Review of 7 TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 finalists

An event called Disrupt SF, a start-up contest organized by TechCrunch with a main prize of $ 50,000, ended in San Francisco yesterday.



After three days and a large number of pitches, the list of 30 hungry startups was sharply curtailed, and towards the end of the conference only the most persistent remained in it.

Some information about these lucky ones:
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Expect labs

Expert Labs is creating a new platform called the Anticipatory Computing Engine, designed to create applications that constantly strive to meet the needs of the user. The first demonstration of this technology was the MindMeld iPad app. This application is a client for voice and video calls, which understands what the user is talking about and, based on the conversation, helps to find the necessary information.

Gyft

Gyft is a revolutionary new application that allows users to buy, store and redeem gift certificates right from their mobile phones. So now users can manage plastic cards and use gift certificates right from the phone!

Lit motors

Lit Motors' self-balancing commuter vehicle is a super ambitious startup that is going to shake up the automotive industry with its electric C-1. This is the first of its kind fully electronic self-balancing motorcycle, which can be the first of many such devices that can travel up to 200 miles on a single charge. Its another difference from other similar devices is the simplicity of design.

Prior knowledge

Prior Knowledge launches a Veritable, intelligent database that can not only store, but also predict information. The “predictive” database from Veritable goes beyond the current approach to analyzing large amounts of information. It analyzes the deep data structure and, based on this analysis, anticipates the data structure and the relationship between them.

Saya mobile

WhatsApp became the leading cross-platform messaging application between smartphone users, reaching a volume of 10 billion messages a day a couple of weeks ago. But, speaking of providing cheap messaging services to billions of users of simple mobile phones around the world (who may well want to get the most out of an inexpensive gadget), WhatsApp still has work to do.
Saya Mobile targets emerging markets (for example, Africa).

YourMechanic

This project is aimed at simplifying the repair or getting other kind of services for your car without leaving your home. Using only YourMechanic website or a mobile application, users can quickly describe their problem (up to what it smells like at the car), find a mechanic nearby, and clarify payment details.
Ultimately, this leads to lower prices for customers (saving an average of 30% to 50%) using their services, and more money goes into the pocket of the mechanics who actually do the work. The service has already created quite a bit of re-enactment, and they also received $ 1.8 million in investments from Y Combinator, Yuri Milner, Andressen Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz), Lerer Ventures, CrunchFund (CEO of CrunchFund is the founder of TechCrunch Michael Arrington), SV Angel (David Lee - Managing partner of SV Angel, he was also on the jury by the way), Paige Craig, A-Grade Investments, Jawed Karim, Justin Waldron, Joshua Schachter and Kevin Friedman ( Kevin Freedman).

Zumper

Zumper - a new platform that helps in finding housing. Unlike many other similar sites, Zumper works directly with apartment owners, brokers and property managers to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of their listings.

The winner of course is already known, and if you don’t know yet, here’s a link .

Surely, similar projects will soon appear in Russia. In your opinion, do they have a future in our country?