
All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1 - nsparrow
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/21/y-combinator-summer-2017/
======
rudimental
Flock seems like it could help solve some crimes, but at a huge cost -
privacy. You can't opt out, unless you live nearby and register with the
company. "Residents of monitored neighbourhoods can opt-out of being tracked -
but visitors, or people passing through, cannot."

[http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41008141](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41008141)

Do people like law enforcement collecting license plates and keeping them in
databases indefinitely? How about random people? (Flock says it deletes data
after 30 days, users have it beyond 30 days). What if their users had a
database with pictures of faces, not just license plates? Facial recognition
seems to be in their roadmap.

For context, it's presumably legal in California to collect licenses plates,
and pictures of people's faces, if they're in public spaces.

A quote from the founder on privacy: "We don’t want into get into the business
of making decisions about privacy and how this technology is used beyond the
original use case."

Aren't there better ways to solve the problem(s) this product solves?

~~~
garrettlangley
Hey rudimental, Garrett (co-founder of Flock), we built this product because
there _wasnt_ a better way to solve crime in our neighborhoods.

Police are only able to solve 13% of cases due to lack of evidence. We are
simply trying to provide the police with the evidence they need to do their
job.

We believe this type of technology is inevitable (look at our highways and
major city roads already). We believe the data should be owned by the
community and not the government.

We care deeply about privacy which is why we (a) sell to neighborhoods and not
the government, (b) only focus on cars/license plates and (c) allow residents
to opt-out if they want to.

~~~
Balgair
> We believe the data should be _owned by the community_ and not _the
> government_.

> ... sell to neighborhoods ...

> ... _allow_ residents to opt-out ...

(emphasis mine)

I'm not a linguist or a political scientist, but I don't think you have a very
clear understanding of the word 'own' or what a government really is.

------
pfarnsworth
I'm surprised about the stem cell company. Stem cell storage companies are
notorious scams. I remember doing research into these when my first child was
born.

There's only a small subset of diseases it can actually help, and until you
can actually grow organs, it's generally useless, for a lot of money. Also you
can generate stem cells from adult blood cells or bone marrow anyway.

What the YC company appears to offer doesn't seem much more than a Silicon
Valley Blood Boy, the unproven promise of youth from young blood.

~~~
bsaul
Don't understand the parent downvote, i was also very intrigued by the
startup's claims. If someone with good expertise on the field could bring
arguments that would be great.

------
robinjfisher
As I'm in the industry, my thoughts on some of the recruitment-related
companies:

10 BY 10 - I don't get it. Their website says they are a contingency search
firm with a value prop of having resumes filtered by people with domain
knowledge before submission to clients. Also that they deliberately hit a low
acceptance rate on resumes because they try to submit a diverse field of
candidates. If the goal is to get the hiring manager the right person, then
the best resumes should be submitted without imposing some arbitrary diversity
requirement.

70 Million Jobs - love the concept. Big believer that proper recruitment
practices can help rehabilitation of offenders.

ShiftDoc - marketplace concept in the healthcare space. Not sure of regulatory
environment in the US but in the UK, these models will suffer due to
regulatory issues over the status of the workers.

Gustav - I like this model. Offers a platform for smaller agencies to compete
with the larger players. Will be interesting to see how sustainable it is
given the commoditisation in certain sectors as the 3% take seems very high
given pressure on margins in staffing in the US.

~~~
Lordarminius
70 Million Jobs featured Show HN recently. I recall an expert asking them to
change the depressing picture on their website front page. Appears they did
not take the advice. Such little things matter.

~~~
robinjfisher
I've just skimmed a few pages of the site and frankly I'm amazed that they do
not have 1) a video of an ex-offender talking about the the opportunity
afforded by an employer using the service and 2) a video of the HR Director of
Coca-Cola or AA or Facebook or...talking about how they found a great person
through the service.

The recruitment of ex-offenders is such a story from both sides. Nobody really
cares about the story of the top engineer getting a job at Google but there is
a resonance with the story of the ex-offender who had looked for 6 months for
a job and finally an employer took a chance on them using 70 million jobs
etc...

------
icebraining
Totemic is interesting to me, since one of my close relatives spent five hours
on the floor of their house after falling, as she could never remember to
carry her cellphone (hard habit to acquire at 90 years old...). And of course,
she could have lost consciousness, which would render the cellphone useless.

That said, I wonder how can they have a single device for the whole house, and
how it works for harder floors, like ceramic tile, which doesn't make much of
a sound. Seems to me that something so sensitive would be triggered by way too
many false positives.

