5 ms·

Y Combinator Start-Ups: Guess Which Will Be Worth A Billion

73 points by coleb 15y ago

aaronbrethorst 15y ago
Were my net worth high enough at this point[1], I'd be beating down DoubleRecall's door, trying to dump every cent I had into them. Or Parse, they're cool too[2]. But DoubleRecall's pitch on their website made my jaw drop when I saw it the other day. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor [2] I built a proof of concept app on top of Parse the other day. It's badass, no doubt.
- ditojim 15y ago
  does this improve a user's experience on a web app or a website? this won't last. users won't stand for it. i would stop using a website or web app if i had to do this every time i access it. other than that, it is a great idea. perhaps finding another use for this (like captcha) will save it in the end.
  - robryan 15y ago
    As others have said, it's a far better experience to do this than watch say a 20 second video ad or interstitial that can't be skipped. Also if they work well enough they can monetise content that previously either wouldn't have existed or only existed behind a pay wall.
    - evilduck 15y ago
      I'm undecided. If any site actually put DoubleRecall in front of text based content access, I'm nearly guaranteed to contribute to their bounce rate. Video advertising is limited to viewing videos which has a high bandwidth cost, I'll tolerate that since I can switch tabs, but any overlay or intermediate ad that requires my interaction almost always results in a tab closure instead of a further page view. Still, there may be a significant enough chunk of people to make this an insanely profitable method, but the problem with making text legible for people to read means that it's machine OCR'able too. If this gains a ton of traction, how long until the AdBlock plugins start typing this in for you?
      - evilduck 15y ago
        This was churning in the back of my head, so I toyed with it a bit. wget http://doublerecall.com/images/mockups/DoubleRecall-iPod-engagement-explainer.png gocr -i ./DoubleRecall-iPod-engagement-explainer.png -m 4 -C A-z -d 1 Nets me: __ ___ __ _______ ____ ___ __________ ______ ___ e_ n _ Apple iPad ___l_J__ Movies_ TV shows_ games_ and music_ Now pIaying on an iPod near you_ Now pIaying iPod I _ ce_ con_en_ \ Throw out the non-recognized characters, and I've got a list I can grep against a dictionary and I've detected all the required words already. It wouldn't take much glue to call up imagemagick and detect color differences between word chunks and fill this in automatically. Chrome Extensions can capture page content to canvas datauri's and upload to a server for analysis.
        deleted 15y ago
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deleted 15y ago
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- jedc 15y ago
  The article was about the standouts from the YC Summer 2011 class, not about all YC startups.
  - ayanb 15y ago
    DoubleRecall and Parse are both YC S2011
    - jarin 15y ago
      He was responding to a deleted post talking about Mixpanel.
jarin 15y ago
I'm actually going to say the most likely is Vidyard. "YouTube for businesses" + super easy + multi-device compatible + metrics + great pricing + built-in call to action and sharing + content agnostic (aka adult friendly) --------------------------------------- = $$$$$ I'm getting ready to test them out with a client for video trailers, and if they can get some kind of secure URL system set up (IP/time tokens for authenticated users), we might go with them for everything. Much easier than dealing with Pandastream/S3/CloudFront.
- crdoconnor 15y ago
  I couldn't see how this one was so different from vimeo or all those other "corporate youtubes", many of which have been around for years.
  - tomlin 15y ago
    Agreed. I don't really understand why they compare themselves to community-based video sites and not services like Bits On The Run, which essentially is the same thing, but provides much more overall. VidYard provides pretty limited bandwidth considering they promote "Force HD". And masking RTMP as "Instant-Start Technology" is a little sketchy, IMO. RTMP isn't rare. BOTR's API is pretty much perfect and having the free add-on ad network service is pure brilliance.
    - eddiewu80 15y ago
      VidYard compares itself to community based video sites because that's what the vast majority of businesses are using to host their video content. I'm not sure I understand the "limited bandwidth" comment either. As it states on the VidYard pricing page, VidYard offers bandwidth well into the terabytes with no mentioned limit. Additionally the pricing for this bandwidth is quite literally 10x less than BOTR. Instant start technology is very different from RTMP. RTMP is just one of VidYard's many streaming protocols and is unrelated to the technology required to play videos instantaneously.
  - eddiewu80 15y ago
robinbourne 15y ago
I see potential for MarketBrief to be acquired by Thomson Reuters or Bloomberg or News Corp or Yahoo! or a PE fund easily for a billion plus good change, I think they can get 100m in revenue annually. Also, I can see same chance for Codecademy to get acquired for around or just under a billion. They can easily get 50m-100m in revenue annually, many ways this can be achieved. Both have become good brand names already and can become great.
- rprasad 15y ago
  Anyone who would buy MarketBrief already has superior tools for parsing SEC filings. The SEC does not impose a standard filing format, so MarketBrief must generate a parser/rule set for every company. Essentially, they do the same thing that current players already do, but without having specialists who know the intimate quirks of the company they're analyzing. MarketBrief's target market is the unsophisticated investor who doesn't want the raw data. It's not useful to lawyers or day traders as previous posters in other MB threads have suggested, because MarketBrief doesn't offer the information that would be pertinent tp those. That could be modified on MB's end, but not easily because they can't use a standardized algorithm. IOW...MB has the same problem Groupon does: their business model sounds sexy, and even looks sexy at first glance, but it really doesn't scale.
utnick 15y ago
On codecademy: "The start-up boasts over 200,000 users and claims several tech giants have already approached them about hiring their recent graduates." I didn't understand this sentence, is it saying tech giants have asked to hire users that have completed the codecademy javascript course?
- leon_ 15y ago
  That's how desperate the industry is ;)
- kingofspain 15y ago
  If that's true and my girlfriend bags a job at Google after I've slaved over a hot browser for 10 years, I'll... probably retire and live off her.
- sek 15y ago
  I know this is not Reddit, but i am on the brink to post a facepalm image.
vaksel 15y ago
i'll grant that many of them will be acquired...but a billion is a pretty huge number, and I don't see many of them holding out for a billion. Plus, holding out for a billion limits the # of potential acquires to a few dozen companies
- theDoug 15y ago
  If I buy a billionth of your company for a dollar you now have a company with a billion dollar valuation. The problem with these stories and funding stories in general are that they focus on pre-money/earning valuations and not actual _worth_.
wgx 15y ago
I can see Parse being acquired by Amazon, Salesforce or the like - maybe even Google for Android. But, a billion-dollar valuation? Not so sure.
- A-K 15y ago
  I agree on both points. Parse definitely has the potential to gain a lot of traction, but I'm not sure we'll see a Heroku-sized buyout.

