YCombinator - A Force to Reckon With, A Model to Replicate

YCombinator is a seed financing fund that primarily invests in software and web services. YCombinator invests in batches twice a year (winter and summer) and is based on Paul Graham´s mantra. The fund invites applications about ideas from teams comprising of young CS grads. If selected, the summer teams work in Cambridge, and the winter teams in the Bay Area. YCombinator typically invests $5000 as base capital and $6000 per founder in return for 6% equity in the startup. The model has already been replicated and adopted and has generated a lot of buzz. I have here by profiled YCombinator companies. See for yourself what a Hacker Investor can do with less than $1 million.

Reddit

Reddit is a social news site that lets users post links to news and articles on the web. These links could then be voted up or down, determining there appearance on the Reddit main page. Every news link posted has a separate page where users could discuss and comment on the link. Reddit also has several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topic like programming, science etc. Mimicking Google, Reddits logo changes for various holidays. The archive of their logos could be viewed at redditalien.
Reddit was founded by University of Virginia dropouts, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, in 2005. The team was later joined by Christopher Slowe and Aaron Swartz. Reddit was finally acquired by Conde Nast Publications, owner of Wired Magazine on October 31 2006.

Kiko

Kiko is an ajax based online calendar developed by Emmett Shear and Justin Kan. Kiko was initially released in August 2005 and was then the first Ajax based calendar, soon to be followed by 30 Boxes and offcourse Google Calendar. Kiko offers features like Natural language quick create, drag and drop, Reminders via Email, AIM and SMS, Rich Contact Management, Internationalization, RSS Feeds, iCal and vCard Import and an API. Amid intense competition from Google Calendar, the Kiko team decided to auction the site on eBay at a starting price of $49,999. Tucows managed to bag Kiko with a winning bid of $258,100. Tucows reason to buy Kiko is here and Paul Graham´s explanation of the auction is here.

Flagr

Flagr is an online social community which could be summed up as del.icio.us for the real world. Flagr Lets you bookmark and annotate real world locations with your friends using Google Maps. Each flag, can have a title, description, photos, video and tags related to that specific location. Locations can be bookmarked from a map online or from a mobile phone by sending a text message. Flagr also allows you to create maps to organize, share and discuss locations under a common theme such as Celebrity Hometowns. Flagr maps could be made public, invite-only and personal and can be embedded in blogs and websites. Flagr is based in Boston and was founded by Cole Poelker, David Wurtz, and Matt Colyer in late 2005. Other similar services include Platial and Frappr.

YouOS

YouOS is a new kind of operating system, a web operating system. YouOS lets you run applications from simple ones like sticky notes or clocks to complex ones like word processing, mp3 players and instant messaging inside a web browser. Users benefit by having persistence (Do some work. Log out. Log in later from another computer and start right over), centralization (Manage all your web services, files, and accounts in one secure place), collaboration (Share files and apps through a simple, intuitive buddy list), and customization (Install apps written by friends or write your own). There are already 670 professional applications released on this operating system developed using their Javascript API which is just like an IDE in a traditional OS. YouOS was founded in December 2005 by Jeff Mellen, Joe Wong, Sam Hsiung, and Srini Panguluri and is based in Palo Alto. Interested in getting a corporate license of this Operating System, see this. Imagine if Google or Yahoo acquires this, all you need is a web browser and any ..nix on your PC to work for you.

Snipshot

Snipshot is an online photo editer that lets you edit your photos with a single click. Snipshot lets you crop, resize, adjust colors, an automatically enhance you photos within your browser and then save it back to the web. Other features include non destructive editing, pdf import, and unlimited undo and redo. Snipshot´s market is highly saturated with services like Fauxto, Picnik, Picture2life, Preloadr, and PXN8. Recently Photoshop has also announced to launch a web based version. This has made all these startups a lucrative acquisition target for the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft that are eyeing to build a portfolio of services to offer online. Snipshot was launched by Treefly a company founded by Hartforn and Greg in 2006.

Virtualmin

Virtualmin is a virtual hosting management system that has challenged the lack of innovation and startup interest in the server admin market segment. Virtualmin provides users with the ability to graphical administrate websites on Unix or Linux, virtually host sites, provide webmail, manage databases, filter spam and other such things. Check this comparison to know how they compare with cPanel. You can see the tour here and demo here. Virtualmin was founded in 2005 by Jamie Cameron and Joe Cooper and is based in Austin, Texas. Similar services include Plesk and cPanel. If all of this wasn’t enough take this, Virtualmin is completely open source.

