A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | ||
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1 | What's this? | www.danshapiro.com | twitter.com/danshapiro | |||||||||||||||||||
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3 | Company name | <3 | Pitch | Dan's notes | Your thoughts | |||||||||||||||||
4 | Apptentive | X | Build customer relationships on mobile. Urbanspoon is a customer, 20mm deployed. Went from 3.5 stars to 5 stars. Direct frustrated customers to support, happy customers to write reviews. Includes light CRM for mobile users. yahoo, CBS are customers. | Vision around "powering customer loyalty" is huge and compelling. I spent months with these guys as a mentor and decided to invest too. Love these guys. | Great team, great market. I'm super bullish on them. . -@galenward | I like this idea. I hate going into itunes to rate. Like that it would be easier. | All the best to Robi and team, look forward to seeing where you have taken this. @pricing | why wouldn't the appstores do this themselves? | ||||||||||||||
5 | Leanplum | "Mobile optimization made simple", "A/B testing for game development". Create A/B tests server side, without pushing new versions of the app out. | Their demo looks really, really pretty. This product is definitely needed. I worry about their traction when they brag about "talking to" customers - is anyone committed yet? | This is cool... but someone could spam this. | Just wanted to clarify that we're working with (not just talking to) several customers right now, including doing a test with one of Big Fish Games top grossing apps. | |||||||||||||||||
6 | Bizible | "Closing the loop for the fortune five million". Offline conversion tracking and analytics. Attribute sales to Yelp, phone, search, or in-person purchase. Raised 1.5mm, oversubscribed round. | This is very needed, and doing it well would be massive.. But it appears mostly impossible to do *right*, and there are plenty of half-baked methods out there already (e.g. email tracking pixels). Have they made a breakthrough, or are they doing it half-baked? This is a hoverboard startup. | Online marketing -> offline conversion tracking is a space littered with carcasses (including ones Seattle folks have invested in), and all I'm really hearing is magic. -@scottru | www.bizible.com, @bizible | |||||||||||||||||
7 | Linksy | X | "Identifies and activates influencers". "takes 30 interns a month to find 200k soccer moms". Graph your network to identify key influencers. Then manage a campaign of requesting influencers' support. Great customer list & stories. | Spectacular demo; looks really valuable and usable. Says it's not analytics, but I think it's really targeted analytics baked in to a smart workflow. | Multilevel marketing without the payoff to friends. Would annoy me to receive the emails about this. The process looks slick and easy to understand. | Adam did an excellent job telling the full story about influencer identification and the post-identification workflow. I'd love to know how they get into the marketing lifecycle for large brands. Workflow looks remarkable. -@scottru | ||||||||||||||||
8 | Maptia | "discovery engine for places". "finding places online is like using a resume to find a date". Find, share places you love. Map with hexoganal tiles of beautiful photos. Market through travel bloggers. Monetize through promoted content. | Hard for me to judge this because I can't imagine using it myself. It sure is beautiful though. Would have likedto see some evidence that people engage/use this. | I don't understand what this team has actually done. This could be a startup weekend pitch (with beautiful slides). | <--- agree. Site doesn't say much either. I get the sense it's like Jetpac? | I wanted to like this since something good is really needed in this space. I pay $20 every time I travel to a new place on a Fodors travel guide which sucks. Since they aren't live, I was waiting to be blown away with their demo. I was expecting something like Google Streets drive through the best places of a city + videos + photos that make it immersive- that shows you what its like to be there in person. The demo was instead google maps with pictures instead of pins? Disappointed. (or were they holding back what they have?) | ||||||||||||||||
9 | MobileDevHQ | X | SEO for the app store. $500k/yr run rate. Analyze app store categories, keywords, and pricing. 120-position increase in search results. Solid customer list with an emphasis on game publishers. | This is much needed. UI looks simple and relevant. Seen a fair bit of competition, but that's offset by their good traction. | Ian's committed to being the best in this market, and this really is SEOmoz for Apps - so if the market is big enough, it's a great play. -@scottru | |||||||||||||||||
