A few months ago, I covered my favorite picks from Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch. I got some good feedback on that post, so I decided to do it again for the latest batch. Y Combinator is arguably the world’s most esteemed startup incubator. I’ve always admired their penchant for ideas in spaces that aren’t always “hot”. What’s also respectable is that in recent years, they’ve accepted more and more founding teams from outside the US, especially from India and Latin America. India’s startup ecosystem is particularly one that I care a lot about, and there is a strong consumer focus in the products of the India-based YC startups in this batch.
I decided to check out every single one of the 166 startups that TechCrunch covered in their analysis of the two demo days earlier this week. Out of that, I picked a handful that appealed to me the most. Here are my favorites, in no particular order, with my brief takes on them:
Kern Systems: This is one of those “whoa” ideas. 🤭 Instead of storing stuff in hard drives, Kern Systems wants people to store data in DNA 🧬. According to their site, they are “*leveraging the power of enzymes and software to create the world’s most scalable DNA data storage infrastructure” — *ok, that’s pretty cool. The founders seem to know a lot about DNA, evident from their deep backgrounds in synthetic biology from Harvard and MIT.
Pengram: Pengram is an AR product that lets you create indoor waypoints. For the last few years, it has been forecasted that AR will become a $100bn+ industry by early 2020s. AR is such a transformational technology. I predict that market size will get a lot bigger near the end of this decade. However, the reality is that there isn’t a single AR app on my homescreen. The Pokémon** **GO fad is undeniably over. Pengram is the kind of AR app that seems easy to set up and useful for common tasks. For e.g. think about entering an Airbnb for the first time — with a set of waypoints the host set up, a guest could easily get a tour of a space as part of the check-in process, showing where the basic necessities are and any other important notes such as “feed the fish in this fishtank”.
Midtype: Midtype helps you build products without having to code a backend yourself. Having built lots of apps over the years, writing backends for specific use cases can be pretty time-consuming and complex. There’s a million things to worry about — what programming language is best, what database to use, how to handle payments and user accounts, building an API etc. Midtype handles all of that so that you can focus on the crux of the experience of any product — the frontend. It reminds me of Parse, that Facebook acquired and unfortunately shuttered a few years ago. I built a handful of apps on Parse and found the backend-as-a-service a big catalyst in shipping apps quickly. ⚡️📲
Prenda: As a kid, I would often fall behind academically because I always had better things to do like building websites or starting companies 🙄. I often felt lost in the classroom. This is why the idea of “microschools” championed by Prenda resonates with me. Smaller class sizes lead to more individual attention that every kid can benefit from. Some of the most esteemed schools in the world have very small class sizes. However, it’s not practical in every district due to lack of resources. Microschools could really change education at the grassroots level 🤓. What’s unclear is how Prenda ensures that all kids get a safe environment with a capable teacher, and whether Prenda makes the core of the experience consistent across all its microschools (if that’s even a good thing?). Pretty interesting idea, nonetheless.
PredictLeads: PredictLeads right off the bat seemed to me a Palantir-type product for company intelligence 📈. The value proposition is high for venture capitalists, market researchers or C-level executives. I’m intrigued by one of their products, DealGraph, that lets you explore your business networks using AI in a way Salesforce or LinkedIn might not. I’d love to take this product for a test drive.
Well Principled: Well Principled applies AI 🤖 to the field of management consulting 🧳. I’ve always felt that AI startups have a better chance of succeeding if they focus on one or two specific verticals. Well Principled does exactly that by focusing on CPG and Retail, a vertical where management consulting heavily permeates. TechCrunch reported in their demo day coverage that this company is advised and funded by Palantir leaders. Officially backed by Founder’s Fund, Well Principled is a company to watch as AI proliferates across every industry.
Earth AI: Earth AI wants to disrupt mining through AI. And we’re talking about real drilling holes kind of mining ⛏💎, not the cryptocurrency kind. Mineral exploration is capital-intensive yet critical for the sustenance of future generations of humankind. It’s an industry that really is in need of innovation to improve efficiency — Earth AI promises just that.
