The top 7 startups from Y Combinator S16 Demo Day 1
In-flight VR entertainment and security guard drones were amongst our favorites from the 44 startups that launched at Y Combinator’s Summer 2016 Demo Day 1. After querying investors and our writers, here are TechCrunch’s picks for the 7 most promising companies from the first half of the batch, plus an honorable mention. Check back later for all the startups and our picks from… Read More Continue reading The top 7 startups from Y Combinator S16 Demo Day 1
Step 1: Build software for pot labs. Step 2: Find out who has the strongest herb. Step 3: Create a marijuana marketplace connecting dispensaries with the best growers. That’s the plan that scored $3 million in seed funding led by Slow Ventures for Confident Cannabis. Right now it’s on Step 2, having established the largest real-time database of cannabis in the world just nine… 
David Byttow learned just how much goes unsaid inside companies while he was running Secret. Blasting private information out publicly causes harassment, which led Secret to flame out and give investors back some of their money. But now Byttow is channeling his insight into a new startup called Bold, which he tells me is a “platform for writing long-form content at work. Use cases… 
The fastest way to learn everything going on in tech is to read this report. Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has become a legend for publishing these compilations of the most critical stats and trends about how technology is evolving. From the funding climate to smartphone adoption to the tech giants to cutting-edge inventions, the Mary Meeker Internet Trends report has it all.
You know what to do at work today, but do you know why? Goals. Having clear goals is critical to keeping productivity and morale high on any team. Whether it’s a launch date, level of traction, sales quota or hiring objective, teams perform better with well-defined motives. Lattice weaves goals into your workflow. Built by Y Combinator president Sam Altman’s brother Jack, Lattice… 
Plenty of startups have tried and failed to make enterprise software sexy, but Slack made it viral. Its growth rate is unheard of. Both Slack’s daily user count and its paid seat count are up 3.5X in just a year. Tons of people have still never heard of it, but with this momentum, they probably will soon. What the growth means for Slack is network effect. Each person who joins makes… 
Pre-natal genetic testing, VR drones, and fracking nanoparticles were a few of the products featured in Y Combinator’s first Virtual Demo Day. They come from the YC Fellowship, a program designed to let the startup school help idea- or prototype-stage companies, beyond the full-fledged businesses in its main accelerator. The 8-week full-time fellowship mostly offers remote guidance,… 
Airware used to sell drone operating systems. Now it’s swiveling to sell the whole flying kit and caboodle: drone hardware, the software to control them, and the cloud where their data goes. It discovered that big enterprise companies didn’t know how to piece together drone systems themselves, so they were slow to adapting to the tech that could save them money and keep employees… 
Supersonic planes, food harvesting robots and instant HIV diagnosis were some of the ideas that wowed us on Demo Day 2 for Y Combinator’s Winter 2016 batch. We queried investors and TechCrunch’s writers to come up with our top 8 picks from all 59 startups that presented. Check out our coverage of the 60 YC startups from Tuesday, plus our 7 favorites. Additional reporting by Megan… 
We asked investors what their favorite startups were from the 60 that launched at Y Combinator’s Winter 2016 Demo Day 1. After huddling with our writers and adding our input, here are TechCrunch’s picks for the 7 most promising companies from the batch, plus an honorable mention. Here’s the list of all the startups that launched at YC W’16 on day two. Additional…