5 ms·

Top Startups of 2010

42 points by rafaelc 16y ago

duck 16y ago
Seems like this post is 29 days too early.
sachitgupta 16y ago
What is the criteria for this list? Some questionable inclusions that stand out: Chatroulette and Diaspora. Shouldn't companies included in a top 10 of all startups of the year be profitable, or at least be on the path to making money?
dabent 16y ago
Three Y Combinator startups included - an impressive feat, even with the large number of YC companies. There's a lot of quality companies. I have to wonder if Chatroulette belongs on the list as a "startup." It seems more like an internet fad of 2010, possibly the biggest one, but is it on the path to being a company with revenue?
- rafaelc 16y ago
  Three Dogpatch Labs companies included as well. http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2010/12/02/3-dogpatch-companies-in-rwws-top-10-startups-of-2010/ http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2010/12/02/3-dogpatch-companies-in...
ariels 16y ago
The only ones worth of this list are Quora and Square.
- zalew 16y ago
  and instagram? people are crazy about it
  - larryfreeman 16y ago
    One thing that's weird about instagram is that there are 0 reviews in the Apple app store. For an app with 2,778 ratings (as of Dec 2), you think there would be at least 1 review. If anyone has an explanation for this, I would be glad to hear it.
- sespindola 16y ago
  The most useful of them by far is Rapportive. It's a Gmail plugin that replaces ads with a contextual mini CRM. You should check it out. I can't imagine how they plan to monetize it, though.
earle 16y ago
I'd like to see what the total revenue for all ten of these are, because for the most part, almost none of these should be on the list of Top Startups of 2010...
- mlinsey 16y ago
  Considering that the list is limited to "launched or founded" in 2010, I'd disagree that using revenue is the best metric.
brianwillis 16y ago
I hadn't heard of Rapportive (http://rapportive.com/ http://rapportive.com/) before. Very impressive piece of work form a technical standpoint. It will be interesting to see how they monetize the product.
sfard 16y ago
In the case of Hipmunk, I'm not sure why it's being touted as such an inspiring story of usability. I may be biased because I work at one of the big online travel companies, but I think hipmunk usability is terrible. Their simple search wizard is great but it ends there IMO.
- spez 16y ago
  Good... keep thinking that.
- yarone 16y ago
  One thing about Hipmunk that mystifies me: the date-picker widget on the homepage. A friend of mine says "Have you seen it!? Check out Hipmunk.com. Awesome new user interface for booking flights." So I go to the site expecting some awesome, clean, super-thoughtful UI and actually got stuck for a second. 1) There isn't a direct visual relationship between the "depart" / "return" fields and the date picker (i.e. I didn't see a standard dropdown or calendar icon or way to pick a date) 2) I didn't realize that the date picker widget is one calendar, spanning two months. I thought it was two calendars: one for depart, one for return. Wondering: Am I the only one? Did they actually test this? Would a "traditional" design with two fields, each with a calendar icon / dropdown perform better? OR, maybe two fields and one calendar beside or beneath each?
  - spez 16y ago
    I really hate the way other sites have hidden calendars that pop-up. They all try to be too smart about it, and often ends up with me switching back and forth between mouse and keyboard. IMHO, some guy had a bad idea 10 years ago about how to do calendars, and everyone has been copying it since. I think our version works really nicely if you know how it behaves. So, the challenge to us is to make its behavior more obvious. Hipmunk's calendar has changed quite a bit since we launched, and I haven't heard much complaining lately. Maybe we just scared everyone away.
    - nokcha 16y ago
      Having the calendar automatically switch modes between Depart and Return can be confusing at first in some cases. E.g.: (1) click Dec 15 for Depart date, (2) click the Return text field, then click Jan 5 as the Return date, (3) remember that Jan 6 (not Jan 5) should be the return date, so click Jan 6, (4) wonder "what happened???".

42 points by rafaelc 16y ago

duck 16y ago

Seems like this post is 29 days too early.

What is the criteria for this list? Some questionable inclusions that stand out: Chatroulette and Diaspora. Shouldn't companies included in a top 10 of all startups of the year be profitable, or at least be on the path to making money?

dabent 16y ago

Three Y Combinator startups included - an impressive feat, even with the large number of YC companies. There's a lot of quality companies. I have to wonder if Chatroulette belongs on the list as a "startup." It seems more like an internet fad of 2010, possibly the biggest one, but is it on the path to being a company with revenue?

rafaelc 16y ago
Three Dogpatch Labs companies included as well. http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2010/12/02/3-dogpatch-companies-in-rwws-top-10-startups-of-2010/ http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2010/12/02/3-dogpatch-companies-in...

ariels 16y ago

The only ones worth of this list are Quora and Square.

zalew 16y ago
and instagram? people are crazy about it
- larryfreeman 16y ago
  One thing that's weird about instagram is that there are 0 reviews in the Apple app store. For an app with 2,778 ratings (as of Dec 2), you think there would be at least 1 review. If anyone has an explanation for this, I would be glad to hear it.
sespindola 16y ago
The most useful of them by far is Rapportive. It's a Gmail plugin that replaces ads with a contextual mini CRM. You should check it out. I can't imagine how they plan to monetize it, though.

earle 16y ago

I'd like to see what the total revenue for all ten of these are, because for the most part, almost none of these should be on the list of Top Startups of 2010...

mlinsey 16y ago
Considering that the list is limited to "launched or founded" in 2010, I'd disagree that using revenue is the best metric.

brianwillis 16y ago

I hadn't heard of Rapportive (http://rapportive.com/ http://rapportive.com/) before. Very impressive piece of work form a technical standpoint. It will be interesting to see how they monetize the product.

sfard 16y ago

In the case of Hipmunk, I'm not sure why it's being touted as such an inspiring story of usability. I may be biased because I work at one of the big online travel companies, but I think hipmunk usability is terrible. Their simple search wizard is great but it ends there IMO.

spez 16y ago
Good... keep thinking that.
yarone 16y ago
One thing about Hipmunk that mystifies me: the date-picker widget on the homepage. A friend of mine says "Have you seen it!? Check out Hipmunk.com. Awesome new user interface for booking flights." So I go to the site expecting some awesome, clean, super-thoughtful UI and actually got stuck for a second. 1) There isn't a direct visual relationship between the "depart" / "return" fields and the date picker (i.e. I didn't see a standard dropdown or calendar icon or way to pick a date) 2) I didn't realize that the date picker widget is one calendar, spanning two months. I thought it was two calendars: one for depart, one for return. Wondering: Am I the only one? Did they actually test this? Would a "traditional" design with two fields, each with a calendar icon / dropdown perform better? OR, maybe two fields and one calendar beside or beneath each?
- spez 16y ago
  I really hate the way other sites have hidden calendars that pop-up. They all try to be too smart about it, and often ends up with me switching back and forth between mouse and keyboard. IMHO, some guy had a bad idea 10 years ago about how to do calendars, and everyone has been copying it since. I think our version works really nicely if you know how it behaves. So, the challenge to us is to make its behavior more obvious. Hipmunk's calendar has changed quite a bit since we launched, and I haven't heard much complaining lately. Maybe we just scared everyone away.
  - nokcha 16y ago
    Having the calendar automatically switch modes between Depart and Return can be confusing at first in some cases. E.g.: (1) click Dec 15 for Depart date, (2) click the Return text field, then click Jan 5 as the Return date, (3) remember that Jan 6 (not Jan 5) should be the return date, so click Jan 6, (4) wonder "what happened???".