Project Wren: Project Wren helps people calculate their carbon footprint and fund projects that can offset that footprint. Climate change is a critical issue that is brewing up an oncoming catastrophe for this planet. Year after year, we’ve been seeing the mayhem unleashed on living beings in the form of devastating floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters 🌪. Yet, most of us choose to do nothing about it. As it ought to be, it’s a key issue in the US 2020 Presidential race but so far, we haven’t seen any solid strategies proposed by the candidates leading the polls. Project Wren tackles the problem at the grassroots level by making people aware of their carbon footprint — my carbon footprint is apparently just below the Canadian average. You then sign up to fund a wide variety of climate-saving projects 🌴 which promise to potentially offset your footprint, while getting detailed updates on the project every 2 weeks.
Tandem: Tandem brings remote teams closer 🌏. It lets you collaborate on different apps that your team already uses through stuff like shared cursors. The idea of Rooms with transparency on “who’s in what app right now” is pretty cool. All this can be done while video or audio chatting with multiple team members. With over 40 integrations, including Sign-in with Slack, this product looks incredibly appealing. Remote work is here to stay. And we need more products that reimagine work in the remote context from the ground up.
Taskade: Taskade is an example of the unbundling-bundling trend we’re seeing in the space of “future of work” apps. This one takes a bunch of focused work tools and creates a unique productivity tool by combining them. It’s a competitive space with an ever-increasing set of products, including some from the last YC batch I covered. I’m impressed by the pace at which Taskade has created a template marketplace with useful-looking templates for all kinds of tasks that you can start using right away. The app also feels blazing fast ⚡️. And looks like Aaron Levie, Founder & CEO of Box, tweeted about this app — never hurts to get some validation from one of the hotshots of the enterprise software world. 🔥
Compound: Figuring out equity compensation 💰 is a complicated task. I’ve heard my friends rant about it. Often, when you join a startup, it’s not clear what it will mean for you financially down the line. Compound provides a bunch of guides that shed some light on the different concepts. Since I didn’t find any demos for the forecasting tools, the lifetime value add for a user is unclear to me, but I know for sure that they’ve found a problem that exists.
Carry: Carry wants to make corporate travel ✈️ booking easier by letting people do it via Slack. Travel chat apps are emerging and offer the value add of speed, personalization and generally good deals. Carry brings that right to Slack, SMS and e-mail, acting as a personal travel assistant, especially built for corporate teams. I’m sold 😶.
Simmer: Simmer is something that should’ve always existed. The restaurant and food delivery world lacks transparency into which dishes are actually loved most by people. You either have to sift through a million reviews, or ask a friend / the restaurant staff. That’s a lot of effort! Simmer focuses the experience on dishes instead of restaurants. They’re starting off with the food delivery use case. While a great idea, it seems like existing ordering services could easily catch on and incorporate this into their apps. Nevertheless, next time I’m in NYC or SF, I’m going to give this app a shot.
Matagora: Matagora is an idea worth trying. It’s been on my mind every now and then. Let’s face it — retail space has become very unaffordable for small and new brands, around the world and especially in major cities. It’s the age of pop-up shops 🛍. Even in 2019, despite Instagram and Shopify, only a small percentage of global retail happens online. Brick-and-mortar is still king. However, brands who are looking to open physical stores don’t do so because it‘s traditionally been very capital-intensive. Matagora lets brands find pop-up spaces in showrooms + other commercial retail spaces and makes the process of tapping into an offline traffic seamless. If the platform can manage the whole process end-to-end, I think lots of retailers would be sold on the idea. Currently, it seems active in Montreal and SF.
GreenTiger: This is a made for India 🇮🇳 product that lets you trade stocks on NASDAQ and NYSE. Similar to the hugely successful app in the West called Robinhood, GreenTiger charges zero commission. Whether that’s an early user acquisition strategy or not, GreenTiger still provides significant value-add as a simple and not shady-looking trading platform for Indians. Trading is something lots of young Indians want to do as a side hustle, and there’s a dearth of good, cost-effective platforms for Indians to do so. That said, I’d love to know the different ways GreenTiger plans to make money.
