COLOURlovers (YC W10) Wants To Unleash Your Creative Streak With An iPhone App

If it's one thing that constantly surprises me with technology startups, it's how 'niche' targeted startups can be and still be profitable. I would never have thought that 'pick five colours' was a model that would be sustainable/profitable enough to warrant starting a business around.<p>I suspect the Net played a bit part in enabling this to happen and the continued rise of smartphones and apps is furthering this capability.

I think COLOURlovers is the only YC company that I can say I had heard of / often visited before they were part of YC.<p>Are there any other companies that were reasonably successful before starting in YC?

I didn't know ColorSchemer was their product. I love that app.<p>Great job, fellas.

I had no idea colourlovers is a YC startup.<p>I love the site and show it to designer friends all the time for colour inspiration.

Wow great job Guys, in business since 2004 wow that is quite some time. Let me guess without the YC seal there would have been a NO from Techcrunch, good move Colourlovers!

I recently released a similar Android app called Color Scheme Magic. Its mainly a suggestion tool for colour schemes and there's no social element. Admittedly its features are somewhat lacking in comparison, but then there are few, if any, Android alternatives (and mobile apps are more of a hobby for me than a revenue stream).<p>Its interesting to know that with more resources at hand, a simple idea like this can scale well.

While I understand that ChromaOm can be profitable and even make its founders a tidy sum, I wonder why YC invested. In what way does this company have the potential to become huge? Colour schemes are always going to be a very narrow niche, and I can't quite see how this would turn into even a $10m company, let alone a $100m one...<p>Then again if YC invested, pg and the rest of the panel must see something I'm not seeing...

Hah I just used this for colors on a graph. Excellent little app.