I applied for the S18 and I was rejected. I have to admit that at least 80% of these startups are much better than mine one.<p>I can also notice that almost all of them are in the public beta, whereas my project is still in development. It seems that this is also an important factor in the approvement process.<p>What happened with: "we also invest in ideas", "you don't need a finished product in order to be accepted".. Those days are gone :)
It's interesting how few companies are in the classical tech stack in any way, and how few are in the more retail/consumer oriented techie things like social media.<p>Many of these are just regular businesses quite far from the ostensible advantages of having rockstar technologists etc., obviously the medical tech notwithstanding, but that's another field altogether.<p>It's also interesting how many of these I don't think will every fit the mold of 'high growth' kind of startup, as opposed to more along the lines of 'great new businesses'.<p>Aalo parts are considerably too expensive - basically they are quite a bit more expensive than IKEA, but they don't like quite as 'finished' and don't quite have the 'finished/unfinished' look to suit putting even in a modern living room, I feel it still looks like utility stuff. And at those prices ... I've just personally had to deal with a lot of brick and mortar stuff, and the reality of 'price sensitivity' hits home really hard. People don't have money for expensive, unnnecessary stuff, 'retail' is not at all like Kickstarter.<p>Love people trying to make fake meat taste great. I have yet to see anything available that really works well. I suggest that once a fast-food chain picks up on it and 'regular folks' get a try, it might fly.
> Prodigal Technologies wants to improve the ways that lenders collect money from borrowers... If a payor misses a payment, lenders can now reach out on any messaging platform and enable lenders to find borrowers where they are<p>This sounds like it could be bad for consumers. I hope it doesn't lead to people getting shamed on social media for failing to answer bill collector's phone calls - their site is pretty vague about how it works so I'm not sure.<p>Just another reason to delete your social media accounts.<p>I think it's a good business idea though.
I'm excited to see all of the animal-alternative food companies coming through the pipeline. This space is really undergoing a renaissance.<p>I think most people would choose alternatives if they had similar taste, texture and price to "the real deal". Best of luck to them.
Interesting to see that more companies targeting women's health are going through YC. I definitely think there is a gap there.. living with my girlfriend has opened my eyes to what sorts of things women have to go through from a health perspective that men never notice.
To all the animal-alternative food companies, please put phosphorus on your nutrition labels. That way those of us with kidney failure can watch their phosphorus levels while consuming the large amounts of protein we need daily due to our treatments.
That palm oil replacement thing is a really nice idea. I have stopped eating nutella some years ago because of destruction caused by the palm oil industry.
Good luck to all, except for CSPA. I hope they fail miserably.<p>The idea that they will insert themselves as a bureaucracy/testing service to "gauge" software engineers is simply offensive to me. This is typical bureaucrat thinking, and not what Silicon Valley is all about. They want to collect a toll tax on every programmer going forward. So frankly I hope they truly fail quickly and miserably.<p>I hate whiteboard interviews with a passion, but I don't hate them more than "certification processes", like what this group of people is trying to do.
The range of these things always astounds me. There's one that's like "it's a social network but with avatars" and then there's one that's like "we can repair damaged livers by turning fat cells into healthy liver ones to replace the damaged ones."
> Mac’d is a build-your-own mac and cheese restaurant that lets customers choose their own adventure from the beginning.<p>Is this for real? I mean I love a good mac and cheese as much as the next guy but it doesn’t strike me as anywhere near the usual markets targeted by start ups.
It doesn't look like they funded many companies under the YC Bio RFP, where companies get $500K-1M for longevity products / treatments for aging related disease. I see one regen med company working on regenerating liver cells (Hepatx), and then a few diagnostics / synbio / research tools companies that don't seem to fit the YC Bio / longevity bucket. Wonder if there will be more tomorrow...
The price slider on the Aola beam selector is broken<p><a href="https://shop.aalo.co/collections/parts-library/products/standard-beam-a?variant=12706919579691" rel="nofollow">https://shop.aalo.co/collections/parts-library/products/stan...</a><p>It will quote $12 for 2 inches, then $4 for the same, then $15 for 30 inches and then $12 for 47 inches...<p>Every time it is moved it quotes a different price.<p>I would never use that to order anything.<p>Why can't I build a BOM - or specify the size of a bench and specify the frame design and have it spit out the bom?<p>Horrible UX/UI for the idea that I can buy-by-the-inch materials for my hipster ikea furniture.
The CSPA looks quite interesting. I wonder, though, if it won't just fall into the categorization of certifications. I know a lot of tech companies, especially startups, have not much use for certifications. They are only most relevant for compliance and other niche stuff like security.
I was surprised to see Alpha Vantage[0] on this list. As far i'm aware, they provide real time access to stock prices, and their service is free. Additionally, other services [1] exist that do the same, which are also free.<p>How might they turn their service into a viable business?<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.alphavantage.co" rel="nofollow">https://www.alphavantage.co</a>
[1]: <a href="https://iextrading.com" rel="nofollow">https://iextrading.com</a>
Names & Faces is similar to a tool Adobe created many years ago - it was my favorite product!<p>A great way to navigate the org chart of a growing startup. Nice design. You should try to sell it to EasyPost. ;)
Oxygen definitely interests me. I will be monitoring their progress with interest.<p>I have a requirement for credit facilities on a global basis and I haven't found anyone close to what bitbond [0] has offered. They are based in germany and would much rather deal with a US based company.<p>If anyone has come across such an entity, especially with revenue sharing for those who white-label their offering. Definitely let me know!<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.bitbond.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bitbond.com/</a>
jitX seems pretty neat though I have a feeling AI is used in more a marketing sense rather than a technical sense...Nevertheless the pricing is pretty competitive. I have a couple hardware ideas but always stopped because of the electrical part of things. Wiring and coding something that works for prototypes is pretty easy but drafting something that is producible gets pretty tough. I would love to see more customer use cases from this company.
I was wondering why alpha vantage suddenly decided to start charging.<p>Sure they have 100,000 users, but the 3 people I know (including myself) are no longer using it.
Vegan sh*t does not really help to prevent the upcoming apocalypse.
I am wondering if any of those startups is working on band-aid solutions for this? Personal isolated bunkers, satellites that would allow living on the orbit, etc..?
Momentus confused me. It uses water to propel space craft.<p>"Using water has several benefits, the startup says. One, it’s a fuel source that’s abundant in outer space."<p>Wait, what?