12 start-ups presented at Y Combinator yesterday - majority of them built their concepts in less than 10 weeks. It was an impressive group of founders who collectively did a tremendous job of demonstrating their companies. While the development level differed among the presenters, all companies could show at least a private beta or some relevant proof of concept. Kudos to Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston and the rest of the Y Combinator team for an awesome job on selecting these companies and the wonderful organization.
My personal favorites are:
Zenter
Online presentation site that actually works smoothly and *fast*. They added super cool features like being able to add graphics, use *any* font from the web for any text in the presentation, or easily insert images from the web without leaving the online draft. It also allows people to collaborate on a presentation. Needless to say it works with existing powerpoint presentations. Unlike powerpoint, interactivity with the audience is possible via real-time surveys that can measure the listeners response to a multiple choice question in real-time and add it to the current slide. The competition from the established players is not to be underestimated but Zenter seems to be ahead of anyone else in this space.
Weebly
If you have ever wished for a really easy-to-use WYSIWYG website creator/editor that works online, fast, isn't limited to dumbed-down templates with just a handful of pages, look no further: Weebly has done it. They've also really streamlined the code, so the action looks swift. Their site includes neat features like integrating Google Maps to a website, which can be updated easily. While one can argue that the price for such convenience is zero - I disagree - I think in combination with some nice ISP/hosting features bundled in - this could be an unbeatable service, users might happily pay for.
If you ever tried searching for electronics parts, you probably realize it can be incredibly difficult to sort between suppliers, while trying to keep track of the part numbers, prices, etc. Enter Octopart's vertical search engine which makes searching for parts a breeze. Results include major suppliers, prices, available stock, product specs and more. It's fast, it's targeting an under-served niche, it focuses on search terms that are virtually all commercial and it's fast.
Other notables included:
- Virtualmin (Web based virtual hosting)
- Writewith (Collaborative online word processing)
- Auctomatic (online selling utility for eBay power sellers)
More detailed reviews of all the participants can be found on TechCrunch.
