TechCrunch Selection: Top 10 Startups from the Y Combinator S12 Day Demo

75 startups today pitch that there is urine on the fifteenth demo day Y Combinator . We saw quite confident young companies willing to make risky big bets, and after collecting opinions from YCS12 participants and leading venture funds, TechCrunch presents Top-10.

[Selected and randomized by TechCrunch writers Josh Constantin, Anthony Ha, Collin Taylor, and Kim-Mai Cutler. There were many other great presentations, so choose your favorites from our full review of all 64 startups represented: Set 1 , Set 2 , Set 3 , Set 4 ]

Vastrm - Warby Parker for shirts

Why? It's ridiculous when clothes don't suit us.

Vastrm has a very simple goal: to make sure that you have a shirt that fits you perfectly . Founder Jonathan Tan (who, it should be noted, can convincingly anneal a pair of pink pants during a presentation before an investor) has a remarkable pedigree: his family has been in the clothing market for many years now and he says that today they produce every sixth shirt in the USA According to Tan, the holy grail of the garment industry is that the "suit should sit."
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Vastrm aims to solve this problem by presenting a unique size range of T-shirts and allowing customers to find the right size for them, trying on several pieces at home until they find the right one. Vastrm also has connections with all the supply chains of the clothing industry, which will help increase the company's profitability. Tan says the potential market here is bigger than Warby Parker because “not everyone wears glasses, but everyone wears a shirt.” Learn more about Vastrm .

Double Robotics - Robot for newsgroups with ipad instead of face

Why? Let Apple recreate your cyber brains.

“Forget everything you know about telepresence robots.” Double Robotics has created a device called Double , which, in fact, is a controlled robot-stand for the iPad - you simply install the iPad application to start a newsgroup. With this approach, Double Robotics can offer much more affordable remote presence robots for as low as $ 1.999 for a Double.

Beta testers were companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola. The first batch of Double should be released later this year, but the site states that the first batch has already been sold. Double Robotics says they already have preorders worth more than $ 500,000, including orders from seven Fortune 500 companies. Learn more about Double Robotics .

Zapier : Cross API Connector for Web Applications

Why? There is already a whole darkness of different APIs around.

This startup makes it easy for companies to automate common tasks on the web and synchronize data between different web applications. He recently announced the launch of his platform for third-party developers . The company says that mass migration to cloud services and the abundance of new APIs have made their connection to other applications more difficult. Zapier says that their service acts as a hub and it communicates with all these separate fragments.

FundersClub - Next NASDAQ

Why? Because not everyone can be insiders of Silicon Valley.

More than 90% of the value creation of startups occurs in private markets, which means that many investors are left out. Serious investors, especially outside of Silicon Valley, may not have access to startups that they are confident of. Therefore, FundersClub has created a private market , where accredited investors, even with a sum of $ 1,000, can finance private companies and startups through an online platform.

LendingClub and Kickstarter have shown that it is possible to pool capital in support of innovation. FundersClub also found support, raising more than $ 520,000 for itself, although it initially counted on $ 250,000 and received a flow of $ 1.3 million that passed through the system in less than a month since launch. FundersClub could complement the best venture capital funds and angel investors, giving founders access to crowd money (the crowd), which will allow them to complete their rounds without attracting investors with a big name that may not create value for the company after their money. Learn more about FundersClub .

Light Table : New programming environment

Why? Watch how your product develops as fast as you can program.

Light Table creator Chris Granger says that developers are now working “in the dark, like blindfolded artists.” That's why Granger creates a new software development environment with features like easily accessible documentation, immediate feedback and visual design like a drawing table. He received $ 316,000 from more than 7,000 sponsors on Kickstarter and just launched the initial version of the Light Table platform .

Sponsorified : Market for Sponsors

Why? Because they are the necessary and going to the end team for this work.

Most of the largest companies sponsored exhibitions or conferences. Microsoft, for example, spent $ 30 million on sponsoring conferences this year, while Pepsico spent even more. Sponsorfied says the problem is that this market was stuck in the 1990s. It is fragmented, autonomous and extremely difficult to manage. Sponsorfied says they will focus the market on their network for sponsors and do for sponsorship what Google has done for advertising. They have already signed 200 deals for $ 400,000 in sponsorship and are working with brands such as PBR, Popchips, and Red Bull. Two weeks ago, they signed an exclusive contract with a large sports team, which donates more than $ 100 million to sponsor each year.

