Diversity of ideas and founders is the 500 Startups
way. So it’s fitting that the accelerator’s 11th Mountain View batch
would feature an extraordinarily wide range of companies; from those
tackling huge problems like recruiting and health in the Arab world, to
more “niche to win” businesses focused on picture framing or cookie
delivery. Investors I spoke to weren’t particularly excited about this
Demo Day’s set, but time will tell if some can expand into adjacent
markets to become the type of startups VC drool over.
500 Startups partner Sean Percival explained that some of
the ideas might seem small because his incubator prefers companies with
live products and “we’re really looking for early traction.” That
contrasts sharply with fellow accelerator Y Combinator, which has begun
investing in hard-science companies in areas like nuclear energy that
can take years to get to market.
Percival was proud to note that 37% of this batch’s
startups have at least one female founder. “We’re a more welcoming
place” he tells me. To keep up that diversity, not just in gender but
race, location, and ideas, 500 Startups has been traveling around the
world doing info sessions in major metro areas to teach entrepreneurs
about the benefits of accelerators. Many startups feel like they might
have been around too long to join something like 500 Startups, but
Percival insists that “Unless you’re Series A, you’re not too late.”
500 Startups has now invested in 400 companies across 17
cohorts from its Mountain View, Mexico City, and San Francisco
locations. Here are our picks for the top companies from the 11th
Mountain View batch, followed by the others in the class:
Vaivolta – Construction equipment rental marketplace
Brazil is booming. There are cranes everywhere. There are
over 200,000 construction companies in the countries. The number of
construction equipment rental companies grew from 1000 in 2008 to over
5000 now, and they all need equipment. Vaivolta wants to replace the
traditional model where one company owns equipment and rents it out, and
instead creates a fluid marketplace for rentals across providers.
Customers can choose based on different equipment models, reputation,
services offered, and price. It’s a $3.5 billion a year market that’s
growing, yet it lacks the marketplace technology that has been so
successful for companies like Airbnb, Vaivolta wants to take the
headaches out of wearing a hard-hat.
Doughbies – On-demand baked goods
While
grocery and meal delivery services like Instacart and Sprig are blowing
up, no one is touching baked goods. That’s why Doughbies built a system
that can delivery fresh-baked cookies and other confections in under 20
minutes. Baked goods are supposedly a $50 billion a year business,
while food gifting is another $21 billion. Doughbies is growing 120% a
month. It booked just $7,000 in revenue in January, but it has 90% gross
margins and is only operating in four zip codes for 20 hours a week.
I’m a chocolate chip cookie fanatic, and when I tried theirs, I was very
impressed. And the company was certainly a hit of 500 Startups’ Demo
Day, as it pulled an ‘Opera’ and had a cookie waiting beneath everyone’s
chairs at the end of their pitch.99Gamers – community marketplace for buying and selling video games
Games are pricey to buy new, but players can quickly get
bored with them, making gaming an expensive hobby. 99Gamers can help
gamers buy cheaper and sell their old games. Since the marketplace uses a
proxy digital currency called Coins, there are no transaction fees for
buying and selling. Sellers just pay shipping. The catch is you can’t
cash out. You have to spend your Coins on more games. With 240,000
members it’s already the biggest dedicated video game re-sale
marketplace, and 99Gamers has a stunning 97% margin. Its goal is to
displace eBay with a community just for game lovers.
AppZen – Expense report automation, auditing, and fraud
Expense reports are annoying, time-consuming, and rife
with fraud. There’s $441 billion a year in fraudulent expenses. AppZen’s
artificial intelligence system can fix this by replacing human expense
auditors with algorithms. AppZen’s engine can detect wrongful charges
for strip clubs, expensive lunches with friends, groceries, and more.
The startup claims to offer instant ROI through audit time savings of
50%, and 80% saved employee time. AppZen’s already done $445,000 in
bookings for its enterprise SAAS product with customers like Gartner and
LinkedIn. AppZen could make you and your boss stop dreading expense
reports.