Loopt

Loopt is a mobile tracking service that enables cell phone subscribers to share their real location status, messages, photos, and other information on the go with their friends from a mobile phone. The application uses GPS to automatically update the location of the user´s ‘buddies’ and display this information on a map on his mobile. Alerts can also be send when a friend is nearby or if a specific event is taking place in the neighborhood. Loopt also offers geo blogging features and an integration with Twitter could be really handy. Loopt was founded in late 2005 by Sam Altman and Nick Sivo and is based in Palo Alto, California. Loopt is currently just available to Boost mobile subscribers but hopes to expand to more networks soon. They have raised $5 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates. See Techcrunch´s coverage here.

Clickfacts

Clickfacts has developed a proprietary patent pending technology that helps publishers and advertisers detect click fraud and increase their ROI. Clients just have to add clickfacts code to their website and the visits to the site would then be monitored. The program spies on suspicious traffic patterns like excessive clicks from a single IP address or recurring clicks to detect click frauds. As the click fraud methods evolve Clickfacts code adapts itself by learning and evolving itself. Clickfacts received the first prize in the enterpreneural showcase event organized by SVB (Silicon Valley Bank). Clickfacts was founded by brothers Mikhail Gurevich, Mikhail Ledvich along with cousin Greg Gurevich in 2005. Clickfacts has amassed a formidable management team and advisory board in a short time. With the increase in online ad spending click fraud will surely increase and so will be the utility of Clickfacts.

Octopart

Octopart is a vertical search engine that lets electronics buyers find great deals by aggregating product data provided by Allied Electronics, Digi-Key, mouser and Newark InOne. Octopart already supports advanced search features like wildcard searches, phrase and boolean matching. Results include price comparisons, specs of the parts in pdf fromat along with images. The User Interface of Octopart is clean, tidy and extremely usable. As of now it also does not include the Adsense clutter. Octopart was founded by Sam and Andres in 2007.

TextPayMe

TextPayMe is an SMS based payment service that lets users send money to others via SMS messages. In order to send $15 to a mobile number (123) 456-789, you just have to send this SMS “Pay 15 123456789″ to SMS@TextPayme.com. Other commands could be viewed here. The service is free to use and currently offers $5 to every new user. You can tie up your TextPayMe account with your bank account and can also use credit card for overdraft payments. The company was founded by Philip Yuen, CJ Huang and Gerald Yuen in 2005 and is based in Redmond. Other similar services include Obopay and PayPal Mobile.

Inkling

Inkling is an hypothetical stock exchange, where you can sell and buy stocks, Inkles. Typically a question is posed by a user on the public Inkling marketplace or in their own private, secure, marketplace. Like “Who will win Super Bowl?” or “Is Google Phone for Real ?”. The possible answers are than represented as stocks. You can buy and sell stocks to express your opinion. If the probability of the event increases so does its stock value and hence you make money by predicting accurately and early on. Inklings real value for an organization can be extracted by channeling the collective intelligence of employees by posing questions such as “How do we innovate ?” or “What strategy to employ against competitor X ?”. Check out the services they provide, the features they have, and the companies that are already using Inkling. Inkling was founded by Adam Siegel and Nate Kontny in 2005 and is based in Chicago. ‘None of us is as smart as All of us’.

Wufoo

Wufoo is an online form builder like nothing developed ever before. Its remarkably easy to use, flexible and great reporting functionality. The service does not require any programming knowledge at all and lets you create forms almost instantaneously. Wufoo makes excellent use of AJAX, forms could be placed inside an iframe or on a separate webpage. Responses could be received via email or RSS. Pricing is here and the possibilities Wufoo open up for you are here. Wufoo is founded by Kevin Hale, Chris and Ryan Campbell and is based in Tampa, Florida. Before Wufoo i never could have thought that even form creation could be a viable startup idea.

PollGround

Pollground is a social polling site that allows users to create surveys and others to respond to it, even anonymously. Pollground is a classic example of how startups should not be formed. The founding team decided to go back to college after working on Pollground during the holidays. The only reason its even listed here is for this list to be complete.

LikeBetter

LikeBetter is an hilarious online personality test game. You look at two photos and choose which one you ‘like better’. After a few responses, the system presents you with your personality description, political preferences and income bracket. Some tests could be addictive, for example this one. You can also make your own channels, where others could pick up the photos they ‘like better’. LikeBetter was founded by Bryan Kennedy and Brian Hawthorne. Also do visit Bryan´s site to see how imaginative he really is.

