

Which start-up inspired you most in 2010? - pennyfiller

tell us who and why
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mmaunder
Groupon. I consulted briefly for them when they were ThePoint.com and I
thought their original idea for ThePoint was a really bad one and they were
going nowhere. Within a few months they had completely changed their business
model and were profitable. Then they became massively profitable and Google
wanted to buy them for $4 billion.

What I love about Groupon is that in the world of Google they've proven there
is still a huge amount of revenue and profit available online.

They are also showing that revenue still counts for a hell of a lot and that
pure growth without profit is not the only strategy and may even be a bad
strategy.

I also love that they fly in the face of Google's attitude that software
should do everything and the main role of employees is to write software.
Groupon is a people company in the sense that people in their business deal
directly with their customers (the businesses they market).

Groupon are also targeting a hugely unexplored space which is small to medium
local businesses that target local customers. They're doing it with boots on
the ground (or at least via a person to person phone call) in each city the
launch in. So far "local" has been a cluster of servers in a data center and a
group of developers. It feels like Groupon is doing local the way it should be
done.

I also love that the Google/Groupon deal didn't work out because I think
Google's culture and approach would have killed a wonderful business that we
all continue to learn from.

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coolswan
Yeah, their story is pretty inspiring. Going from basically a dead-end product
to the top of the world in a matter of one year. Basically whenever I get
close to losing hope, I just think of Groupon.

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ziadbc
Although its been overexposed in the media, the reality for me is Facebook.
Not since Google have we seen a company expand to that magnitude of usage
within the wider population.

Facebook was probably the first truly bubble 1.0 company to reach that
milestone, and will pave the way for many other companies to do the same.

~~~
elliottcarlson
Upvoting this not because I agree, but because someone downvoted the parent.

This is an opinion based thread - why are people downvoting people when they
disagree with an opinion? Especially in a thread like this one?

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KingOfB
Not that I dis-agree, but do you consider facebook a startup? They seem like
they've entered out of that phase to me.

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elliottcarlson
I certainly don't - and even though Facebook fell out of the realm of startup,
it just bothered me that that poster was downvoted for their opinion whether
slightly offtopic or not.

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huangm
Foursquare (<http://foursquare.com/>).

Foursquare's ascension into the mainstream has been incredibly fast &
impressive, especially given that on the surface there was little
differentiation among all the competing LBS check-in services a year ago.

I think 4SQ is a good case study in the importance of the execution over the
idea (a commonly harped on subject in these parts).

4SQ's success also helps to validate NYC as having some distinct advantages
for certain types of social media plays.

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pchristensen
It's still fresh, but Word Lens blew me and everyone else away this week.

~~~
guiseppecalzone
clickable: <http://questvisual.com/>

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emilepetrone
Kickstarter - I can post a project, and potentially get thousands to hundreds
of thousands of dollars...without loosing equity?! Game changer.

~~~
auxbuss
losing equity

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rdl
Wikileaks, since a tiny group of people with limited resources has had such a
big impact on politics, media, diplomacy, and war. I don't like or agree with
some of what they have done, but they have undeniably changed the world.

Quora, for developing an amazing realtime UI and a great core of startup
industry content and community.

Groupon, for breakout mass market commercial success from basically obscurity.

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3pt14159
Guestlist (guestlistapp.com) partially because I'm privy to some of their
internal numbers and partially because they are some of the nicest guys in the
whole Toronto tech scene.

~~~
timmorgan
Not sure why this got a downvote -- the question was what startup _inspires
_you__ the most. Inspiration doesn't have to come from the the biggest
players.

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thushan
I don't know if they are a startup or an offshoot of someone else's already
existing technology, but the group behind WorldLens (QuestVisual) have my
votes. Yes maybe I'm saying that in light of this week's release being on my
mind, but I think they have some wicked cool technology. Shockingly wicked if
I say so myself. Hipmunk would be my vote for second.

~~~
jf
They are a startup. It's two guys: Otavio Good and John DeWeese. They built
their own technology and aren't an offshoot of someone else's.

