Editor's Note: This summer's Y Combinator (United States famous startup incubator, hereinafter referred to as YC) has begun, on the first day of the show (Demo Day 1), various start-ups have brought us many creative ideas. , Agricultural drones, automatic security and the next generation of aunt towels and other products on the exhibition stand.
Lei Feng network (search "Lei Feng network" public number attention) for the classification of these 44 companies, the last can see "Y Combinator Demo Day 1 parade: 44 new ventures, one traversal (on)", this article is In the next section, we will introduce development tools, security, hardware, marketing, and non-profit startups .
Development Tools
As a programmer who is currently most able to change the world in front of a computer, development tools are certainly a lot of geek's entrepreneurial goals. From the platform to the API, I can only say that well, I love the code.
Exponent - Unity Platform for Mobile Applications Â
For small companies with limited resources, application development has always been a long-standing challenge, because they have no energy to come up with applications that can adapt to platforms other than iOS and Android. This has also become a stumbling block to their growth. Exponent wants to change this situation, they use JavaScript to build a new platform for developers to save time and effort.
Exponent's open source platform uses the React Native architecture, which is the foundation for Facebook, Airbnb, and Wal-Mart. The test version of the platform will be launched in the week, and its production team is also worth mentioning, including former Facebook's early employees and Quora's co-founder Charlie Cheever.
MessageBird - Challenges Twilio's Communication API
MessageBird is a company from Amsterdam that recently became a strong contender for Twilio. The company launched an API for sending text messages, voice messages, and chat messages. MessageBird already has 13,000 users including Uber, Skype and Dominos pizza. The MessageBird's API is 20% more than Twilio's, while the price is 30% cheaper. At the moment, they have not yet entered the U.S. market. This time they came to YC in order to break into the U.S. market.
Scale - Use an API to leverage the crowdsourcing market
Repetitive work is the natural enemy of human patience. Scale allows developers to use a single API to hire a group of people to perform repetitive tasks. Previously, there were some quality control problems with the Amazon crowdsourcing task platform Mechanical Turk. Some businesses couldn't complete it through its API, and Amazon's Big Mac also made it difficult to provide satisfactory services for start-up companies. Scale allows developers to obtain a list of listings for Houzz (Internet home improvement platform), and eliminates duplicate and price mismatched houses.
Teespring (an autonomous T-shirt design website) uses Scale to adjust and categorize user-generated content. Scale grew rapidly at a rate of 40% per week and has now swallowed half of the market. All the repetitive tasks that the computer can't complete can now be handed over to others through Scale.
security
Safe operations, of course, high-tech blessings, if you can combine the most concerned about the current business pain points, then earn money is simply a matter of minutes. The following start-up companies are very safe in terms of security:
Aptonomy - Automatic Security Drone
"There is a camera inside, please keep smiling" is more useful for ordinary situations, but once more complex security needs are involved, it will be awful. After all, the camera will not catch bad people. There are many solutions on the market for some complex needs. One of the Aptonomy drones is one of them. The UAVs developed by the company can inspect designated areas, discover and record suspects, and take necessary measures to prevent forced entry.
Metapacket - Malware Firewall
Malware is one of the ills of modern cyber society. It can bring us a catastrophe without sound. Metapacket is a proxy platform for detecting and preventing the outflow of malware by detecting whether outbound traffic is artificially generated. The company claimed to be the first firewall in the world to master this capability. With its help, hacking attacks such as Sony and the National Democratic Committee of the United States will never happen again.
Wallarm - Smart Web Application Security
Wallarm can quickly identify malicious attacks and normal access through statistics and archiving of daily usage of applications and APIs, which greatly reduces the possibility of false positives. Right now, Wallarm has signed up with 60 companies, covering 100 million Internet users. After joining YC, this profitable company doubled its monthly revenue and broke through $100,000.
hardware
VR, Health... Although smart hardware is just the carrier, technology is the hard truth, and the inventions of these startups will make you feel bright.
