
Anyone noticed that almost no YC companies are purely B2C software anymore? - solve
Almost all are either B2B (which includes marketplaces) or B2C hardware products. Almost no B2C software:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ycuniverse.com&#x2F;ycombinator-companies<p>Did this shift happen a long time ago and I never noticed?
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ComputerGuru
Though definitely not a YC company, we're [1] doing alright for ourselves in
the B2C disaster recovery market; there are certain niches that have not yet
been fully taken over by the "this should be free" movement. Not that a day
goes by that we don't have a comment left on our site or sent to our customer
support department about why our software that has literally cost countless
hundreds thousands of dollars and man hours to develop isn't free, but such is
life.

I was previously in both the B2C and B2B backup market, but "cloud" has
completely taken over that market segment. Our focus on (disaster) recovery
solutions has proven profitable - it seems when their data is gone, customers
will then do anything to get it back. Good luck convincing them to shell out
for backup software before disaster strikes, however.

People always ask me why I'm in the recovery niche, and the answer is easy:
when their data is safe, you have to beg them to buy your software to protect
their information and their data. When their data is gone, they'll come to you
begging and pleading to get it back.

A big problem with B2C these days is honestly piracy. We have our hands beyond
full keeping the very first page of Google free of piracy links. Even the
best-meaning of customers will turn when simply searching for the product name
+ "download" turns up "Download now, free activated and serial XXXX" as the
3rd or 4th result on Google or Bing. SaaS is much easier to police for piracy
(or pre-empt entirely) in that respect.

B2C also isn't as "sexy" for investors and founders who've heard so much about
and drank much of the "recurring revenue" koolaid. We try to sell licenses for
updates as recurring charges, but that gets almost no traction whatsoever.
This current startup cycle is very much recurring-revenue-focused, B2C has a
much harder time with that than SaaS or B2B enterprise software.

1: [http://neosmart.net/EasyRE/](http://neosmart.net/EasyRE/)

~~~
icefox
My favorite "this should be free" has to do with when Qt was released under
the GPL. It always bothered me when people selling software would complain
that they couldn't use the GPL version of Qt. At some level understood that
software costs money to make which was why they were not giving away their
software, but at the same time they didn't want to pay for software. And then
when it was put under the LGPL people still complained. Having lived through
Qt being released under the QPL/GPL/LGPL I understand that when selling pure
software there will always be people who want more and they should just be
ignored because they are not your customer and never will be.

------
tlogan
Why? Google, Facebook, and others convinced consumers that software, storage,
etc. should be free.

Try to sell better email than Google email to consumers? Good luck - you will
get so much hate email "this should be free" that you can write a book from
them.

Anyway I'm not aware of any new B2C software company which is hot right now.
But please correct me - I would love to know (and learn how they get over 99%
users who think it should be free).

~~~
api
It's not free. It's supported by surveillance. But people don't care.

If people started caring about that kind of thing, new niches could open up
for alternatives that were more secure and under user control.

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julie1
It is called a gold rush 2.0.

The second .com bubble is about making tools for startup to be efficient and
then advertise how much these business models are successful to attract more
startup to make tools for startups.

The same way during gold rush, the hardware reseller made the most money and
were sending ads abouts the gold rush everywhere.

This time, there is just no gold.

~~~
tlogan
I do not know if this is about bubble. I think the cause for this is actually
worse than a bubble - it is shift of consumer perception that everything on
internet should be free. With exception of games - of course.

However, there is also an opportunity here: as bubble bursts (or deflates) all
these money losing (and free) B2C solutions provided by large companies might
become neglected to the level that people will be willing to pay a little -
just to get something working.

~~~
api
"as bubble bursts (or deflates) all these money losing (and free) B2C
solutions provided by large companies might become neglected to the level that
people will be willing to pay a little - just to get something working."

We can hope.

Right now these pseudo-free services are supported by surveillance. I wonder
sometimes if that's a bit of a bubble, and if the value of user data and data
mining of that sort of hugely overestimated. If that turns out to be the case,
you'll see exactly that: these bait-and-spy services will be relegated to
neglectware status and niches will open for quality alternatives.

