6 ms·

Companies that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 2

57 points by clioharp 8y ago

patentatt 8y ago
Pet peeve: if you use the first sentence or two of your elevator pitch to tell me what college you went to, you’re doing it wrong.
- tosh 8y ago
  > Launched by a pair of Stanford grads, the startup helps teachers create tailored lesson plans by sending short quizzes to groups of students to figure out the best lesson plans for those students. In the last four weeks, 2,500 students have received lessons from Tailor-ED. Operating under a freemium model, the company says they are targeting a $1.5 billion market. Its an education startup with students as users
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  It's TechCrunch's reporting of them. They're not telling you - TechCrunch are. I don't know if that was their elevator pitch or from some other information.
  - jpmoyn 8y ago
    While that is true, the paragraph is a paraphrase of their demo day pitch.
- ProAm 8y ago
  It's no different than applying to a startup and mentioning what other startups you've worked for. It's all a boys club (figuratively speaking, not literally)
nickparker 8y ago
Allure feels borderline dishonest to me. Clothes are mostly designed to fit perfectly on models. If you warp images of models onto other body shapes, I think you'll get images of clothes which fit perfectly on those other bodies. The actual article of clothing probably won't fit perfectly though. Taking pictures of the larger sizes is a sort of proof of work that they can look good on at least one real person that size. I don't know, this particular use case feels acceptable-ish to me. I suspect other versions of "ML-powered advertising doesn't necessarily match meatspace product delivered" will be seriously annoying in the future though.
- longerthoughts 8y ago
  >increasing shopping conversion rates by 14 percent To your point on fit, I suspect the 14% conversion rate they're claiming isn't accounting for what could be a material return rate.
z5h 8y ago
How is it OK for a company to be named "Woke"?
- pistoriusp 8y ago
  Isn't that the past tense of wake?
  - z5h 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
    - wtvanhest 8y ago
      I'm not drawing conclusions, but I do want to point you to the end of the link you provided: From Wiki: By the mid 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term and has been the subject of memes and ironic usage.[10] For example, MTV News identified it as a key teen slang word for 2016.[16] In The New York Times Magazine, Amanda Hess raised concerns that the word has been culturally appropriated, writing, "The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation."[12]
      - z5h 8y ago
        I'm not clear on what you want me to get from that passage. I think the word is too culturally loaded. It seems like the kind of potential problem one would avoid when naming a company or creating a brand.
        wtvanhest 8y ago
        That the word seems to have multiple meanings to multiple people. This particular team may not have thought about the word the way you (and others) did. I also recognize the parallels between this and say, a confederate flag. Some people in the deep south truly believe that it is not racist. But... the vast majority of people in the US believe it is a racist symbol. You don't want your company name to be the equivalent of that. IMO, they should probably revist and rename. More to your point, if I named a company, I'd probably google the name a few times which would reveal the other possible meanings.
dalbasal 8y ago
I'd be curious to read some coverage of what some of these companies achieved during yc. What they had coming in, what did they work on, manage get done, etc... Writing software, getting customers.. For example: "Withfriends: Membership programs for small businesses like bars, theaters, and barbershops. So far they have 80 small businesses on the platform, with over 5000 members* How much of this was achieved during YC. Were they writing code in a flat? Selling businesses door-2-door? Did they have product and get the customers? Both? Neither?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- Hydraulix989 8y ago
  Generally investors tend to care more about growth (especially the second derivative), so whenever I see only a zero’th order datapoint, I’m skeptical and wary of strategic omission.
traviswingo 8y ago
How is a company like Allure an acceptable entrant? The fashion industry already falsifies clothing fitment by photographing tailored clothing on extremely attractive people. When you buy the same clothes, they don’t fit like they do in the photo, and you definitely don’t look like the model in the image. Seems super scummy.
- skrebbel 8y ago
  YC has funded scummy companies before. InstallMonetizer comes to mind. In their defense, I don't think YC claims to not find scummy shit. To me it seems that they have a moral compass comparable most financial institutions, i.e. none.
JamesBarney 8y ago
I'm really curious to see how their pharmaceutical/medical bets play out. This is a space that's very competitive with low R&D returns that seems outside YC's previous domains. I think it will be rougher than they thought breaking into it, but if they can prove out a better funding model for pharmaceutical development that could have a huge impact.
LeonM 8y ago
> Qwest: Lets people pay money to skip lines at venues like clubs and bars. They’re currently at 10 venues in 2 cities, and say they should be at 100 venues in 6 cities this year. They aim to expand to events like music festivals and sporting events. Aren't most lines created deliberately for security reasons? Like: crowd control, maximum number of visitors, metal detectors, luggage checks, etc. I can imagine that some clubs deliberately create lines outside to give the impression of popularity and exclusivity. But for any other situation it is of economic interest to the owner to keep lines as short as possible (visitors can't spend money while in the line). What I'm trying to get to is: I don't get why any event organiser or bar owner would want this.
- duado 8y ago
  You pay money to skip the line. So, the event organizer gets money, plus gets a pre-qualified lead. You know that someone who pays $20 to get into club is more likely to spend money on alcohol than someone who waits in line for an hour to get in for free.
  - dougjudice 8y ago
    Most places in NYC with a line + bouncer situation you can usually slip them a $20 or something and skip the line anyway. So I guess this is a way to put control of this kind of situation in the hands of the venue itself.
- noodle 8y ago
  I actually consulted briefly with a company that tried to do what Qwest is doing. Popular bars and clubs have lines out front for a variety of reasons. It exists, and while "we're at capacity" is one reason, its not the only reason. The issue they encountered was that right now, "skipping the line" is something you pay the bouncer to do in cash. They're also the ones you have to convince to use this app. But you're asking them to use an app that kills that revenue stream for them, it transfers all that $ to the club owner instead. So bouncers would only half use it, or "forget" to use it, or quit and go to another club.
  - 8y ago
fillskills 8y ago
I really like some if the companies this year specifically those with a social aspect. Wish there was a YC fund that average people could invest in. It would give a real opportunity to vote with money for more socially relevant companies at early stages instead of waiting for them on the stock exchanges