The Rest Of 500 Startups’ 11th Mountain View Batch
PlotBox- SAAS for cemeteries and crematoria
Cemeteries use paper and old school spreadsheets to manage
their land and know where to dig. But these outdated systems can lead
to errors and expensive lawsuits when graves are dug in the wrong place
and someone’s Rest In Peace is disturbed. PlotBox offers a SAAS
for cemeteries and crematoria that helps them manage their land and
bookings. The startup can use drones to quickly scan cemeteries for free
plots much faster than traditional methods. It scanned a 50 acre
cemetery via drone in 30 minutes when it would have taken 100 hours
normally. PlotBox has $280,000 in closed sales already, and is hoping to
kill the old cemetery management systems to bring technology to a $3
billion US market.
PlotBox drone-maps cemeteries
Techpear – Job candidate ranking software
Scoring potential employees is a haphazard process that
leads to sub-optimal hiring. Everyone has a different idea of what to
look for in a job candidate. But Techpear can measure cultural fit, and
test a candidate’s knowledge on what they’ll be working on with
industry-expert written quizzes. The company found early interest in its
product from Slack and Zalora. Hiring the wrong employee can be toxic
for a small startup. Big data has changed everything else about
business, and now it’s changing how those businesses hire.
Headout – HotelTonight for last-minute tours & activities
Travelers spend $84 billion a year on last-minute
activities during vacations. Headout offers a marketplace for buying
these tours, sports activities, and cultural experiences. Headout has
had 4000 users so far who’ve spent $1.2 million total to book adventures
within 24 hours. Headout takes a 20% commission, and plans to expand to
11 more markets this year. Most travel activity bookings still happen
offline, but Headout could change that. Other startups like Vayable,
Viator, and Peek are competing in the space, but Headout hopes its
mobile-first, last-minute approach will make it the traveller’s choice.
eTobb – Arab Doctor Finder
It’s tough to find a doctor if you live in the Arab world.
Without doctors they trust, patients go to the emergency room if
something goes wrong which can rack up huge unnecessary costs. eTobb
makes it easy to anonymously ask real doctors a question for
free, browse doctors through its online profiles, and even book
appointments. eTobb helps put doctors in the Arab world online so they
can be discovered, and help their people stay healthy.
HeTexted – Women’s advice on demand
Women want answers to life’s questions. They can get them
from the crowd or field experts with HeTexted. Those questions range
from ‘How do I get an ex-boyfriend to stop bothering me?’ to “Should I
go on a second date with the guy I met on Tinder?” HeTexted
has seen 3 million user sessions, 100,000 questions asked and answered,
and has 70,000 hardcore users who’ve visited over 200 times. It’s
already been featured on Good Morning America and Forbes, partnered with
Conde Nast and Buzzfeed, and grown 51% since joining 500 Startups. The
company believes that beyond its service, its viral content has
long-term value. HeTexted could turn the whole female gender into a
community of mentors.
Cleanify – Comprehensive home cleaning service marketplace
Many home cleaning services are mom & pops that are
still offline. Cleanify brings them online alongside franchised shops
and online services like Homejoy to create an aggregated marketplace of
cleaning services. Users can compare pricing, scheduling availability,
and reviews of all the options that serve their location. The company is
now at a $2 million run rate and is growing 40% month over month.
Rather than get frustrated when you favorite cleaner can’t squeeze you
in before your big party, Cleanify can find you the next-best, or an
even better service to make your home look perfect.
Connected2.me – WhatsApp with web interface and anonymity
When you use mobile chat apps you can often only chat with
other mobile users, and you often have to connect with them on a social
network. Connected2.me gives you a unique URL that people can use to
message you, and you can also chat anonymously or with a random stranger
ChatRoulette-style. The app has 2.7 million users and haven’t done any
paid marketing. The company serves ads and also has premium features,
making it profitable already. While WhatsApp has just started to roll
out a web interface, it’s a huge space where Connected2.me might be able
to carve out a piece of the pie.