Filepicker.IO : Filepicker as a service

Why? Rampant fragmentation of cloud storage.

Filepicker says that web and mobile applications can work with content only on users' hard drives and cannot access files located on the network. Say, if a user wants to edit a photo on Facebook, he should rush around looking for other apps. But if Facebook and the web application could communicate with each other directly, it would be much easier. Filepicker provides a single unified API for developers, so when they need to download a file, they can get it directly from Facebook, Google Drive, Instagram, Box and other places where they store content on the Internet, simply by writing a simple line of code . The startup says that developers like it because it allows them to make their apps better. The company has seen a 20% increase every week in the last 12 weeks. The platform has 134 applications, including Scribd, SurveyMonkey and Alfresco, and it will become profitable next month.

BufferBox - The Future of How You Will Receive Parcels

Why? It will allow delivery on the same day or the next day.

BufferBox creates a network of large green closed boxes, distributed to cities and transport networks, such as railways, in which you can receive securely delivered parcels. This means that you do not have to sit at home, weighing your shipments, and transport companies will not spend money on numerous attempts to deliver or keep customers unhappy.

BufferBox is based outside of Waterloo, so its first exit is planned at Union Station in Toronto. He plans to locate BufferBoxes in 100 locations by the end of the year. Today, a startup announced that, in addition to Walmart, Google has connected to allow ecommerce buyers to send parcels through boxes. Learn more about the BufferBox .

Vayable : A unique travel experience market

Why? They are on the same path as Airbnb and we are moving from material culture to a culture of impressions.

Vayable offers travelers the opportunity to get an impression of places around the world, like Airbnb. How unique are these impressions? One of the first to be sold on the site was fishing with the Fijian king. The founders say that “artists, bloggers, kings, mayors and even a homeless person from a disreputable district” began to build a small business on the site. And he is already making a profit.

9gag - Single window for funny memes on the Internet

Why? There's a hell of a lot of users.

9gag collects memes and jokes from all over the Internet - this is in many ways similar to Reddit , only with a clear focus on all sorts of jokes (gags - jokes, I think this is understandable?). The site already has widespread popularity: its founders say that 9gag had over 65 million unique visitors in July compared to 39.7 million Reddit (the second figure was given 9gag, therefore, in doubt) Other indicators are also amazing: 3.8 a million fans on Facebook, 920,000 followers on Twitter, and users spend an average of more than 17 minutes during each visit. The company launched its first mobile application three weeks ago and now has 750,000 downloads.

Content created by users is always a game like “hit, miss”, but people from 9gag say that the whole site can generate a lot of great material because of the possibility of publishing on the Internet at that very second. “No studio in Los Angeles can do it so quickly ... when it comes to creating this kind of content,” says one of the founders of 9gag in a company presentation.



Congratulations to all startups who have spoken today. The pitches were remarkably honed and, despite the huge size of the audience, it is obvious that the quality of startups at YC was not affected.

Other startups that we believe have great potential include HD Trade Services, Scoutzie, Tastemaker and BigCalc. View our reviews about them and select your pet from our full review of the four sets that were introduced today:

• First set : BufferBox, Kippt, Airbrite, Amicus MicroEval, Vastrm, VoiceGem, 9gag, HubChilla, FundersClub, SpinPunch, Everyday.me, Double Robotics, SmartAsset, Submittable, Plivo Imgfave, Amicus
• Second set : Flightfox, Mth Sense, Scoutzie, Instacart, Profig, Zapier, Coco Controller, Collections, Keychain Logistics, Parallel Universe, Survata, Sponsorfied, Filepicker.io, Referly, Rentio
• Third Set : GetGoing, Canopy Labs, Dreamforge, BigCalc, Easel, Kamcord, ReelSurfer, LeanMarket, TomoGuides, DataNitro, Eligible, Grid, HD Trade Services, TapIn, Tracks.by
• Fourth Set : Study Edge, Statwing, Hiptype, RegistryLove, Virool, Circular, Viacycle, QuicklyChat, Knowmia, Coinbase, Markupwand, Healthy Labs, Vayable, Tastemaker, Light Table, Clever