14 ms·

Startups that demoed at Y Combinator W16 Demo Day 2

89 points by cjbarber 11y ago

sb8244 11y ago
A lot of these links are broken. For example, http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C Luckily, it's easy to parse this out but it's a bit jarring.
- autopov 11y ago
  Well it is TechCrunch (where it's and its are seemingly interchangeable).
  - DonHopkins 11y ago
    "Spinal Singularity wants to tap into the $2 billion urinary catheter market ..." Well played, TechCrunch. Credit where due.
kelukelugames 11y ago
Since number 1 is a catheter, I want to repeat a long time complaint. Why can't technology help urinals stay clean? There are puddles in literally every male bathroom. Some one please solve this. Edit: At my age, the last sputters go in every which way. So missing is unavoidable and we need some kind of self cleaning floor.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  It is a user error not a technology problem :) If you did want a technology solution I would suggest electrifying a zone area around the urinal - 5000V should get even the most haphazard user on the straight and narrow.
  - ant6n 11y ago
    Except the stream is not continuous, as the the liquid speeds up it tends to separate into droplets.
    - danieltillett 11y ago
      I suggest you try urinating on an electric fence - I have seen it done and the result is both horrifying and very amusing.
      - ant6n 11y ago
        An electric fence is much closer than the floor, the stream may not have broken yet. It does depend on the distance -- for example you could pee from a subway platform onto the third rail and live to tell the story.
        simonebrunozzi 11y ago
        I have a better solution: just don't drink. Ever.
      - spdustin 11y ago
        Stimpy, don't whiz on the electric fence!
    - beambot 11y ago
      At 5kV, you're likely to get air dielectric breakdown between droplets (roughly 3MV/m dielectric breakdown over a few mm)
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  At least they didn't bury the lede. People just need a reason to aim, not more technology. [1] [1] http://images.dailykos.com/images/214735/story_image/Trump_Urinals.jpg?1456379460 http://images.dailykos.com/images/214735/story_image/Trump_U...
- elevensies 11y ago
  There is a full length urinal, I don't know why they aren't more widely used.
  - debacle 11y ago
    Cost.
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  The urinals I see in Japan that go all the way down to the floor do a pretty excellent job at containing those puddles.
- prawn 11y ago
  Wet-mopping Roomba-type robots cleaning floors when there's no one in the room?
danieltillett 11y ago
Lots of biotech/medical device companies in this class. Historically this has not been a good category to invest in (unless you like to lose money), nor one that is easy to get right. The FDA is a real pain to deal with and trying to "do things that don’t scale" has you end up like Theranos. I do give YC kudos for trying.
- StephenSmith 11y ago
  The FDA also provides a HUGE barrier to entry. Once a company makes it through the approval processes (if they make it), they will have a monopoly on that corner of the medical market for many years. I agree its difficult, but the rewards are higher.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    You can still fail at the marketing level even if you make it all the way through the approval process (Affezza comes to mind as a good example of this [1]). My background is in biotech and I feel the risk/reward ratio is too great in this area. Still a gutsy move from YC. 1. http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-afrezza-why-does-mannkind-still-think-it-can-win/2016-02-10 http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-af...
    - lisper 11y ago
      My very first angel investment was in a medical device company. They had FDA approval, patent protection, all the manufacturing in place, rave reviews from users, clear benefits over the competition... and they still failed because they couldn't get distribution. Ten years later I made another medical device investment. Again, good IP protection, FDA approved, clear data showing life-saving benefits. This one failed because the technical founders decided to go off the ranch and have a turf battle with the CEO. The Murphy factor in this sector seems pretty high to me.
      - danieltillett 11y ago
bpchaps 11y ago
NSFW warning.. there's a catheter/penis combo.
- iLoch 11y ago
  I feel bad for anyone who can't view an animated medical diagram of a penis at work for fear of it being NSFW.
  - bpchaps 11y ago
    Tell that to my boss. I personally don't give a shit.
  - ssharp 11y ago
    Why be condescending? There's also the possibility of someone not wanting to have an animated medical diagram of a penis on their work monitor, even if the bosses don't care, so I see no problem with the warning.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
illicium 11y ago
Physio Health: "Time for a nice strecth!"
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
kriro 11y ago
I can't help but wonder how DeepGram is impacted by Google opening their speech API.
- chejazi 11y ago
  Google's API translates a sound sample to text. DeepGram's API uses the sound sample to search other audio.
mkohlmyr 11y ago
Looks like a much stronger batch to me, I take back some of what I said yesterday. I would be hard pressed to choose between some of these! I love that we are seeing less fad apps and more healthcare / farming / energy / third world tech. It's encouraging. Personally farming tech and third world mobile payment are areas that I've been thinking about reading up on for a while. Perhaps the time is now! As a side note it seems like there are a lot of teams right now working on chat / chat bots / chat ai in a very overlapping way. It makes me wonder what the root of this bot/ai/virtual assistant trend is and if they would be attacking the problem the same way without slack-colored glasses.
- wsinks 11y ago
  Probably slack and ryver and facebook for work - there's a lot of companies out there. And other companies are throwing money into it too. Cisco just put out a $150mil fund to fund similar things for their chat & video platform as well: https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/ https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/ Disclaimer: I do work for Cisco
neuromancer2701 11y ago
So what is up with all the Chatbots? Between the two days there was at least three companies that seemed to be pushing some sort of generic chatbot. Is this really lucrative? I guess it could replace call centers with online automated help.
- visarga 11y ago
  It's just that voice is going to become more and more prevalent as an user interface.
greenspot 11y ago
Boom wants to build the next Concorde—how can YC help?
ssharp 11y ago
PaveIQ looks pretty interesting. There has to be a big market of customers willing to hand over money to learn how their website is performing but aren't currently investing the time to learn GA's more advanced features or to learn how to mine insights from all that clickstream data.
- ryanSrich 11y ago
  I'm not so sure. There's a lot you get can from simply running basic analytics and an NPS survey. You should also be constantly talking with customers. Ideally you'd already know where the site/app is failing purely based on those interactions. If they can pull in data from various sources (Stripe, SFIQ, etc), that's where this product could be really exciting.
serkanunsal 11y ago
Here is the clean list of YCW16: https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/ https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/
debacle 11y ago
I'm amazed at how big the batch is. It seems like there are some clear front-runners, but the batch itself seems quite deep. Disclaimer: Haven't payed a lot of attention to YC batches since '13.

