

~~~
markchristian
Got it already :) <http://venturepimp.com/post/526176519/notifo>

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sabredata
Well, im from midwest...Chicago to be exact...i started TuneCloud.fm (though
we are not live yet). But some other midwest music startups im cool with are
merge.fm, g2.fm, and bln.kr. Check em out. By the way, I read and subscribe to
VenturePimp...sweet. Keep it up

~~~
markchristian
Thanks :) I covered bln.kr last week:
<http://venturepimp.com/post/802527796/bln-kr>

~~~
markchristian
Alright, mergefm is today's pimped venture:
<http://venturepimp.com/post/832618806/mergefm> — thanks, sabredata. :)

------
mschaecher
Some Nebraska Startups

<http://www.rockdex.com>

<http://www.hudl.com/>

<http://www.tripleseat.com/>

------
car
Check out <http://www.twimpact.com>, or their japanese licensee
<http://twimpact.jp> while they are upgrading. It's like Google PageRank for
Tweets.

------
alanthonyc
Friends of a friend started <http://www.chictopia.com>

It's fashion oriented, but I don't know much else about it other than that
they appear to be successful.

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udfalkso
<http://isitnormal.com> \- Niche Q&A site that's been around for a while.
Recently added a lot of cool features and it hasn't gotten much press in a
long time.

------
dnorris10
<http://www.gogyc.org>

How about non-profits? We're focusing on using web and mobile technology to
help microfinance institutions extend loans to youth.

------
jgresula
My own startup: Pdfcrowd <http://pdfcrowd.com>

It lets you convert HTML to PDF online - either directly in your browser or in
your apps using the API.

------
bonquesha99
<http://webchiever.com> \- web achievements

<http://inquiryapp.com> \- faq hosting service

------
vyrotek
Our startup is <http://www.IActionable.com> We're what some call 'Game
Mechanics as a Service'. I'll send you an email as well.

~~~
atomical
I left a message. I'd like to test you guys out.

------
cglee
We created Active Interview (activeinterview.com) and have helped screen
candidates from around the world by organizations such as One Laptop Per
Child, among others.

------
metachris
<http://www.flockengine.com> \- Android Multiplayer Framework & Hosted
Infrastructure

------
DJN
<http://www.trafficspaces.com> \- alternative to OpenX. Bootstrapped and
profitable :)

------
ndoea
<http://www.briefcam.com> \- Automatic summarisation of video footage.

------
shafqat
NewsCred Platform (<http://platform.newscred.com>)

------
mijoro
www.isocket.com -- Commission free direct ad sales, works with adsense too.

~~~
alabut
Hey, I work at isocket - thanks for the shoutout! I didn't recognize your
username though?

To the OP, ping me if you have any questions at alabut at gmail.

------
derwiki
TaskRabbit is neat if you haven't written about them yet.

------
thinkcomp
<http://www.facecash.com>

Designed to kill the credit card.

------
taroby
www.taroby.org

~~~
andymoles
I've tried it. It's a really cool application for messaging and collaboration.

------
gigafemtonano
Robert X. Cringely is doing a startup tour that's short on details but seems
interesting. Might be worth a plug.
<http://www.cringely.com/2010/07/slouching-toward-sunnyvale/>