~~~
giarc
It would be interesting to see their technology. As I understand, many falls
aren't what we think of in the general sense of "fall". Many are slow fall to
the ground, for example struggle to get out of a chair and go down on one
knee, then to the floor.

~~~
nealk
Totemic cofounder here. We actually don't just detect "falls" as a moment in
time, but also use patterns to figure out things along the line of someone
being on the floor in a place they usually aren't and they're not able to get
up.

~~~
giarc
Interesting. Very good idea. I work in a large teaching hospital and review
all admissions everyday. We get a ton of patients admitted with rhabdo or
break/fracture every week. Good luck!

------
indescions_2017
On GameLynx:

Gamedev studio targeting mobile device platforms with an emphasis on hardcore,
competitive league style play. Backed by "one of the largest game companies in
the world."

Honor of Kings, Clash Royale, Vainglory, Hearthstone and Supercell's upcoming
Brawl Stars create a crowded marketplace. Interested to hear what will
differentiate GameLynx's game? How is it planning to innovate and compete?
What is the strategy for capturing market share in China, India and the rest
of Asia? What exactly is the "next gen" in mobile eSports?

Revenues that these games generate is astronomical. And at some of the highest
margins possible. Supercell hit the $2B per year mark recently. And Tencent's
profit last quarter was close to $3B.

Best of luck to the team and can't wait to play!

~~~
matt_s
A lot of those games make money by time-gating content with the option to buy
your way past that. I don't think hardcore gamers like games with pay-to-play
features. How can that be competitive if people can purchase their way past
things?

If they aren't building the game platform that way (time gated content w/pay-
to-play) then its hard to even compare against companies that make a fortune
that way.

Also, hardcore gamers like to be in control. Mobile platforms don't have fine
controls since they are touch based. Accidentally swipe or touch the screen
the wrong way and game over.

~~~
hood_syntax
> I don't think hardcore gamers like games with pay-to-play features

They do not. They really do not. I, along with several of my friends, would
easily be considered part of the "hardcore gaming" audience and everything I
know of the people on the forums I frequent and the games I play points to the
fact that dumping cash into a game in order to progress is just about the most
despised trend in video games among that section of the gaming community. A
lot of people will happily pay for cosmetic purchases to support the
developers and have some extra fun, but anything affecting the balance of the
game is a strict no-no.

~~~
jamesfzhang
One counterexample is Hearthstone. Players buy packs to have access to cards
that otherwise would take them weeks to unlock. AFAIK, professional & hardcore
players actually spend a lot of money buying these packs so that they can
unlock the cards ASAP and study & test them for competitive play.

~~~
runevault
I feel like CCGs tend to get a weird pass because of games like Magic making
it a common occurrence while managing to appeal to hardcore gamers.

------
t0mbstone
I find it interesting that "Honeydue" is in the list, when there are multiple
free apps already in existence such as Buxfer and Splitwise that have already
been available for years.

Both Buxfer and Splitwise serve the exact same functions as Honeydue
(splitting bills/expenses with room mates and/or partners), and both of them
are free to use. Sadly, neither app has found a way to be all that profitable
after all these years.

Maybe Honeydue will do something to solve the marketing problem that
apparently both Buxfer and Splitwise have?

~~~
te_chris
My partner and I merged our finances when we moved to London as we both
essentially started at zero here. We use pocketsmith[0] to manage and keep
track of everything. It's fantastic and has completely changed the way I look
at money. It has a great cashflow view and good forecasting. I now never look
at our account balances, as I know, from the cashflow view, that we're
definitely earning more than we spend. So now I optimise for that. I highly
recommend people check it out, it's a revelation once you get it all setup.

Looking at honeydue it looks like a sub-optimal alternative to pocketsmith.

I will say as well, the necessity of apps like venmo and these splitting apps
to exist at all blows my mind having always lived in countries with
functioning banking systems and fast, free electronic transfers.

[1] [https://www.pocketsmith.com/](https://www.pocketsmith.com/)

~~~
nulagrithom
Thanks for this. Looks really promising.

My frustration with most these budgeting apps is that they're usually designed
around the idea of split finances, which is something I fundamentally have a
problem with. My wife and I keep nothing but joint accounts. There is no
"splitting". I don't need to "control what my partner sees". I just need a
place where I can keep track of _our_ budget.

