TechCrunch Choice: Top 10 Startups from Y Combinator S12 Demo Day

75 start-ups today pitched that there is urine at the fifteenth demo day of Y Combinator . We saw quite confident young companies ready to make risky big bets, and, after collecting opinions from YCS12 participants and leading venture capital funds, TechCrunch presents the Top 10.

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

Vastrm - Warby Parker for shirts

Why? It is ridiculous when clothes do not suit us.

In Vastrm very simple goal: to make sure that you had a shirt that is perfect for you . Founder Jonathan Tan (who, it should be noted, can convincingly anneal in a pair of pink pants during a presentation to the investor) has a remarkable pedigree: his family has been on the clothing market for many years, and he says that today they produce every sixth T-shirt in the United States. According to Tan, the Holy Grail of the garment industry is to have a “suit.”

Vastrm aims to solve this problem by introducing a unique size range of T-shirts and allowing customers to find the right size for them, trying on a few pieces at home until they find the right one. Vastrm also has connections with all the supply chains of the clothing industry, which will contribute to the growth of the company's profitability. Tan says the potential market is bigger than Warby Parker because “not everyone wears glasses, but everyone wears a shirt.” Learn more about Vastrm .

Double Robotics - Teleconferencing robot with ipad instead of face

Why? Let Apple recreate your cyber brains.

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

Beta testers were companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola. The first installment of Double should be released later this year, however, the site says that the first installment is already sold out. Double Robotics says they have pre-orders already 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 are already a whole host of different APIs around.

This startup makes it easy for companies to automate common web tasks and synchronize data between different web applications. He recently announced the launch of his third-party platform . 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 he communicates with all these disparate fragments.

FundersClub - Next NASDAQ

Why? Because not everyone can be Silicon Valley insiders.

More than 90% of startups' value creation takes place in private markets, which means that many investors remain on the sidelines. Serious investors, especially outside of Silicon Valley, may not have access to startups of which they are confident. 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 pooling capital to support innovation is possible. FundersClub also found support, raising for itself more than $ 520,000, although initially it was counting on $ 250,000, and received a stream of $ 1.3 million passed through the system in less than a month from the moment of launch. FundersClub could complement the best venture capital funds and angel investors, giving founders access to crowd money, which allows them to complete their rounds without attracting investors with a big name, who may not create value for the company after their money. Learn more about FundersClub .

Light Table : New Programming Environment

Why? Watch your product evolve as fast as you can program.

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

Sponsorified : Sponsor Market

Why? Because they are the right and complete team for this work.

Most of the largest companies sponsored exhibitions or conferences. Microsoft, for example, spent $ 30 million sponsoring conferences this year, while Pepsico spent even more. Sponsorfied says the problem is that this market got 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 made 200 deals for $ 400,000 in sponsorship and work with brands such as PBR, Popchips, and Red Bull. Two weeks ago, they signed an exclusive contract with a major sports team that gives over $ 100 million in sponsorship every year.

Filepicker.IO : Filepicker as a Service

Why? Raging fragmentation of cloud storage.

Filepicker says that web and mobile applications can only work with content on users ’hard drives and cannot access files on the network. Say, if a user wants to edit a photo on Facebook, he should rush about in search of other applications. 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 upload a file, they can get it directly from Facebook, Google Drive, Instagram, Box and other places where they store content on the Internet, just by writing a simple line of code . The startup says developers like it because it allows them to make their applications better. The company has seen a 20% increase every week in the past 12 weeks. The platform has 134 applications, including Scribd, SurveyMonkey, and Alfresco, and 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 across cities and transportation networks, such as the railroad, where you can receive securely delivered packages. This means that you no longer have to sit at home, weighing your shipments, and transport companies will not spend money on numerous attempts to deliver or leave customers unhappy.

BufferBox is based outside of Waterloo, so its first release is planned at Union Station in Toronto. He plans to locate BufferBox's in 100 locations by the end of the year. Today, the startup announced that Google has joined in with Walmart to allow ecommerce customers to send packages via mailboxes. Learn more about BufferBox .

Vayable : A Market for Unique Travel Experience

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

Vayable offers travelers the opportunity to experience places around the world like Airbnb. How unique are these experiences? One of the first ones sold on the site was fishing with the Fijian king. The founders say that “artists, bloggers, kings, mayors and even the homeless man from the notorious region” began to build a small business on the site. And he already makes a profit.

9gag - A single window for funny memes on the Internet

Why? There are a hell of a lot of users.

9gag collects memes and jokes from all over the Internet - this is much like Reddit , but with a clear direction for all kinds of jokes (gags are jokes, I think it’s clear?). The site is already wildly popular: its founders say that in July 9gag had more than 65 million unique visitors compared to 39.7 million people at Reddit (the second figure was provided by 9gag, so in doubt) Other indicators are also amazing: 3.8 million fans on Facebook, 920,000 followers on Twitter, and users spend an average of more than 17 minutes on each visit. The company launched its first mobile application three weeks ago and now it already has 750,000 downloads.

The content created by users is always a hit, miss, but people from 9gag say that in general the site can generate a lot of great material because it can be published on the Internet right away. “No studio in Los Angeles can do this so fast ... when it comes to creating this kind of content,” says 9gag, one of the founders in the company's presentation.



Congratulations to all the startups who spoke today. The pitches were surprisingly refined and, despite the huge audience, it is obvious that the quality of startups in YC was not affected.

Other startups that we believe have great potential include HD Trade Services, Scoutzie, Tastemaker, and BigCalc. Check out our reviews about them and choose your favorite 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