Blinq – Rapportive for messaging
When someone messages you, knowing what’s been up in their life before you ask can benefit your business or social life. Blinq jacks into your messaging app,
and if you press its little dot, it will reveal important information
about your conversation partner. It has 15,000 downloads and a 4.5 star
rating. Blinq is trying to become the biggest context database ever by
listening to your notifications.
Socialight – Social media-based business decision intelligence
If
you know what your customers want or what your competitors are doing,
you’re more likely to succeed. Luckily they’re blurting this out on
social media. Socialight analyzes any set of customers, competitors, or
other group of public social accounts, and relays actionable data to its
clients. For example, it knows that recruiting ads for software
engineers do better with the word “Developer” in Detroit, but
“Programmer” in Miami as that’s how people talk in those different
locations. Socialight can also use contests, polls, and other
interactive methods to pull important data for the crowd. It’s already
seen $75,000 in bookings since January 1st from companies like
Microsoft, Eventbrite, Udemy, and Castrol. Sometimes the big data you
have to analyze is just floating out in the open.Funnely – Facebook ad optimization for small ecommerce businesses
Most small merchants don’t have the expertise to run great
social ads themselves, or the money to pay for expensive enterprise
adtech tools. Funnely offers an affordable system that converts an
ecommerce site into ads that run to the right people at the right time.
Funnely claims to be able to boost sales and conversion rates for
businesses, while letting merchants focus on their business not their
ads.
Catnip – Snackable viral content reader
Some
say our attention span has dropped to just 2.8 seconds, so Catnip is
delivering content that fits into that tiny window. It’s app is a feed
of the top memes from Reddit, Imgur, Twitter, and other social and humor
sites. It’s scored 1 million uses in eight months and claims some stay
an average of 13 minutes per day. It might not fix the big problems in
the world, but Catnip could brighten the dull little moments of your
day.Coinding – Bringing Bitcoin to the gaming industry
When a gamer loves the game they’re playing, is thankful
for a teammate who saved their ass, or wants to compliment one of their
eSports heroes, there’s no way to show their gratitude. Most payment
systems charge too high of fees to make microtransactions feasible. But
Coinding wants to let gamers tip developers and fellow players with
Bitcoin since it’s essentially free to transfer. If it works, Coinding
could make the gaming universe a little more friendly.
Mountary – DIY picture framing
Finally, lean startup methodology has come to the clumsy
picture framing business. Mountary makes it easy to get things framed.
You give it your art’s dimensions, and it sends you a kit with a frame,
plexiglass, mat, and hanging materials, and you do it yourself. Mountary
currently cites 52% margins and big cart sizes in this $2 billion US
market. While the idea of a framing startup might seem a little silly,
long-term it plans to use the market as a beachhead for invading the
bigger home decor business.
Paykind- Send charity donations directly to Africans’ mobile phones
When you make a donation, the dollars could go to
overhead, distribution costs, corruption, and more before they reach the
intended recipients. Paykind wants to cut out all the middle men for
the $42 billion in aid sent to Africa each year. It lets you send an
electronic voucher for specific goods or services to someone in need.
The voucher arrives on their phone and they can redeem it at local
stores. Studies are beginning to show that direct giving works better
than distributing funds to traditional non-profits. Paykind makes this
kind of charity easier than ever.
Elwafeyat – On-demand obituaries
Arabic for “obituaries and condolences”, Elwafeyat wants
to make commemorating someone’s life easier. Right now, obituaries can
cost as much as $1500, only show up in limited places like local
newspapers, and it can take time to get them written. Elwafeyat’s $50
service boasts a quick turn around time, and will make the obituary
available on the web as well. With 30% month over month growth, the
company is seeing people use Elwafeyat not just for obits, but to send
custom condolences to loved ones.