------
tel
Predictable customers with real, financially motivated needs? The downsides
are that you'll probably need to invest more into your first product to do
proper learning and face longer sales cycles.

B2B has got to be way easier to predict and value as a company. You can also
get a big leg up if a founder comes from the industry and is therefore pre-
baked with a lot of customer knowledge and a good rolodex.

------
smkiv
Cool observation -- pretty clear people don't like buying software. I can
think of a handful of reasonably-new software security companies (agile bits,
dashlane) that sell software to people.

And worth mentioning, plenty of people expect bitcoin will make a difference
here. It (or some centralized system that makes it easier to buy things
online, like iTunes) certainly has/will continue to make people more willing
to purchase other kinds of ones and zeros.

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SQL2219
financial services and payment processing - 28

web-based business productivity and collaboration - 21

devices/hardware/components (manufactured goods) - 20

search tech and messaging (contacts/email/sms/text) - 18

travel-related services - 18

employment resources - 16

games and game features - 16

analytics tools/data visualization/and big data - 15

video technology - 14

online music - 13

daily deals/coupons/and price comparison - 12

food discovery/catering/and restaurant technology - 12

photo sharing and social networks - 12

visual design - 12

fashion and clothing - 11

platform as a service - 10

e-tail infrastructure - 9

medical industry - 9

advertising/seo technology - 8

education - 8

event planning (real world) - 8

real estate infrastructure - 8

cloud storage - 7

database technology - 7

logistics/shipping/and warehousing - 7

nonprofit organization - 7

mobile-specific platforms and development tools - 6

parenting resources - 6

screen-sharing and collaborative real-time editors - 6

business communication infrastructure - 5

charity and philanthropy - 5

education/programming - 5

legal services - 5

news/reading/and publishing - 5

scientific research tools - 5

electronics design - 4

physical fitness - 4

programming tools - 4

business human resources - 3

gift card technology - 3

printing solutions - 3

psychometric tools - 3

surveys and forms - 3

user interfaces - 3

agriculture and farming - 2

biotechnology - 2

green energy technology - 2

home improvement - 2

memes and jokes - 2

proximity-based mobile apps - 2

food products - 1

------
nrao123
How would you characterize: Doordash, Instacart, HomeJoy, 7CupsofTea...

~~~
Alex3917
Not much social software though. Social used to be a big percentage of YC
startups, and a lot of the most successful YC startups have been social --
reddit, loopt, twitch, airbnb, etc.

~~~
tomjen3
That is well spotted, but at least reddit and loopt has not been very
successful economically. I don't know what twitch sold for, but it seems to me
that it would be an exception.

Airbnb is doing very well too, but it seems to be more a marketplace than
social.

------
frik
> free social websites

Online advertisements generate less and less money (CPC and CPM earnings) for
websites.

There is a need for advertisement-networks that offer less intrusive ads so
that not half of the visitors use an ad-blocker. (Ads that follow me around
and show me products I just bought on Amazon isn't very helpful and often just
creepy.) Idea: What about ads that are related to the page/article-content?
The ads network would have to crawl the page after the first visit of a user
and analyze & categorize it. For the second visitor it can already show an ad
that is related to the content.

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tarkeshwarsingh
Pushbullet from a yeah ago is a purely B2C software product. I haven't checked
the list but this one came pretty much on top of my head since I use the
product a lot.

~~~
DonHopkins
That is so last yeah.

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eevilspock
The ostensibly B2C companies that are ad-supported are actually B2B. The
advertiser not the consumer is the one buying. As they say, the user is not
the customer but the product.

Or perhaps we should call them B2A, since it's not fair to lump straightup B2B
businesses with them.

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amourgh
Please provide stats.

~~~
solve
Clickable link: [http://ycuniverse.com/ycombinator-
companies](http://ycuniverse.com/ycombinator-companies)

Scroll down past the header section and you'll see the lists.

~~~
dsjoerg
That's a list, not a stat. If you come up with some actual stats to back up
the assertion/impression you have, that'll make it more interesting and harder
for people to dismiss it as just your (mis)impression.

