Ask YC: Your favorite startups lately

gaia-forming · 2009-08-07T15:32:40.000Z

What's some of your favorite innovative startups lately?I like the approach that RethinkDB is taking with their SSD DB technology.* = Doesn't have to be YC

pg 16 years ago |

Picwing (http://picwing.com) is probably the one that has improved our life the most lately. It is the perfect thing for people with new babies. Your relatives get a regular stream of new prints with near zero effort.

ivankirigin 16 years ago | |

Do they no longer make hardware?

pg 16 years ago | | |

For now, no. It turns out that a lot of the photo frame market actually prefers prints.

ivankirigin 16 years ago | | |

They should incorporate the print ordering in the hardware: one click to put it in the next batch.

zaveri 16 years ago | |

Sry downvoted by mistake, on iPhone...

PStamatiou 16 years ago |

I like Etherpad, but I'm not sure why. I'm a big G Docs user, or at least was in college, and use both for the same features (don't do too much heavy collab). But I use Etherpad Pro to consolidate all the random text files I have lying around usually. I think I like it because it's simple, non-nosense and logging into google docs is a pain. I have it on google apps and i never remember the URL so i have to log into mail, click the icon, etc. Granted I could setup a CNAME but I digress..

Maybe I like em more than gDocs b/c they're also a startup..

alexsolo 16 years ago | |

I agree completely. Etherpad is a lot better than Google Docs. The big reason for me is that it provides instant collaboration. When I type something in, the other people editing the doc can see my changes instantly.

For Goog Docs, it takes a few seconds to see someone's changes. It's great for solo editing, but very annoying for collaborative work.

PStamatiou 16 years ago | | |

> but very annoying for collaborative work.

tell me about it. i wrote a 33 page group paper in Google Docs once.. PITA.

dfranke 16 years ago |

Tarsnap is unique among the startups that get play here in getting me to open my wallet to the tune of more than the price of a T-shirt.

plinkplonk 16 years ago | |

Tarsnap! Solo Founder, great product, great payment terms. What's not to like?

icey 16 years ago | | |

Does anyone know if Colin has anyone working with him on Tarsnap yet? Or is he still the only person working on it?

cperciva 16 years ago | | |

I'm still the only person working on tarsnap, unless you count some (free) help I'm getting from my brother to build a more useful website.

icey 16 years ago | | |

I think that's awesome. How long have you been working full-time on Tarsnap?

cperciva 16 years ago | | |

Almost 3 years -- I started making plans and designing everything in September 2006, but didn't start writing code full-time until December 2006.

cperciva 16 years ago | |

Thanks for the vote of confidence! :-)

paulgb 16 years ago |

GitHub really impresses me.

calvin 16 years ago | |

GitHub has found its way into my workflow for web development work. Plus, the sheer number of useful projects and source code available from other developers keeps brings me back to the site frequently.

icco 16 years ago | |

I agree. I really like their release cycle and transparency. They produce a solid product, they understand their market, and they are innovative. The only thing I don't know is how profitable they are.

pjhyett 16 years ago | | |

We're doing well and will be around for a long time.

bdmac97 16 years ago |

Heroku...

After that I'm a bit partial to launchly but that's probably because it's mine. :-)

Readmore 16 years ago | |

Yeah Heroku is awesome, I'm really enjoying their new deployment platform.

gaia-forming 16 years ago | |

The heroku guys do a really solid job.

What's launchy?

bretthoerner 16 years ago | | |

http://www.launchly.com/

bdmac97 16 years ago | | |

Thanks for the link... and yes, launchly is run on Heroku and yes they rock! :-)

eel 16 years ago |

thesixtyone, probably. It's replaced Pandora for me. It's a little too social networky (I just want to listen to music!) but it works.

adamhowell 16 years ago | |

+1 thesixtyone. The idea of giving users quests to reward them for exploring a site/app more is inspiring.

gehant 16 years ago | |

big fan of thesixtyone - has one of the best streaming music players on the web...quality product.