Talkito
Talkito is a service that lets its users meet and chat when they visit the same websites. Talkito is currently in private alpha and access is password protected. Instacomment does something similar to the world of comments.

JumpChat

JumpChat is trying to build a platform in order to bridge SMS, email and IM communication without the need to download a software to your computer or phone. Users can send messages on any platform and the receiver will get it on the medium he activated. Jumpchat is also focusing on mass mobile messaging (something like email groups on internet), where users can send mass messages to groups that they have defined. Jumpchat sounds really promising, but as of this day their site states “Stay tuned, we’re launching mid-November 2006″.

View3

View3 is creating a service that will enable users to create 3D models with ease. View3 will enable users to immerse themselves and explore the 3D images of their photos. Imagine uploading the photo of your girl friend to view3 and viewing her in 3D :). View3 is founded by three Stanford grads who hold 2 patents in the area. View3 is currently in private beta.

Tsumobi
From what i have come to know from Techcrunch, Tsumobi will be some sort of a universal mobile scripting language that will sit on top of J2ME and will process application downloads and installations (via URL) for Tsumobi enabled sites. This will enable developers to change Tsumobi applications on the fly and have Tsumobi enabled phones automatically get the updates just by visiting a link. This will solve the problem of hard to gain adoption, complicated installations and impossible up-gradations once a new version for a mobile app has been shipped. Interesting as it might seem, but Hecl, already solves all the above problems, is written in Javascript and is completely open source. Lets see if Tsumobi does something radically different and innovative, or if Paul Graham has paid to do something that´s already done for free.

Zenter

Zenter is an online presentation service that will be having the typical functionality of Powerpoint, alongwith the ability to directly add content from the web (Google Images). Zenter slide shows could be made public or private. The public slides could be used by other users, to remix from or add to their own presentations. Not only am I looking forward to the launch of this service, but also towards its integration with Snipshot (an online photo editing service, funded by YCombinator) to work with the images before adding them to the slides, or work on images after they have been inserted into the slides. Zenter is currently in private beta. Competitors include Zoho, Thinkfree, Empressr, Thumbstacks and Slideshare.

Auctomatic

Auctomatic is attacking the online auction tools market and is building tools for eBay power users, who normally make 400 listings per day. One listing involves filling 5 pages, so all in all this amounts to 2000 page views. Auctomatic will be automating this process by allowing sellers to do everything on a single page and will also add certain other management features on top of this ease of use. Auctomatic is founded by Harjeet Taggar, Kulveer Taggar, Srini Panguluri and Thomas Schmidt. Harjeet is also behind Boso and Srini is an important member of YouOS, two other YCombinator funded startups. Auctomatic has raised around $400,000 in angel investment apart from YCombinator. Competitors include Vendio and Marketworks.

Shoutfit

Shoutfit is a social network centered around women´s fashion. The primary focus of the site is the fashion of the users. Shoutfit encourages users to share their style, meet stylish women on the network and discover new looks to try out. Shoutfit users share their style through an online outfit builder, online closet, and a runway. Women could also see what are the new trends in women fashion. Competitors include StyleDiary, and ShareYourLook. Shoutfit is based in San Francisco.

Thinkature

Thinkature could best be described as a visual collaboration service. You can add images from web or from your hard drive to your concept board, record ideas on cards, show relations and connectors, draw diagrams to express complex ideas, separate ideas by color and chat in real time. Thinkature is targeting people who use wikis, apart from the Education and product design are also amongst the common uses. Competitors include ConceptShare, GE’s Imagination Cubed and Vyew.

JamGlue

JamGlue is an online social network where you can listen to music, and mix it from a library of tracks. Jamglue allows you to add innumerable tracks to a mix, nest those tracks in groups, zoom in and out on tracks and react to changes to the mix while playing. Jamglue also allows you to mix other´s music and when you are done with it, Jamglue master´s the final mix and let you download your masterpiece as an mp3. Jamglue is using the Creative Commons license to stay out of trouble with copyrights, and have also seeked protection by honoring take down requests under the DMCA “safe harbor” provision and user flagging.

