This week, 92 startups pitched at Y Combinator’s two Demo Days, presenting how their vision is going to change the world to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors and notable tech leaders.
The Mountain View accelerator is one of the most reputable in the world, with its roster of graduates including Airbnb, DropBox and Instacart. While many of Y Combinator’s previous cohorts have largely incubated Silicon Valley-based startups, 30 percent of this summer’s class came from outside the U.S.
Additionally, a handful of companies in this summer’s cohort hailed from our own hometown. In total, five New York-based startups pitched at this year's two-day YC showcase, running the gamut from on-demand haircuts to artisanal food marketplaces.
What Casper brought to mattresses, Burrow is bringing to sofas. While couches, like mattresses, are difficult to shop for, and even harder to move, Burrow is focused on a direct-to-consumer, one-size-fits-most model. The company’s sofa design is catered toward mobility, and they will deliver the piece directly to your door with compacted shipping.
We were first introduced to Squire at New York Tech Day back in April, where the company was offering haircuts on the showroom floor. The service is a barbershop scheduling app, which allows customers to book appointments through its mobile platform.
Haywheel is an online marketplace for artisanal foods that aims to make sourcing easier for restaurants. To date, over 300 restaurants use the service, which allows them to order the best wholesale ingredients in seconds.
Mentat is changing job searching for millennials. Essentially, the company applies to jobs for its users, as it automates resume reviews, applications submissions and interview scheduling. Specifically, the company is catering to a demographic of people who want a new job, but are too busy to actually spend the time applying for jobs.
Vidcode’s mission is simple: ‘teach teens to code.’ Targeting its core demographic, the company recently partnered with Snapchat to allow students to code their own filters. To date, the company’s founders have introduced Vidcode to schools, camps and programs to get a younger generation excited about computer science.
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