Astroprint – The cloud operating system for the 3D printing industry
Normally to use a 3D printer, you have to install a ton of
hardcore design software and fiddle with tons of settings. Astroprint
makes it simple to print your own designs, print remotely, and
eventually plans to have a 3D printables design marketplace. It hit its
Kickstarter goal in a day and went to raise 400% of what it
planned. Astroprint wants to do for 3D printers what Windows did for
computers: make them accessible to the masses.
Native Tap – Platform that helps developers test and debug apps on several devices at once
There
are currently 1.3 million apps in the App Store and millions of crashes
per day. Developers need to test their app in several different devices
and platforms to make sure it works correctly. This can take a lot of
time and work to stay up on. Native tap is a platform that allows mobile
developers to test on over 500 different platforms on one
tablet. Developers can access any device they need to test remotely
through the tablet app as if it was right in front of them. Native tap
supports many platforms including iOS, Android, Mac, Linux and Windows.Studypool – On-demand tutoring marketplace
Italist – Sources items that are hard to find outside of Italy and makes them available online
The site offers fine Italian men’s and women’s clothing items such leather shoes and sweaters. These are items that you can’t usually get without actually going to Italy to buy them. Founder Raffaele Giovine says it is already the largest Italian luxury marketplace in 50 countries, with 20 brand offerings included on the site. Italist manages all this without carrying any inventory. It is a U.S. based startup with over 100 employees. It has $2 million ARR and 50 percent growth month-over-month.
Tappur – Platform to simplify the steps it takes to operate wearables.
Drumpants was
Tappur’s first wearable controller project. This was a Kickstarter
project that let people make their own body into a musical instrument
with taps on their legs and arms. It’s already sold out it’s first
production line with an app that is compatible over in 4 platforms. It
works by making it easy to just tap instead of clicking through several
layers on an app. It can turn on the lights, unlock the door or several
other actions with a simple tap of the phone.
Chouxbox – An invoice transaction system for restaurants
It typically takes a restaurant 8 days to get an invoice processed,
according to Chouxbox. This startup promises to get all the work
done in 30 minutes. It does this by providing a simpler process for the
accounting team and restaurants to collaborate on payables and costs.
This helps the back office reduce paperwork and time so the waitstaff
doesn’t have to worry about it.
Chouxbox is also collecting restaurant purchasing data to provide insights into the restaurant industry.
CloudAcademy – Cloud computing training
There’s
a huge skill gap in cloud computing. CloudAcademy aims to close that
gap with a skills training platform focused on cloud computing
technologies. There are 20 different industries looking for cloud
experts. Those just starting out and engineers hoping to improve their
skills can go to the platform to take classes and view webinars on
various cloud computing subjects. Founder Stephano Bellasio says he
believes the content engine, cloud score algorithm and UI sets
CloudAcademy apart from the competitors. There are currently 1200
customers currently on the platform, 400 of those are paying customers.
CloudAcademy says it has a $350,000 run rate at this time.Strapping – Subscription clothing for gay men
Strapping says it is the first ever gay consumer brand. What
co-founder Stephen Conn says he means by that is most male
consumer clothing brands are marketed toward straight men and that
straight men and gay men have different motivations when it comes to
buying what they want to wear. Strapping provides a seasonal clothing
subscription service for the gay male consumer. Consumers pay a styling
fee of $39 per month. The stylists then provide them with 6-10 pieces of
clothing each month with a value of between $600 to $800.
Slidebean – Presentation design platform
There isn’t much out there to help your average design-averse
person make a nice looking slide show. Other than Prezi, the slide
presentation industry hasn’t done much to change that in the last 20
years. Slidebean hopes to make it easier to make better looking slide
presentations in minutes instead of hours by giving people
“presentations that design themselves.” What that means is Slidebean
takes your content and automagically organizes it into a beautiful
series of slides within minutes so you don’t have to go through those
steps yourself. The company says its own presentation and many
other presentations at 500 Demo Day were designed using its platform
this year. It’s free to start and up to $13.25 per month or $159 billed
annually to use.