57 points by clioharp 8y ago

Pet peeve: if you use the first sentence or two of your elevator pitch to tell me what college you went to, you’re doing it wrong.

tosh 8y ago
> Launched by a pair of Stanford grads, the startup helps teachers create tailored lesson plans by sending short quizzes to groups of students to figure out the best lesson plans for those students. In the last four weeks, 2,500 students have received lessons from Tailor-ED. Operating under a freemium model, the company says they are targeting a $1.5 billion market. Its an education startup with students as users
chrisseaton 8y ago
It's TechCrunch's reporting of them. They're not telling you - TechCrunch are. I don't know if that was their elevator pitch or from some other information.
- jpmoyn 8y ago
  While that is true, the paragraph is a paraphrase of their demo day pitch.
ProAm 8y ago
It's no different than applying to a startup and mentioning what other startups you've worked for. It's all a boys club (figuratively speaking, not literally)

nickparker 8y ago

Allure feels borderline dishonest to me. Clothes are mostly designed to fit perfectly on models. If you warp images of models onto other body shapes, I think you'll get images of clothes which fit perfectly on those other bodies. The actual article of clothing probably won't fit perfectly though. Taking pictures of the larger sizes is a sort of proof of work that they can look good on at least one real person that size. I don't know, this particular use case feels acceptable-ish to me. I suspect other versions of "ML-powered advertising doesn't necessarily match meatspace product delivered" will be seriously annoying in the future though.

longerthoughts 8y ago
>increasing shopping conversion rates by 14 percent To your point on fit, I suspect the 14% conversion rate they're claiming isn't accounting for what could be a material return rate.

z5h 8y ago

How is it OK for a company to be named "Woke"?