Scribd

Scribd is a free online library where anyone can upload a document or book. Techcrunch calls it the Youtube of documents. Scribd lets you tag, share and comment on uploaded documents (.doc, .pdf, .txt, .ppt, .xls, .ps, .lit). Documents can be displayed and embedded as html or flash paper format and can be downloaded as .pdf, .doc, .txt, and even .mp3 files. The mp3 version is created using Scribd´s text-to-speech package, provided by Nuance, and lets you listen to the text of your document (see example). Scribd has opened up a whole new avenue for user generated content. Only time will tell where it takes us. This one is a winner from the word GO.

Weebly

Weebly is an AJAX based website creation service, that lets you create webpages using drag and drop and offcourse a few clicks. These pages could then be saved to Weebly servers or downloaded to be used elsewhere. Weebly also lets you manipulate standard text, images, RSS and even google maps. Venture Beat notes that Weebly’s support of Google maps is even better than Google’s own Page Creator. All you need to do in order to have a Google Map on your page is to drag and drop the map icon on the page, select the map coordinates, and thats it. More than any other feature i want it integrated with Wufoo. Competitors include Google Page Creator, Sitekreator and Synthasite.

Buxfer

Buxfer is a slick service that lets you keep track of your debits and credits with your friends. Buxfer lets you track and tag your expenses with friends or groups/clubs over time. Buxfer also has impressive visualizations that let you view what are the major financial drains. You can add transactions to your account via SMS and import your credit card statements (.csv, .qfx, .ofx). However the real benefit of Buxfer could be realized with its integration into some sort of a payment service, may be TextPayMe could be a good choice. What good a financial management service is, if you can’t pay the debts and get the credits through it as well. Buxfer is founded by Amit Manjhi, Ashwin Bharambe and Shashank Pandit and is currently tracking $10.0 million in over 41,000 transactions.

WhiteNoiseNetworks

WhiteNoiseNetworks is a social network for the music industry (i guess everyone really ought to have a social network). WhiteNoiseNetworks provides custom tools for bands, shows, tours, venues, agents, promoters, labels and publications to manage every aspect of the music business. Bands will be able to manage tours across country via maps, could utilize venue searches to find gr8 gigs. Venues will have a full list of artists performing in that area along with booking and agent details. WhiteNoiseNetworks is currently in private beta.

Writewith

Writewith is a social collaborative writing service that enables the users to write, edit and publish a document in a group environment. A document could be created anew or by uploading an existing one(.doc, .txt, .rdf) to writewith. After this you can invite other editers by email. Users can assign tasks, post comments to each other along with total version control. Writewith is in beta testing with 15 college newspapers including Stanford. This would be a unique and essential tool in collaborative term paper writing and the likes.

Socialmoth

Socialmoth is a social community built around confessions. People could confess anonymously. Users could also view confessions from the whole community and get notifications when someone in your group of friends does a confession. You could know which confessions come from friends but not which friend made it, it could be as anonymous as one wants. The site is currently dominated by women (i guess it shows that women are better at sharing secrets). I won’t be using the service as i am not into sharing secrets.

Xobni

Xobni (inbox spelled backwords) is an analytics service that provides different kinds of email analytics. Xobni tracks time spent writing emails, how quickly you respond to emails, When to contact a busy person, When you receive most emails, How much time you spend reading emails and so on. Xobni is one of its kind analytics service targeting email market and is doing pioneering work in the identification of pseudospam, and email prioritization. Xobni is founded by Adam M Smith and Matt Brezina in March 2006 and is located in San Francisco, California.

Boso

Boso (Buy and Sell Online) is a marketplace for students. Students can buy or sell items - from old textbooks to iPods - to its free listings website exclusively for students. Boso is not only completely free but also has a unique identity assurance system (each student is registered via his university email id) which ensures that everyone is traceable and accountable. Boso was initially founded in Cambridge, UK, by Harjeet Taggar and Kulveer Taggar but then relocated to Silicon Valley upon acceptance to YCombinator.

Conclusion
The real value of YCombinator is not the $6000 per founder that it has invested in these startups but in making them realize that Hiring is now obsolete, that wealth could be created, that averages could be beaten, that good ideas are simple and easy and that Startups could be started. The effects of this would be far and wide, i can predict the startup school being replicated in other countries just like the Gramean Bank got replicated. But what I can’t predict is whether Paul Graham will receive a Nobel prize for his contributions in economics :). Paul enthusiastically writes about Hackers being better managers and entrepreneurs, what i want him to share now is how Hackers fare as Investors.

This page is brought to you by
Enhance your technological skills with one of our Acrobat training Chicago classes. Your employees will also gain from a Chicago sales training training, or a Photoshop training course course of study.