Plus, huge kudos to them for not relying on RIAA as is true with most other online music services.

tripngroove 16 years ago | |

ahh, the sixtyone is great. stellar way to find new music.

also, they make it super easy to buy music that you like. i just wish more artists on the site had stuff for sale!

clistctrl 16 years ago | |

I never heard of it before, but I love it! My girlfriend is going crazy about it too :)

mrduncan 16 years ago |

280 North for re-inventing how web apps can be developed.

jseeba 16 years ago |

Posterous. It just works.

zaveri 16 years ago | |

Amazing how they continue to crank out feature after feature. They are wicked fast..

jmonegro 16 years ago | | |

You don't know anything yet! Too bad I can't talk about it. :(

pclark 16 years ago | | |

no themes yet. still.

pclark 16 years ago |

dropbox. still.

mtrichardson 16 years ago | |

Dropbox takes up all of my CPU these days. It's very depressing how little I use it now.

raptrex 16 years ago | | |

The CPU usage is kinda high, thats why I only run it when I need it

gaia-forming 16 years ago | |

I agree, Dropbox is a really nice startup; really polished.

jackchristopher 16 years ago | |

Dropbox helps gets things done but stays out of the way. It's so subtle I forget I even use it. That's exactly what I like in a program.

dotcoma 16 years ago | |

dropbox and spotify.

revertts 16 years ago |

Spideroak impressed me. It's a service similar to Dropbox, but with more emphasis on privacy. I found their devs really accessible and interesting to talk to.

turtle4 16 years ago | |

Nice. New to me.

christonog 16 years ago |

I'm really finding Evernote a great tool for syncing my daily to-do lists.

zaveri 16 years ago | |

Prefer ShoveBox, however only available for OS X... http://www.wonderwarp.com/shovebox/

nick007 16 years ago | | |

that's 2 votes for shovebox. great organizational tool for the mac! also with an iphone client now that is super useful on the go.

paul9290 16 years ago | |

Is Evernote a YC company? I can find any info to this regards. Here is a list of YC companies http://www.crunchbase.com/company/y-combinator, though not sure if it's a comprehensive one?

christonog 16 years ago | | |

No, but I realize how the title might be misleading. I realize now this question was maybe geared toward those who started YC companies, which I haven't.

gaia-forming 16 years ago | | |

Doesn't have to be a YC company. I was only asking YC.

nwjsmith 16 years ago |

Github takes the cake for me. It makes reading and finding code a breeze, and for the relatively unexperienced (like me), it has dramatically lowered the barrier to entry for OSS.

A Facebook for hackers, I love it.

blender 16 years ago |

cloudkick, I think those guys did a great job.

Delivered something of value, freemium business model that I believe will work extraordinarily well for them.

My hat is off to them! Just wish I would've thought of it first.

gaia-forming 16 years ago | |

I guess it's about execution every time, and yeah, they execute well.

kalvin 16 years ago |

Aardvark for potentially kicking off a new way to search (and even if not, for having awesome diction)

Kickstarter for being beautiful and the first crowdfunding site that looks like it has a chance to explode.

alexsolo 16 years ago |

Billmonk, for splitting restaurant bills with friends.

alexsolo 16 years ago |

Chatterous. I have it hooked up to my IM, and I use it for group chat all the time.

htsh 16 years ago |

grooveshark, still wonky interface but its as close to spotify I can find on our shores.

..of course I still use dropbox .. who doesn't? I stopped using evernote as I got tired of having to use Wine to run it..

jasonlbaptiste 16 years ago |

Favorite Startups of 2009

vark.com listia.com saynow.com

mrlebowski 16 years ago |

Cloudera! Their tutorials kick-ass :)

dshah 16 years ago |

I like the following (may not as cool as some of those listed, but they're great startups and driving real revenue):

1. ZenDesk 2. Freshbooks 3. 99designs

icco 16 years ago |

Rightscale. They put out such a solid product and make using ec2 so easy, it's not even funny.

slvrspoon 16 years ago |

not to denigrate the smart people and great work done here, but i think this is a pretty depressing list when looked at from on high. this is the creme of the crop of all the yc hacker intelligentsia? suprisingly banal imhop.

bkudria 16 years ago | |

"yc hacker intelligentsia"? Sounds like your expectations are way over-inflated. Consider reconsidering your concept of "intelligent".

agotterer 16 years ago |

Makerbot is pretty awesome

mahmud 16 years ago |

Twilio. Top notch.

mhb 16 years ago |

Shapeways