pistoriusp 8y ago
Isn't that the past tense of wake?
- z5h 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
  - wtvanhest 8y ago
    I'm not drawing conclusions, but I do want to point you to the end of the link you provided: From Wiki: By the mid 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term and has been the subject of memes and ironic usage.[10] For example, MTV News identified it as a key teen slang word for 2016.[16] In The New York Times Magazine, Amanda Hess raised concerns that the word has been culturally appropriated, writing, "The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation."[12]
    - z5h 8y ago
      I'm not clear on what you want me to get from that passage. I think the word is too culturally loaded. It seems like the kind of potential problem one would avoid when naming a company or creating a brand.
      - wtvanhest 8y ago
        That the word seems to have multiple meanings to multiple people. This particular team may not have thought about the word the way you (and others) did. I also recognize the parallels between this and say, a confederate flag. Some people in the deep south truly believe that it is not racist. But... the vast majority of people in the US believe it is a racist symbol. You don't want your company name to be the equivalent of that. IMO, they should probably revist and rename. More to your point, if I named a company, I'd probably google the name a few times which would reveal the other possible meanings.

dalbasal 8y ago

I'd be curious to read some coverage of what some of these companies achieved during yc. What they had coming in, what did they work on, manage get done, etc... Writing software, getting customers.. For example: "Withfriends: Membership programs for small businesses like bars, theaters, and barbershops. So far they have 80 small businesses on the platform, with over 5000 members* How much of this was achieved during YC. Were they writing code in a flat? Selling businesses door-2-door? Did they have product and get the customers? Both? Neither?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Hydraulix989 8y ago
Generally investors tend to care more about growth (especially the second derivative), so whenever I see only a zero’th order datapoint, I’m skeptical and wary of strategic omission.

traviswingo 8y ago

How is a company like Allure an acceptable entrant? The fashion industry already falsifies clothing fitment by photographing tailored clothing on extremely attractive people. When you buy the same clothes, they don’t fit like they do in the photo, and you definitely don’t look like the model in the image. Seems super scummy.

skrebbel 8y ago
YC has funded scummy companies before. InstallMonetizer comes to mind. In their defense, I don't think YC claims to not find scummy shit. To me it seems that they have a moral compass comparable most financial institutions, i.e. none.

JamesBarney 8y ago

I'm really curious to see how their pharmaceutical/medical bets play out. This is a space that's very competitive with low R&D returns that seems outside YC's previous domains. I think it will be rougher than they thought breaking into it, but if they can prove out a better funding model for pharmaceutical development that could have a huge impact.

LeonM 8y ago

> Qwest: Lets people pay money to skip lines at venues like clubs and bars. They’re currently at 10 venues in 2 cities, and say they should be at 100 venues in 6 cities this year. They aim to expand to events like music festivals and sporting events. Aren't most lines created deliberately for security reasons? Like: crowd control, maximum number of visitors, metal detectors, luggage checks, etc. I can imagine that some clubs deliberately create lines outside to give the impression of popularity and exclusivity. But for any other situation it is of economic interest to the owner to keep lines as short as possible (visitors can't spend money while in the line). What I'm trying to get to is: I don't get why any event organiser or bar owner would want this.

duado 8y ago
You pay money to skip the line. So, the event organizer gets money, plus gets a pre-qualified lead. You know that someone who pays $20 to get into club is more likely to spend money on alcohol than someone who waits in line for an hour to get in for free.
- dougjudice 8y ago
  Most places in NYC with a line + bouncer situation you can usually slip them a $20 or something and skip the line anyway. So I guess this is a way to put control of this kind of situation in the hands of the venue itself.
noodle 8y ago
I actually consulted briefly with a company that tried to do what Qwest is doing. Popular bars and clubs have lines out front for a variety of reasons. It exists, and while "we're at capacity" is one reason, its not the only reason. The issue they encountered was that right now, "skipping the line" is something you pay the bouncer to do in cash. They're also the ones you have to convince to use this app. But you're asking them to use an app that kills that revenue stream for them, it transfers all that $ to the club owner instead. So bouncers would only half use it, or "forget" to use it, or quit and go to another club.
- 8y ago

fillskills 8y ago

I really like some if the companies this year specifically those with a social aspect. Wish there was a YC fund that average people could invest in. It would give a real opportunity to vote with money for more socially relevant companies at early stages instead of waiting for them on the stock exchanges