73 points by coleb 15y ago

Were my net worth high enough at this point[1], I'd be beating down DoubleRecall's door, trying to dump every cent I had into them. Or Parse, they're cool too[2]. But DoubleRecall's pitch on their website made my jaw drop when I saw it the other day. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor [2] I built a proof of concept app on top of Parse the other day. It's badass, no doubt.

ditojim 15y ago
does this improve a user's experience on a web app or a website? this won't last. users won't stand for it. i would stop using a website or web app if i had to do this every time i access it. other than that, it is a great idea. perhaps finding another use for this (like captcha) will save it in the end.
- robryan 15y ago
  As others have said, it's a far better experience to do this than watch say a 20 second video ad or interstitial that can't be skipped. Also if they work well enough they can monetise content that previously either wouldn't have existed or only existed behind a pay wall.
  - evilduck 15y ago
    I'm undecided. If any site actually put DoubleRecall in front of text based content access, I'm nearly guaranteed to contribute to their bounce rate. Video advertising is limited to viewing videos which has a high bandwidth cost, I'll tolerate that since I can switch tabs, but any overlay or intermediate ad that requires my interaction almost always results in a tab closure instead of a further page view. Still, there may be a significant enough chunk of people to make this an insanely profitable method, but the problem with making text legible for people to read means that it's machine OCR'able too. If this gains a ton of traction, how long until the AdBlock plugins start typing this in for you?
    - evilduck 15y ago
      This was churning in the back of my head, so I toyed with it a bit. wget http://doublerecall.com/images/mockups/DoubleRecall-iPod-engagement-explainer.png gocr -i ./DoubleRecall-iPod-engagement-explainer.png -m 4 -C A-z -d 1 Nets me: __ ___ __ _______ ____ ___ __________ ______ ___ e_ n _ Apple iPad ___l_J__ Movies_ TV shows_ games_ and music_ Now pIaying on an iPod near you_ Now pIaying iPod I _ ce_ con_en_ \ Throw out the non-recognized characters, and I've got a list I can grep against a dictionary and I've detected all the required words already. It wouldn't take much glue to call up imagemagick and detect color differences between word chunks and fill this in automatically. Chrome Extensions can capture page content to canvas datauri's and upload to a server for analysis.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jedc 15y ago
The article was about the standouts from the YC Summer 2011 class, not about all YC startups.
- ayanb 15y ago
  DoubleRecall and Parse are both YC S2011
  - jarin 15y ago
    He was responding to a deleted post talking about Mixpanel.