89 points by cjbarber 11y ago

A lot of these links are broken. For example, http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C http://www.getaccept.com/%E2%80%9C Luckily, it's easy to parse this out but it's a bit jarring.

autopov 11y ago
Well it is TechCrunch (where it's and its are seemingly interchangeable).
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  "Spinal Singularity wants to tap into the $2 billion urinary catheter market ..." Well played, TechCrunch. Credit where due.

kelukelugames 11y ago

Since number 1 is a catheter, I want to repeat a long time complaint. Why can't technology help urinals stay clean? There are puddles in literally every male bathroom. Some one please solve this. Edit: At my age, the last sputters go in every which way. So missing is unavoidable and we need some kind of self cleaning floor.

danieltillett 11y ago
It is a user error not a technology problem :) If you did want a technology solution I would suggest electrifying a zone area around the urinal - 5000V should get even the most haphazard user on the straight and narrow.
- ant6n 11y ago
  Except the stream is not continuous, as the the liquid speeds up it tends to separate into droplets.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    I suggest you try urinating on an electric fence - I have seen it done and the result is both horrifying and very amusing.
    - ant6n 11y ago
      An electric fence is much closer than the floor, the stream may not have broken yet. It does depend on the distance -- for example you could pee from a subway platform onto the third rail and live to tell the story.
      - simonebrunozzi 11y ago
        I have a better solution: just don't drink. Ever.
    - spdustin 11y ago
      Stimpy, don't whiz on the electric fence!
  - beambot 11y ago
    At 5kV, you're likely to get air dielectric breakdown between droplets (roughly 3MV/m dielectric breakdown over a few mm)
DonHopkins 11y ago
At least they didn't bury the lede. People just need a reason to aim, not more technology. [1] [1] http://images.dailykos.com/images/214735/story_image/Trump_Urinals.jpg?1456379460 http://images.dailykos.com/images/214735/story_image/Trump_U...
elevensies 11y ago
There is a full length urinal, I don't know why they aren't more widely used.
- debacle 11y ago
  Cost.
hkmurakami 11y ago
The urinals I see in Japan that go all the way down to the floor do a pretty excellent job at containing those puddles.
prawn 11y ago
Wet-mopping Roomba-type robots cleaning floors when there's no one in the room?

danieltillett 11y ago

Lots of biotech/medical device companies in this class. Historically this has not been a good category to invest in (unless you like to lose money), nor one that is easy to get right. The FDA is a real pain to deal with and trying to "do things that don’t scale" has you end up like Theranos. I do give YC kudos for trying.