Sixa - Low Delay Cloud PC
Compared to expensive game PCs, consumers are more willing to spend money on VR headsets. However, only 1% of the existing PCs in the market can meet the needs of VR technology. So Sixa wants to be an external virtual machine connected to a computer so that more computers can run VR. Delay is a major issue that cloud computer virtualization needs to solve. Delays in VR can cause intense discomfort. Sixa says she can reduce the delay to 10 milliseconds. It is reported that this technology has helped them achieve their primary goal of a monthly salary of 100,000 U.S. dollars.
Skylights - VR Entertainment First Class in Flight
Due to weight and cost constraints, the entertainment system on the aircraft has always been a tasteless presence. As a result, Skylights simply created a VR headband entertainment system for passengers, so that users can enjoy the visual impact of 2D and 3D big screens while flying. Right now, Skylights has begun to provide equipment for 100 aircraft of four airlines. Based on the current revenue of 15 flights a day, it will generate a fixed income of 1 million US dollars per year. The founder of Skylights used to be a pilot and an airline executive. He knows that the combination of VR and aviation entertainment can produce tremendous power.
Iris Automations - Drone Collision Avoidance System
With the assistance of agriculture, infrastructure monitoring and the express delivery industry, the commercial drone market will reach US$23 billion by 2020. However, even though it is called a drone, the majority behind it still needs human control. Therefore, Iris has created a small box to increase the ability to identify and avoid obstacles. It uses computer vision and deep learning techniques to create real-time 3D maps around drones and track objects within 2000 feet. Currently drone hardware makers are unable to equip drones with smart brains, and Iris can be their best helper.
Luminostics - Avoid Sexually Transmitted Disease Self Test Tools
Monitoring your heart rate with the iPhone's flash is nothing new, but you certainly haven't heard of flash-diagnosed chlamydial sexually transmitted diseases. With Luminostics technology, you only need to put blood, urine, and saliva into a tube and insert it into a matching device that matches your smartphone. After 15 minutes, users can get their own health information. Due to the privacy of design, 35 million patients are suffering from sexually transmitted diseases each year, so the Luminostics team began research on sexually transmitted diseases. Unlike traditional clinics, Luminostics can be used at home and is convenient and efficient. This technology was part of a doctoral study and will be used for clinical trials next year. However, in order to start this technology in the United States and Europe in 2018, the company still needs to make more efforts.
Airo Health - Super Assistant in the "Meat Leaving" journey
In recent years, various health applications have mushroomed, but how to obtain effective health data is the market's blank. What Airo Health does is automatically record calorie intake. Airo Health has launched a smart bracelet that tracks blood flow to the digestive system by measuring the waveform of the pulse, worth $200.
Studies have shown that there is some correlation between pulse waveforms and daily calorie consumption. Airo Health has partnered with the U.S. military and its target market is 94 million calories per day.
Corporate Services
In the YC incubation project, many companies also pay attention to the community in this area, and for each vertical extension, to help users better solve the problem, take a look at it together:
Community class
Mentat - Young Masters' Job Seeking Bole
On the way to finding a job, everyone has unspeakable suffering. In the face of complex and complicated society, young people are now more inclined to invest in resumes, but after receiving Offer, they do not know which one to choose. In order to solve this problem, Mentat wants to radically change the job search process by automating resume reviews, application submissions, and interviews. The company currently has a weekly income growth rate of 40% and earned $70,000 last month. At present, Mentat is setting up a charging pilot at New York University. It is estimated that it will reach a fixed income scale of US$5 million by the end of this year.
Women Who Code - Growth Assistant for Women's Engineers
The goal of Women Who Code is to use data and community functions to increase the value of women engineers in the technology field and improve their sense of well-being. So far, the Women Who Code has established a network of more than 80,000 members and has hosted 4200 events. The company made a work board to help women better understand each job function. They believe that the improvement of transparency can promote the overall development of the work environment.
Xberts - China's wholesaler's feng shui treasure
The goal of Xberts is to build a network for Chinese hardware manufacturers to help them quickly and accurately lock down global resources and directly embrace global consumers. They should be new to Alibaba. China now has 120,000 hardware manufacturers, of which 84% export products through wholesale channels. Xberts provides a platform to rely on celebrity influential remarks to promote deeper user and manufacturer relationships. At present, the platform already has more than 10,000 influential people and 450 manufacturers.