------
eps
Gopher is a poorly chosen name for a _platform_ \-
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_\(protocol\))

Dropleaf (Netflix for indie games) - at $10/mo for a 50-game bundle I can't
see how this can attract any of the _quality_ games and devs.

~~~
CJefferson
Games sales, like movie sales, are mostly made in the first month. I can
imagine like Netflix, lots of people with good 18 month old games might be
happy to put them on this service.

Further, I might seriously consider using it if they ban in-app purchases (or
at least psy-to-win in app purchases), because they are increasingly hard to
avoid.

~~~
smcnally
If "psy-to-win"'s not a typo, would you please explain.

If it is, it's the best typo this month.

~~~
k__
well, a and s are next to each other...

~~~
smcnally
psy-ops > pay-ops

------
jelliclesfarm
Modular Science - Outdoor farm robot. They pivoted from lab automation to
outdoor farm bots? How?

I applied to YC twice(unsuccefully) with the same idea. And I am a farmer.
Just not a PhD from MIT. I would love to know they came up with that number.
Really. Would love love love to know how..

~~~
neuromancer2701
email me, I am working on a outdoor rover. Hopefully for beyond organic farm
products. [http://openrover.com/](http://openrover.com/) haven't finished
updating the site from this summers project.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Thanks. I am just starting our fall crop plan. Will be in touch. Regards.

------
michaelmwangi
I found airthium [[http://www.airthium.com/](http://www.airthium.com/)] to be
quite interesting I wonder how the efficiency compares with the liquid metal
battery at Ambri [http://www.ambri.com](http://www.ambri.com)

~~~
davedx
Yeah, this space is very exciting at the moment. Would be great to see a
summary of all the current incumbents and new companies and what they're
working on.

------
lpolovets
I'm surprised this includes non-public stats like MRR metrics. Is that normal
for a TechCrunch demo day summary?

~~~
teej
I haven't been to a demo day in a while but it's typically been split into an
"on the record" group and an "off the record" group. Startups like to share
their MRR number because it can help grab the attention of potential
investors.

~~~
lpolovets
Yup. But afaik most founders don't want this info to be public. (I'm an
investor and was at demo day. I seem to recall that previous TC coverage
described what each company did without exposing metrics, but I could be
wrong.)

~~~
callmevlad
As far back as 4 years ago, it was standard practice to have
revenue/growth/traction info published in TC - e.g.
[https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/20/y-combinator-demo-day-
summ...](https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/20/y-combinator-demo-day-summer-2013/)

------
icebraining
They say Pyka already built a plane, so why do they only show renderings?
Seems weird to waste that credibility advantage.

~~~
dvdhsu
[https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/pyka.jp...](https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/pyka.jpg?w=1360&h=800)

Second image on Techcrunch article.

~~~
icebraining
Thanks! I clicked to their site, didn't occur to me to check the TC article.

------
crummy
The second photo in the article, under Zendar, is actually a screenshot from a
video game called Scanner Sombre. I guess this is just a mistake?

~~~
Impossible
I don't think this is a mistake, I think they needed a "visual," Googled LIDAR
and thought Sombre Scanner was the coolest looking image... I wonder if
Introversion knows about this usage? I guess for an indie game any kind of
exposure is good even if its completely misappropriated...

It's also sloppy on Techcrunch's part because it's not even a real LIDAR
capture, it's a video game emulating LIDAR.

------
jnordt
On the startups relating to ground based mobility / autonomous vehicles:

Zendar

Interesting concept! I recently talked to an Engineer from Hella and it seems
most of the big automotive suppliers seem to develop some kind of low cost
radar units that can then be combined to generate rough point clouds.

Definitely willing to test the tech, if you have some spare units @ Zendar ;-)

MayMobility

If I get the concept right isn't the business modell very similiar to
Door2Door, CleverShuttle (even though they are not yet using shuttles) or a
number of London competitors ?

I personally agree with the underlying assumption from many of the players in
that market that one of the easiest entries for autonomous vehicles designed
for urban environments with a max speed of 30 - 40 km/h that only navigate in
pre mapped and pre defined areas.

------
hn_throwaway_99
Overall, I think this is a really impressive list. It seems like a varied mix,
and given criticism from a couple years back that Silicon Valley isn't
focusing on "hard" stuff, was cool to see lots of awesome tech (auto-piloting
planes! robot vegetable pickers!)

------
geewee
Sunu looks really cool - I did a project a while ago where we embedded
distance sensors and vibrators in shoes to help the visually impaired navigate
objects that were close to the ground (e.g. curbs, stairs) - glad to see
someone else doing work in that space.

------
probably_wrong
D-ID seems to me quite interesting, if only because their interests are
directly opposed to those of several governments.