~~~
thushan
Thanks for that info.

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apollo
Groupon, because they found a simple multi-billion dollar business hiding in
plain sight.

~~~
hkr
> hiding in plain sight.

Ah! I like that expression!

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DevX101
HipMunk. They demonstrated that design & UI really matters.

~~~
schammy
Nice call. Not sure if I could call it my "favorite" of the year, but it's
definitely a damn nice product. I used it to purchase tickets for all of the
flights I took this year and was very happy with the experience.

~~~
DevX101
Wasn't my favorite either. But I definitely learned a thing or two from their
launch.

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bayareaguy
Dropbox, because it solves a real problem my family has.

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DenisM
My own. Doubled the revenue and will do it again next year.

~~~
jaxtapose
5.8% growth per month, not too shabby. Must be getting exciting.

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olalonde
Hunch (<http://www.hunch.com>) for tackling a very hard problem
(recommendations) and being pretty good at it.

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yaknow
Quora (<http://www.quora.com>) has assembled a community of brilliant people
who inspire me daily. Q&A done right - hope it stays this good!

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dshankar
Quora or Groupon.

Quora because it provides an extremely high-quality Q&A community.

Groupon simply because of the crazy growth and insane amount of revenue/profit
they generated.

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YuriNiyazov
Heroku, because their comparatively monstrous exit fully validated the YC
model.

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hariis
Groupon refuses to inspire me. I am amazed at their growth, their adapting
from ThePoint and their billion dollar valuations but I just don't see it as a
viable business model Case in point, the two times I have bought such deals it
was from Living Social even though I track Groupon every day.

So back to the original question, what inspires me is not one particular start
up but all the open source contributions that are enabling these start ups
including mine. It just wouldn't be possible for someone like me (full-time
Windows dev) to bring my ideas to reality if not for the Ruby on Rails
framework, jquery and the countless number of plugins.

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jakerocheleau
The branding behind Foursquare has been amazing (<http://foursquare.com/>)

Not to mention the power they have with mobile apps on all major OS'

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ztan
Y Combinator probably does not count as a startup. But I'd still have to say
YC has been the most inspiring company for me in 2010. Seeing PG talk at
startup school about why right now is the best time to do a startup had a
large impact on me. I'd argue that currently having the YC stamp of approval
for a web/tech startup has more value and credibility than any other single
incubator/funder out there. And its probably one of the best things that can
happen for an early stage tech startup.

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olalonde
Sencha (<http://www.sencha.com/>) is doing very well and innovating in a cut
throat industry.

~~~
olalonde
I'd be curious to know why this was down voted.

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Ras_
Rovio Mobile: Angry Birds.

For popularizing phone gaming. Having franchise potential in other platforms
and even past games.

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revorad
When it comes to inspiration, it's hard for me to name any startup other than
YCombinator, even in 2010.

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henry81
I can't think of a specific start-up that has inspired me.

What has inspired me is the explosion in the sheer number of high quality
apps/gadgets/tools/etc. that are actually innovative.

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etagwerker
It was inspiring to see Foursquare make it to the mainstream.

Also, Heroku. But I'm unsure about the future after the acquisition. Hopefully
they'll stick around and continue to rock!

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marksp
Whapee (<http://whapee.com>) as they bring back the old-school account free
internet and keep privacy on location based services.

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hapholiday
Of course Groupon is amazing and Word Lens is jaw-dropiing but I really am
fond of intersect.com because it is such a good idea.

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vaksel
probably groupon, they had huge growth in 2010

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intdev
AirBnB's story was pretty inspiring.

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mconnors
messagehop.com is a pretty awesome idea.

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jaxtapose
MineCraft

~~~
runevault
Have to agree with this. Guy had done lots of other work, and just kept
plugging away. Then this (an alpha, for those who might have missed that fact)
just takes off and he starts bringing in millions.

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kapauldo
feefighters. Real business model, solves a real problem.

------
kapauldo
Fee