StephenSmith 11y ago
The FDA also provides a HUGE barrier to entry. Once a company makes it through the approval processes (if they make it), they will have a monopoly on that corner of the medical market for many years. I agree its difficult, but the rewards are higher.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  You can still fail at the marketing level even if you make it all the way through the approval process (Affezza comes to mind as a good example of this [1]). My background is in biotech and I feel the risk/reward ratio is too great in this area. Still a gutsy move from YC. 1. http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-afrezza-why-does-mannkind-still-think-it-can-win/2016-02-10 http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/sanofi-tried-and-failed-af...
  - lisper 11y ago
    My very first angel investment was in a medical device company. They had FDA approval, patent protection, all the manufacturing in place, rave reviews from users, clear benefits over the competition... and they still failed because they couldn't get distribution. Ten years later I made another medical device investment. Again, good IP protection, FDA approved, clear data showing life-saving benefits. This one failed because the technical founders decided to go off the ranch and have a turf battle with the CEO. The Murphy factor in this sector seems pretty high to me.
    - danieltillett 11y ago

bpchaps 11y ago

NSFW warning.. there's a catheter/penis combo.

iLoch 11y ago
I feel bad for anyone who can't view an animated medical diagram of a penis at work for fear of it being NSFW.
- bpchaps 11y ago
  Tell that to my boss. I personally don't give a shit.
- ssharp 11y ago
  Why be condescending? There's also the possibility of someone not wanting to have an animated medical diagram of a penis on their work monitor, even if the bosses don't care, so I see no problem with the warning.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

illicium 11y ago

Physio Health: "Time for a nice strecth!"

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

kriro 11y ago

I can't help but wonder how DeepGram is impacted by Google opening their speech API.

chejazi 11y ago
Google's API translates a sound sample to text. DeepGram's API uses the sound sample to search other audio.

mkohlmyr 11y ago

Looks like a much stronger batch to me, I take back some of what I said yesterday. I would be hard pressed to choose between some of these! I love that we are seeing less fad apps and more healthcare / farming / energy / third world tech. It's encouraging. Personally farming tech and third world mobile payment are areas that I've been thinking about reading up on for a while. Perhaps the time is now! As a side note it seems like there are a lot of teams right now working on chat / chat bots / chat ai in a very overlapping way. It makes me wonder what the root of this bot/ai/virtual assistant trend is and if they would be attacking the problem the same way without slack-colored glasses.

wsinks 11y ago
Probably slack and ryver and facebook for work - there's a lot of companies out there. And other companies are throwing money into it too. Cisco just put out a $150mil fund to fund similar things for their chat & video platform as well: https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/ https://developer.ciscospark.com/fund/ Disclaimer: I do work for Cisco

neuromancer2701 11y ago

So what is up with all the Chatbots? Between the two days there was at least three companies that seemed to be pushing some sort of generic chatbot. Is this really lucrative? I guess it could replace call centers with online automated help.

visarga 11y ago
It's just that voice is going to become more and more prevalent as an user interface.

greenspot 11y ago

Boom wants to build the next Concorde—how can YC help?

ssharp 11y ago

PaveIQ looks pretty interesting. There has to be a big market of customers willing to hand over money to learn how their website is performing but aren't currently investing the time to learn GA's more advanced features or to learn how to mine insights from all that clickstream data.

ryanSrich 11y ago
I'm not so sure. There's a lot you get can from simply running basic analytics and an NPS survey. You should also be constantly talking with customers. Ideally you'd already know where the site/app is failing purely based on those interactions. If they can pull in data from various sources (Stripe, SFIQ, etc), that's where this product could be really exciting.

serkanunsal 11y ago

Here is the clean list of YCW16: https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/ https://startups.watch/yc-w16-startups/

debacle 11y ago

I'm amazed at how big the batch is. It seems like there are some clear front-runners, but the batch itself seems quite deep. Disclaimer: Haven't payed a lot of attention to YC batches since '13.