Make big checks Do they lead to bigger swings? Y Combinator’s latest participants are the second group to receive a $500,00 check as part of the accelerator’s recently renewed formal agreement. And while an accelerator only applies to founders investing in a startup, not the sector, category or idea, the extra money in the pipeline can be powerful enough to attract a different set of founders.
With this in mind, this year’s collection offers a glimpse into what YC-approved founders are prioritizing in the face of recession, pandemic, high inflation and the ongoing battle. The results are varied – and we look at the ways in which they will impact the future of fintech, crypto and artificial intelligence.
Below, TechCrunch decided to take the above-mentioned reasons into account and release the group’s biggest pictures of the moon. Because we don’t all bet our potential inheritances on fake fish during a looming recession. Without further ado, let’s get into who made the cut.
Beyond Meat: Numi’s Fake Fish
Products like Beyond Meat and Impossible have shown that there is a demand for “bleeding” fake meat, but are more fish-eaters ready to feast on fake crustaceans?
The plant-based seafood industry is still in its teens compared to the global seafood business today, but interest is growing as brands explore what woods to use for ingredients as diverse as tomatoes for tuna (Ocean Country) and cognac for scallops (The Plant Based). Seafood Company). Joining the fray is Numi, a YC-backed startup that’s using a “combination of soy, pea and lentil protein” to make “properly fermented” shellfish-like ingredients.
Numi’s products are still a work in progress, but the company is already boasting about a moonshot-sized goal — to capture 30% of the seafood market within 10 years. That’s a lot of potential mouthfuls to feed; Seafood consumption could double by 2050, according to Stanford researchers. But with the industry’s many environmental ills, including overfishing, littering, emissions and waste, a new wave of plausible fake fish companies is sure to do some good.
Solving optimization problems with hardware
Optimization problems are the bane of many companies’ existence. For example, shipping and logistics providers need to know which products can be shipped in which containers each day – and of course, how many containers they need in the first place. According to one source, 85% of Fortune 500 companies use accounting optimization in their operations.
Enter the startup’s coherent reasoning: I’m building hardware to solve these kinds of problems in the cloud. Founded by longtime engineers, little has been revealed about the company’s plans. But co-founders He did State that they have a first product aimed at the knapsack problem on display day, an optimization problem where a set of items – each with a weight and a value – one must determine the number of items in the set so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given threshold and the total value is as large as possible.
Optimization problems may seem like a strange market in which to build a company. But clearly there is a customer base, and integrated reasoning is promising for the moon. The company claims it will make hardware up to 100x faster and 10x cheaper.
Flying for dummies
Learning to fly is a common bucket list item, but it’s costly, time-consuming, and difficult. This causes a large number of student pilots to drop out of their training before achieving their dreams. And sadly, some of those who take their license end up in fatal accidents because of their mistakes.
Airhart Aeronautics has developed semi-autonomous flight control systems that don’t require “sticks and paddles” to build airplanes that are easier and safer to fly. It’s too early to say when Earhart will reach product-market fit, but his proposal to “make it easier to fly to Tahoe than to drive to the grocery store” sounds like a solid audience fit for YC’s demo day.
Other startups might think it’s too late to build airplanes when no one has to fly them. Companies working on delivering autonomous drones include Merlin Labs, Pyka, Reliable Robotics, Volocopter and Xwing, among others on their journey. But we still call Earhart a moonshot, because partial autonomy seems to have a better chance of landing on time than full autonomy, especially for private flights.
I would like to buy 10% of your future income please
Being an athlete is hard, and finding enough time and resources to become a professional athlete takes time and financial dollars. Moonshot is allowing angel investors to invest in the future of athletes for a share of their future prize money. Similar to what Trendex is doing (although Trendex allows you to invest in all kinds of talent – including musicians).
So why is this a lunar eclipse? Part of me can see this as the future; If you’re a promising athlete, getting an early injection of cash can make or break your career, and I understand that for some people it may be the only way to make their dreams come true.
Another part of me can’t get over how incredibly exciting it is to enable people to sell their future wealth to investors. I know we live in late capitalism, but looking back, I can’t help but feel this concept is anything but rent-seeking. I’m sure the founders didn’t specifically design their company to make an unequal world fair, but we’re a market cycle or two away.
Let’s try this DTC healthcare thing again, but better this time
The direct-to-consumer healthcare space was hot as the sector’s unicorns scaled back ambitions as they hit growth pains, not so much. That’s why I was so surprised to see Almond take the stage at the Y Combinator Demo Day this week. Almond is a healthcare platform that is trying to make ObGyn care faster with in-person and telehealth services.
“We’re rebuilding back-office technology that saves physicians time, and expanding the roles of care providers, allowing us to deliver better outcomes for patients and reduce the time it takes to resolve their cases,” the company said via the Y Combinator website. Almond membership costs $250 annually, similar to OneMedical’s business model, and founding members get the first year for $150. Any visits and laboratory fees are paid to the insurance.
The co-founders have a balance in the background. Carly Allen, co-founder and chief brand officer is head of product for campaigns that help brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Chipotle and Bonobos, and Tara Rafi, co-founder and CEO of McKinsey, has built internal technology for startups. Incubate and consult with large US hospital systems. As we know from the struggles of Roe, Himes and other platforms, the DTC healthcare space requires a fine balance of smart, accessible branding and agility, so let’s see how Almond performs.
Future flight, yes
I’d like to highlight a few companies that have winged it for my moon display selection soon and shake things up around it.
When the boom came around, I figured it was a cool idea that wasn’t going anywhere. But, to my incredible delight, the company is still in business and has raked in buckets of cash. Perhaps there is a venture market for future flights.
Velontra wants to build a “hypersonic space plane”, which is a good idea. There’s less friction going up, and you can zip faster without air holding it back. Velontra wants the planes to be able to “take off from anywhere in any weather” according to the agreement. Very nice and perfect, no notes.
Marine lighting technologies are doing the opposite. Instead of wanting to fly too high and too fast, he wants to fly low and slow. The company is building electric “autowings” that fly very close to the ground. Depending on the situation, if I understand the control pattern, being too close to the ground clears the air – ha! – Regarding government control.
Naturally, each of these companies requires a lot of capital and has real technology risks to their makeup. But that’s what makes them great – you can’t rock a flight without buckets of cash and a big vision. And while the 737 is great, and I’ve always loved it for being locked up in my country for so long, and so far, I’m ready for something faster and higher. And for the items given to me, vice versa.
Honorable verses
- Ult, which describes itself as an “Uber for gamers” startup. The startup charges users to match with fun (or challenging) competitors. Also, it has a very good website.
- A spot that describes itself as “BNPL for Brazil”. BNPL’s position is difficult for a number of reasons, and the fact that it is still breaking in the category – despite public market rumors – is remarkable. “While Affirm is creating custom in the US, Brazilians will pay 30 percent of retail fees,” the company said on its Y Combinator website. “With Drip, you can now make payments without eating into your credit card limit and get better rewards.”
- Cover Cat, because it’s such a cute name and a difficult category to build in. But, selfishly, sign up for consumer-friendly insurance!