It's a shame they don't seem to offer a 1-click "buy now" alternative, but I
imagine the process might be too time-intensive for that.

------
goberoi
Did I miss it, or are there no virtual reality startups on this list?

I'm a wee bit surprised: VR is nascent and there aren't enough devices out
there to build sustainable businesses shipping content, but I would have
expected at least 1 or 2.

~~~
Yertis
There are a couple -- in this article they mentioned Escher Reality, which is
providing a backend to AR. Definitely think there will be more in the future
as things progress!

------
statictype
Verge Sense looks interesting. Is it just a platform for gathering data from
sensors and providing insights for facilities? Or do you use their
applications to actually do facility management (ie, seat booking, etc...)

~~~
coolswan
Sounds like they do the latter too - action items to help utilize space
better.

------
demonshalo
Aside from a selected few, I am not very impressed with said "offering" :/ It
feels as if it is all a bunch of recycled stuff. But I guess that's just the
cynic in me talking!

------
esaym
Wish we had a list of what they are all using on the front and back ends.

~~~
trcollinson
Although I think that might be interesting, would it actually be valuable?
Serious question honestly, what would that do for us? How would we use that
data?

~~~
dagw
I guess it depends very much on the company. If the company is doing something
cutting edge in the web app space then it might be interesting. If, on the
other hand, they're a robotics or biotech company then who cares if their home
page is just a hosted WordPress site.

------
0bsidian
Ubiq looks interesting, but I thought this space was already quite crowded.

I wonder if they're going for SMBs / companies that are deploying video
conferencing solutions for the first time.

~~~
coolswan
It sounded like mid-size companies with a few conference rooms at least.
Agreed that it's crowded but also there's been no great solutions either.
Unless you have the $$ to get Cisco systems.

~~~
dolevyao
That makes sense to me.

------
Lordarminius
Helium seems like a decent idea and I'm proud to see a Nigerian startup
represented.

However, to my mind and from my experience, the major issue in the medical
records space is how the data obtained from caregiver/patient interaction gets
captured in the first instance. Health workers have not embraced typing in any
form (and they most likely will not)and traditional way of recording by hand
does not digitize readily .

How are you solving this problem ?

------
nullandvoid
Anyone got more information on gamelynx? The information given there is
extremely vague and the site doesn't offer any clarification either

~~~
dyarosla
Waterlooo based startup. Maybe you can find an older pitch online searching
for Velocity fund. I think it's a major from their first direction though :/

------
Gargoyle
TechCrunch's top 7 picks of this group of 50:

Pyka, PullRequest, Zendar, Gopher, Modular Science, Escher Reality, Forever
Labs.

With the exception of Gopher, I think that's a solid list. I just can't get
excited about another company putting apps on top of email, though. Maybe it's
just me.

All the others seem to have at least a potential path to strong growth that's
pretty obvious.

------
yladiz
How did Guggy get into YC? It's going to become another Yik Yak, where it has
a lot of users and growth but no strategy for monetization (users aren't gonna
accept ads in their text messages, for example).

------
lesiva
Do the video recordings of these demos get posted online?

~~~
seehafer
Yeah, you either need to be an investor or make friends with one of the
founders and ask really nice

~~~
Old_Thrashbarg
I'm one of the founders from today. We don't have access to other startup's
videos AFAIK, only our own. I think only investors get to see them all.

~~~
austenallred
Yes you do. Just need to go to the right URL and sign in with your HN account.

~~~
Old_Thrashbarg
You're right, was at the wrong URL.

------
contingencies
Feather seems very solid. If you guys want a China partner let me know. It's
Ikea's fastest growing market.

~~~
boyce
Do you think? There are already plenty of companies in the UK at least that
rent furniture and home electrical goods to people who can't afford it