Binks: Made-to-fit clothing has been part of Indian culture for generations. It’s cheap, easily done and loved by women in every part of the country. Binks modernizes the process by bringing it online. One step ahead of an idea like Stitch Fix, Binks promises to alter or completely remake a piece free-of-charge if a customer isn’t satisfied with it. I simply love the value proposition: “hassle free tailor-made clothing for the modern Indian woman”. As an Indian, I’ll be rooting for the success of this startup.
Curtsy: Thanks to Instagram and apps like depop, people are recycling fashion a lot more these days 👗. The idea is that you splurge on a great outfit, wear it a few times, and sell it while it’s still in pristine condition. This is definitely a trend. Curtsy tries to ride this reselling wave. They claim that most items sell in a few days, which is not surprising as I’ve heard similar things about vintage clothing accounts on Instagram for womenswear. Curtsy has all the makings of the massively successful depop.
The Custom Movement: In a world exploding with sneaker collabs 👟, this kind of idea has mass appeal. The Custom Movement is like an Etsy for sneakers. Artists mod iconic sneakers with their creative expression and voila — you’ve got custom-made sneakers. Artists seem to sell a range of “creations” at a markup through this online shop. Owing to my affinity for sneakers, this idea resonates with me a lot. Retro Apple Nike Cortez sneakers, anyone?
Cloosiv: One main reason why I keep going back to Starbucks is the rewards program. Who doesn’t love free coffee ☕️? However, in the last few years, independent coffee shops have taken over many cities. Some of my favourite places to “coffee and work” in Toronto are independent coffee shops. Cloosiv takes the good concepts of the Starbucks app, such as order ahead and rewards, and rolls it out to indie coffee shops. So far, it seems they’re taking a launch everywhere at once kind of approach, instead of focusing on launching widely in one or two cities (I only found 2 places in NYC that are using this app). Whether or not Cloosiv works, I feel that this kind of idea is here to stay.
Digi-Prex: Digi-Prex is another Indian startup, looking to disrupt the massive prescription drugs market in India. Getting medication from the neighborhood pharmacy can be chaotic and time-consuming. Some pharmacies even sell fake products. People on regular medication, especially the elderly, all over India find it a massive chore to do this on a weekly or monthly basis. Digi-Prex offers to deliver medication to doorsteps for cheaper. The smartest thing about Digi-Prex seems its WhatsApp-based ordering. WhatsApp is a core commodity in India and Digi-Prix seems to have the right strategy for speeding up adoption.
Mighty: Having several browser tabs open is a common sight in the daily workflows of most. The more tabs you’ve got open, the slower your browser will be. My laptop often heats up if I have too many tabs open ♨️. Mighty wants to make that problem obsolete. Instead of running a browser locally, it wants to stream the browser itself. It claims to make browsing faster while using 10x less memory. Currently, it’s focused on Google Chrome as a proof-of-concept, and soon enough, I foresee it working for Safari and other browsers. Every now and then, some existing behavior becomes streamable, whether it’s watching movies, listening to music, playing games, or working with files. It seems inevitable that one of these things will be the browser some day. Mighty might just kickstart that.
Dex: In a chaotic world where your phone is buzzing with notifications every two minutes, it’s not easy to maintain relationships with people you know. Yet, research shows that stronger relationships lead to more happiness and satisfaction from life. Dex is like a CRM or Rolodex for your personal life. While it sounds super nerdy 🤓 and lots of people will find the idea of using a CRM for your personal life ridiculous, it might find acceptance in the Tinder generation. The downside is that it seems like a lot of effort, which is why I feel these kind of apps have never taken off. And I kind of wish it was an iPhone app built on top of Contacts instead of a Chrome extension.
Stoic: Emotion tracking isn’t a new app idea. But, none of them have really ever taken off. Stoic seems simple. I’m a fan of the monochrome design (Costar has it too). Tools to improve our mental fitness is something many of us could benefit from. The biggest challenge in keeping a journal ✍ of any kind is consistency. Stoic seems worth a try.
For more startups and TechCrunch’s brief analysis on each YC startup from the latest batch, check out their coverage from day 1 and day 2.