This week at Y-Combinator Demo Days, almost 100 companies are vying for the attention of investors, consumers, and journalists with their impressive solution oriented products in everything from medicine to sex trafficking software. Here are the top 10 pitches from day 2 we think are worth investing in.
Instavest
The idea behind this startup is collaborative investing with smaller groups following leaders. Lead investors make trades, and smaller, less informed investors can use that leader’s decision to also make a trade. Investors can sync their buys and sells to the leader, or be notified. The idea of collaborative investments is alluring, as it scales and “leaders” amass a lot of followers, who knows what types of influence they could have.
Lully
Children with sleep problems cause a problem for the whole family. As the internet of things trend continues to grow, Lully vibrates under a child’s bed and gives results to the parents letting them know how the child slept. The vibration has clinically proven to end 90% of night terrors in a landmark study. Having a device that helps parents get more sleep could be life changing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ7Oc0hjxZ4&w=560&h=315]
Vetpronto
Vetpronto allows pet owners to order a vet to their home within 24 hours. With pet ownership and spending on the rise, this fills a need in a growing industry. As healthcare in general becomes more tech based, it only makes sense doctors and vets can make more house calls at an affordable yet scalable price. Although this service is only available in San Francisco, this service should be scaling in cities where there are more seniors and baby boomers. Especially seniors who have the extra income to pay for the vet service, and may not have the ability to drive to the vet. There’s a great market opportunity for this service.
eBrandValue
The difference between eBrandValue and every other social media monitoring tool is in its power of context, listening, and mindshare of a brand’s segments. Using real-time social media data and metrics, eBrandValue tells brand’s what’s really being said not only with their brand, but in their industry, and attaches a meaningful dollar amount with what’s being said. eBrandValue actually tracked Diageo’s sales with 70% accuracy before the results came in.
Diassess
Having one cost-effective testing resource connect to a mobile phone that diagnoses diseases such as HIV, the flu, STD’s and any other DNA based disease could potentially change the way our healthcare system operates. Diassess provides this simple diagnostic tool. No longer will patients have to wait days for test results, or take unnecessary prescription drugs. A rapid test result will quickly allow the ill person to see the disease and choose the correct course of action. With healthcare costs on the rise, a simple cost-effective test that eliminates expensive lab testing is essential for healthcare practitioners, patients, and insurance companies.
BuildScience
BuildScience aims to fuse HVAC, lighting, security, network, and metering all into one real-time dashboard for building managers to insure a building is running smoothly, efficiently with reduced operating costs, and workplace productivity increases. As buildings become more connected, investments in technology such as BuildScience will payoff, as most buildings will eventually convert for the cost savings benefit alone.
Transitmix
Transitmix changes the way cities plan bus routes so its more cost and time efficient for the city planners and gives the city far better routes. Using demographic data such as population density and poverty levels, as well as cost analysis, cities can make more informed decisions such as modeling “what if” scenarios and seeing where there are gaps in neighborhoods. With a $4 billion TAM, they’re in over 20 cities with plenty of opportunity to grow.
[vimeo 115680993 w=500 h=281]
RescueForensics
This company has been collecting and analyzing actionable data for law enforcement in the sex trafficking industry for years. Agencies are able to access images, phone numbers, and other data in one central place, and cross-reference to find both the victim and the perpetrator. It’s used by the FBI, police forces, and Homeland Security. Their next big leap is to use their technology to tackle drug traffickers and terrorist recruitment efforts like ISIS. Given their success and their ideology, it’s an investors dream.
Valor Water Analytics
With water a valuable resource and commodity in many states and countries, tracking its usage effectively and efficiently should be a priority. Valor can help water companies better adjust rates and tier pricing based on usage to encourage conservation in drought areas. Valor is working with several water districts, and even the World Bank on conservation and development efforts.
Smarking
Smarking is an analytics tool for the parking industry, which will become necessary. As apps such as Park Me and Luxxe Valet scale and give consumers parking data and choices through customized mapping, the parking industry will need better tools to manage their lots and boost revenue. If lots in cities were better managed through data, pricing could reflect consumer demand, and perhaps everyone would win.