jarin 15y ago

I'm actually going to say the most likely is Vidyard. "YouTube for businesses" + super easy + multi-device compatible + metrics + great pricing + built-in call to action and sharing + content agnostic (aka adult friendly) --------------------------------------- = $$$$$ I'm getting ready to test them out with a client for video trailers, and if they can get some kind of secure URL system set up (IP/time tokens for authenticated users), we might go with them for everything. Much easier than dealing with Pandastream/S3/CloudFront.

crdoconnor 15y ago
I couldn't see how this one was so different from vimeo or all those other "corporate youtubes", many of which have been around for years.
- tomlin 15y ago
  Agreed. I don't really understand why they compare themselves to community-based video sites and not services like Bits On The Run, which essentially is the same thing, but provides much more overall. VidYard provides pretty limited bandwidth considering they promote "Force HD". And masking RTMP as "Instant-Start Technology" is a little sketchy, IMO. RTMP isn't rare. BOTR's API is pretty much perfect and having the free add-on ad network service is pure brilliance.
  - eddiewu80 15y ago
    VidYard compares itself to community based video sites because that's what the vast majority of businesses are using to host their video content. I'm not sure I understand the "limited bandwidth" comment either. As it states on the VidYard pricing page, VidYard offers bandwidth well into the terabytes with no mentioned limit. Additionally the pricing for this bandwidth is quite literally 10x less than BOTR. Instant start technology is very different from RTMP. RTMP is just one of VidYard's many streaming protocols and is unrelated to the technology required to play videos instantaneously.
- eddiewu80 15y ago

robinbourne 15y ago

I see potential for MarketBrief to be acquired by Thomson Reuters or Bloomberg or News Corp or Yahoo! or a PE fund easily for a billion plus good change, I think they can get 100m in revenue annually. Also, I can see same chance for Codecademy to get acquired for around or just under a billion. They can easily get 50m-100m in revenue annually, many ways this can be achieved. Both have become good brand names already and can become great.

rprasad 15y ago
Anyone who would buy MarketBrief already has superior tools for parsing SEC filings. The SEC does not impose a standard filing format, so MarketBrief must generate a parser/rule set for every company. Essentially, they do the same thing that current players already do, but without having specialists who know the intimate quirks of the company they're analyzing. MarketBrief's target market is the unsophisticated investor who doesn't want the raw data. It's not useful to lawyers or day traders as previous posters in other MB threads have suggested, because MarketBrief doesn't offer the information that would be pertinent tp those. That could be modified on MB's end, but not easily because they can't use a standardized algorithm. IOW...MB has the same problem Groupon does: their business model sounds sexy, and even looks sexy at first glance, but it really doesn't scale.

utnick 15y ago

On codecademy: "The start-up boasts over 200,000 users and claims several tech giants have already approached them about hiring their recent graduates." I didn't understand this sentence, is it saying tech giants have asked to hire users that have completed the codecademy javascript course?

leon_ 15y ago
That's how desperate the industry is ;)
kingofspain 15y ago
If that's true and my girlfriend bags a job at Google after I've slaved over a hot browser for 10 years, I'll... probably retire and live off her.
sek 15y ago
I know this is not Reddit, but i am on the brink to post a facepalm image.

vaksel 15y ago

i'll grant that many of them will be acquired...but a billion is a pretty huge number, and I don't see many of them holding out for a billion. Plus, holding out for a billion limits the # of potential acquires to a few dozen companies

theDoug 15y ago
If I buy a billionth of your company for a dollar you now have a company with a billion dollar valuation. The problem with these stories and funding stories in general are that they focus on pre-money/earning valuations and not actual _worth_.

wgx 15y ago

I can see Parse being acquired by Amazon, Salesforce or the like - maybe even Google for Android. But, a billion-dollar valuation? Not so sure.

A-K 15y ago
I agree on both points. Parse definitely has the potential to gain a lot of traction, but I'm not sure we'll see a Heroku-sized buyout.