10 | Sandglaz | "The simplest way for teams to collaborate and plan". Microsoft Project is a $1bn business. Cloud based, simple share. | Demo looks very slick, better on mobile than desktop. Competition is brutal: asana, trello, basecamp, liquid planner. They say they win by being simple & powerful, viral. Not sure if that's a strategy or a strategic use of buzzwords. | Unclear differentiation (claim: Planning + Simple). "Viral" attempt feels forced. @adamac | Quick comment: teamgantt.com is ahead of them, sure different approach, but TeamGantt is more likely to acquire MS Project / Excel users as well as Asana, etc. users. They are iterating, but have a viable solution that super simple and focused on the basics (what matters). @pricing | I agree that Sandglaz is simple and early in . . . I think the simplicity of the GUI look and feel is more likely to be perceived as lack of design leadership than intentional design philosophy. Again, this will come in time, I just think it will render significant benefits if a higher priority. @pricing | ||||||||||||||||
11 | Tred | X | Home delivery of new car test drives. Introduction by auto dealer who says he's using it and closing 100% of leads. "buy from your ipad". Never set foot in a dealership. Former GM chair is investor. Slogan: avoid the dealership. | I think there's a market for this, not sure of size. Super expensive to market to car buyers - not sure how they do that. High mileage cars can't be sold as new - can only do a few of these per vehicle, I suspect. Done well, I think this is a real business, but it hinges on acquiring customers cheaply. Disclaimer: I work on a car product as part of my day job. | Unclear why dealerships couldn't just offer the test-drive-from-your-home as a service. Would want to see the straight line between $400/sale and the full market size. -@scottru | I think this existis already... Car dealerships are already doing this | Why wouldn't the dealers just start sending their sales guys to do this? I can't imagine dealers giving away the relationship w customers to just become a delivery warehouse. It was awkward to see the dealer who introduced them on a slide that basically called him the problem. | |||||||||||||||
12 | Glider | "Bringing clarity to deals". Workflow for contracts. Shows progress, signoffs. Multibn market today. | I've lived this pain and it does indeed suck. Their demo didn't really show why the product was special. Why do they beat Docusign? RR Donnely? Sales process is horrendous because everyone has to get on it at the same time. | No results on google. hmm. | they just changed their name. -@danshapiro | "Value-added investors" - none of us casual folks. Have to get the details right and the small company pricing seems 10x off, but that's early - presentation was sharp, and if they go deep into contract process, I see how they get rolled up. -@scottru | ||||||||||||||||
13 | Nveloped | X | Secure email via a regular email client. It uses an HTML message to authenticate & show content in existing mail clients - if forwarded, it won't work. Alternative to "this is a secure message, click here to read it". Open rate 6x better. | Based on the description I thought the product was going to suck, but this is really ingenious. I want my bank to use this. Badly. | I could see the usefulness of having an intermediary hosting mail messages between parties. The trick is getting everyone to click in and use their system to respond and especially to initiate a conversation. I will watch this one as it evolves. Many clinical systems both in hospitals and other care settings have software that allows access to medical record information in a secure way that fits into the care process. | Every secure message solution I've seen is painful, so building a great customer experience here seems really valuable. Glad they understand this is a channel play. -@scottru | minbox already has this team up with them | |||||||||||||||
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15 | Misc notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Introductory remarks by Ray Ozzie. | really obnoxious that ustream is interrupting the presentations with commercials at 20x volume | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Talking about how he couldn't raise VC for his first company. Nice. | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | The remarks before YC made it sound like a great investment opportunity. | |||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Ray's remarks make it sound like a noble opportunity. Interesting contrast. | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | 600 applicants for 10 spots this year | |||||||||||||||||||||
21 | 650 investors in attendence. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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