Are they bringing anything new to the party?

~~~
AndrewKemendo
_There are already plenty of companies in the UK at least that rent furniture
and home electrical goods to people who can 't afford it_

We have those in the states too. The interesting thing is that their business
model isn't renting furniture and appliances, their business model is
providing credit. They are more like banks than they are rental stores.

------
bluker
Relationship Hero is hilarious to me. We're going to solve the
unpredictability of human relationships with a "light-weight" solution. Oh and
we assume no responsibility for the advice given or the actions you take.

Luckily no one reads the ToS and it's a huge market - everyone has
relationship problems.

So they'll make millions because most of the population isn't rational enough
to understand that at a base-level that none of us know shit about all the
intricacies of human relationships. Life coaches and psychiatrists included.

Kudos to them on their traction. I'm talking shit but preying on people's
insecurities in relationships is an endless market. Can't wait to see their FB
ads pop-up right after a Tai Lopez infomercial.

Directly quoted from their TOS:

 _The Platform enables you to communicate with a Dating Expert for the purpose
of getting dating advice, information or any other input, benefit or service
(not considered "Counselor Services"). The Dating experts are neither our
employees nor agents nor representatives. Furthermore, we assume no
responsibility for any act, omission or doing of any dating expert. We make no
representation or warranty whatsoever as to the willingness or ability of a
Dating Expert to give advice. We make no representation or warranty whatsoever
as to whether you will find the Dating Expert’s advice relevant, useful,
correct, relevant, satisfactory or suitable to your needs. We do not control
the quality of the dating advice and we do not determine whether any Dating
Expert is qualified to provide any specific service as well as whether a
dating expert is categorized correctly or matched correctly to you. While we
may try to do so from time to time, in our sole discretion, you acknowledge
that we do not represent to verify, and do not guarantee the verification of,
the skills, degrees, qualifications, licensure, certification, credentials,
competence or background of any Dating Expert._

~~~
sysdyne
>the endless sea of video chat experts websites wasn't enough

This is what annoys me about the current "innovation" worshiping cult.
Everybody just takes a already existent idea and changes just a simple
variable. "Uber/Airbnb of X" style of thinking should just be put to rest
forever. This is obviously happening because our current way of thinking is a
mistake in itself. Everything should be modular and Jef Raskin was a proponent
of this idea unfortunately nobody took him seriously enough.

I should be able to use a search application that lists to me every available
expert, click the link, and then have a modular app skype/whatsapp/telegram
blend in my workspace or open and be able to chat with that said expert.

Speaking of search engines every website should index they're own content and
those indexes be categorized in blocks and linked to a central repository that
then can be coupled with searching algorithms and users should be able to
connect to that central repository and query it like a public library of the
internet. Goodbye Google!!

Another thing if find annoying is paywalls. What if I go to Netflix and I just
want to watch a just a specific movie or episodes without having to pay a
membership fee. Let's say that Netflix has "Pirates of the Caribbean" and just
want to click that video and stream it for 0.9 cents with not login in
features and my ISP provider to add that payment to my utility bill. No
Paypal/ApplePay/Google Wallet! Is it that hard to innovate in those way?

~~~
ringaroundthetx
The reason people don't do that is because VCs can't fund that.
Disintermediating or removing the middle man means "you can't make money from
this". Well your shares don't have value anyway, you as an individual might
make some money though.

VCs tried to fund a bunch of dreamers decentralizing and modularizing
everything in their blockchain apps. Many organizations conduct ICOs or token
sales so they are able to secure funding in their one-time revenue event, and
bring the product to the world. Is it a panacea? Nah. It is very Machiavellian
and we'll see this evolve very quickly into something more efficient. But we
aren't stuck in the limitations that require companies to become the same
toll-taking middlemen as before.

~~~
sysdyne
I believe the current system is already over saturated and the online players
Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix, Tencent, Alibaba, Facebook and Microsoft are
already encroaching on each others territories. Also a lot of the companies
already posses powerful network effects and product synergies that make the
entry of newcomers almost impossible. I'm force to remember every time I see a
new VC investment that the purpose of VC is not to make the next tech giant
like a Microsoft but to rapidly make a exit. I'm really sad by the current
investment in tech but perhaps the real investments in disease treatment/space
exploration are being ignored by the mass media.

------
avs733
I'm amused that peergrade's home link to the academic research behind the
product 404's

------
tanilama
Zendar and Darmiyan look interesting. Good to see startups tackle real
problems.

------
elmar
Skyways.com VTOL vehicles looks interesting but not photos.

------
kornish
Personal favorite snippet from the article:

> With this pedigree, PullRequest has managed to draw interest from 450 teams.
> Though only a portion of these are actually using the service, PullRequest
> touts a $136 million annualized revenue run rate.

From Crunchbase: founded May, 2017.

As a disclaimer, I'm no accountant, but that just seems downright deliberately
misleading. Their standard plan is $49/mo.

~~~
lyal
Founder of PullRequest here: To be clear: $136,000, not $136mm. Typo on
article.

~~~
kornish
Gotcha! Thanks for clarifying; that makes a lot more sense.

Congrats on the revenue and best of luck growing the company.

~~~
Judgmentality
I bet that typo gets them a lot of extra attention from investors. Even if
they immediately correct them, at the very least they've got their attention
to start a conversation.