Business Tools
In addition to this, many start-up companies are also looking for ways to make the company's operations more efficient and convenient, such as:
ZeroDB - Encrypted Enterprise Cloud Storage
In traditional concepts, both cloud storage and trade secrets are completely incompatible. However, ZeroDB dares to take the picture that its own cloud storage can withstand hackers who are just around the corner. ZeroDB's data logic, data encryption, decryption, and compression all occur on the client side, and the server side has no knowledge of the structure and order of the data. The company announced on the same day that it had cooperated with the Bank of England on the day of the Demo Day, which could bring the company a revenue of $1 million a year.
ConstructVR - Distributed Enterprise VR Application
ConstructVR is very optimistic about the prospects of enterprise-class VR, so they create a platform to distribute VR applications to enterprises. Although the current market size of enterprise-class VR is relatively small, analysts believe that in the future, companies will use 46% of VR applications. Samsung's GearVR team has used ConstructVR to show employees sales training courses. Because there is no cloud interface, companies distribute applications using USB data lines. The company's monthly income can reach 7500 US dollars, and it is expected to grow by 50,000 US dollars on this basis next month.
Raptor Maps - Making Drones a Good Helper for Agricultural Analysis
Even the old peasants who face the loess and face the sky, it is difficult to know exactly which piece of the highest yield in their own land. Raptor Maps can analyze the farmland with drones and tractor-mounted sensors and conduct comparative experiments to tell farmers where the seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides work best. It can significantly increase farmers' profits and even make foods healthier and safer. The profit model of Raptor Maps is very clear. The fee for a farm sold to McDonald's or costco, a large company or a shopping mall, is 100 US dollars per acre. This fee already includes the compensation paid to the pilot. In the later period, it can even sell food crop growth data to grocery chains and food wholesalers for profit.
SMARTSITE - God of Environmental Protection at Construction Sites
Smartsite is a device that can detect suspended particles and ultraviolet radiation on construction sites. The device will collect data information 24/7 without interruption and send it back to the master dashboard in real time. The company's main goal is to reduce injuries and lawsuits. By the end of September, there will be 40 construction sites using Smartsite. The company's team is developing six pilot projects that, once successful, will bring the company $2.4 million in fixed income each year.
Non-profit
Who says entrepreneurs must be for fame and fortune? The following startup companies have always been adhering to the purpose of serving the community. Their feelings also make us feel admirable.
DevColor - The Treasure of Black Talent
The problem of talent diversity in Silicon Valley has always been a stubborn problem, but most people choose to do ostriches in the face of this problem, and many companies have even experienced a regression in their recruitment. So, DevColor hopes to set up a non-profit organization to provide blacks with interview preparation and career development strategies to retain these talents. Right now, the company has already reached cooperation with 114 software engineers, and has close ties with sponsors such as Pinterest, Collective Health and Uber. In the next two years, they will also receive sponsors' long-term sustainability sponsorship.
New Incentives - Hope Project in Fertility
In Africa, 5,900 newborns die each day, most of them because of poor medical conditions in the area. As a non-profit organization, New Incentives provides mothers who give birth at health clinics with varying amounts of financial aid to reduce the risk of infection and spread of HIV. Practice has shown that 5,000 funds initially issued can save 47 newborns. New Incentives has a weekly growth rate of 36%, and GiveWell, GOOD Ventures, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are the gold owners behind it. The New Incentives approach is considered to be one of the three most effective ways to save lives, and today they hope to get more money in the future to achieve better development.
Vote.org - Mobilizing Big Data for Election
As an org-suffixed website, Vote.org wants to use big data to vote on money politics. Groups like Rock the Vote have established strong partnerships with most celebrities to increase the number of votes in the election. But the strongest data tools are often in the hands of parties.
Vote.org wants to unlock the data of the super-directed application to make efforts for voting mobilization. The non-profit organization plans to draw 1.2 million voters in specific urban areas. This year, there will be 10.2 billion U.S. dollars for each local election. Each voter costs between 12 and 315 U.S. dollars. If Vote.org can raise enough funds, it will use SMS to influence political participation.
The above are 44 start-up companies exhibited by YC on Demo Day 1, and Lei Feng will continue to pay attention to various types of companies introduced by YC on the second day, including companies, B2B, biotechnology, education technology and financial technology. look forward to.