Over the past few years, Y Combinator has helped to launch over 100 successful startups by investing a small amount of money and providing hands-on help to young entrepreneurs. Successful companies include the likes of Reddit, Justin.tv and Loopt among others.
Last year, YC launched around 40 companies, some of which have taken off while others are poised to break out in 2010. With the recent 2010 Demo Day complete, we take a look at current YC companies that are poised to break out this year:
Launched in August of 2009 and dubbed the “eBay for free stuff” by TechCrunch, Listia has revolutionized the way people give and get free stuff online. Craigslist leads to unwanted email spam, no customer support and online scams, while Listia removes all the headaches and makes giving and getting free stuff fun again.
Listia makes it easy to give away the things you no longer want and get free stuff you need in return. The more stuff you give away, the more stuff you get. And by the way, the entire site is free, much like Craigslist. When you give stuff away, you get credits; the more credits you get, the more stuff you can get using an auction system like eBay. Listia does a good job on standing out and offers advantages over Craigslist, Freecycle or eBay.
This site is very addictive and has become a passion for many of it’s users as they have found ways to clean out their closet while managing to get a free iPhone or Xbox in return. To date, Listia has given away a Pool Table, Plama TVs, and even an iPad.
So far Listia.com has raised a healthy round of funding, become a top 10,000 US website (Alexa Rankings) and continues to see strong growth.
Much like Digg, The Sixty One is a website the allows users to vote on their favorite music from unknown artist, and if it gets enough votes, it ends up on the home page. There are also a few game mechanics involved that make this site addictive and fun.
This company launched at the Spring YC Demo Day of 2009, almost 12 months ago. No public information has been provided as to how much money Sixty One has raised, but since they have launched, traffic has been on a steady rise and currently is a top 10,000 website in the US according to Alexa rankings. Sixty One has been going through some growing pains with the redesign and revolt from the recent redesign of the website, but we believe they will have a breakout year because of their direct and addictive approach.
Hey Zap is an exciting idea that has been a hit from the beginning with websites across the web. You can instantly and easily add flash games to your website that can be interactive for your users to increase pageviews, sales and loyalty within your website community. Once the game is added, you can even sell upgrades or give discounts way with the flash games themselves. These games may even catch on to where they will be shared across social platforms.
So far HeyZap has raised $650,000 and was part of the Spring 2009 YC Demo Day. Their rate of growth is starting to accelerate quickly and should become a break-out very soon.
You may not know it, but the Bump App that is so popular for the iPhone, that has surpassed 10 million downloads, was actually a YC startup in August 2009. The idea was simple, bump two iPhones together and exchange personal information instantly. You might be thinking that this company has already “broken out” with over 10 million downloads, but the fact is, they still need to make money, and they still need some fresh ideas to continue growing.
The Bump API is allowing developers and other apps to use their technology to create their own uses for Bump. This is going to allow for rapid expansion and more revenue opportunities. Bump raised $3 million from the likes of Sequoia Capital last year and is still seeing thousands of downloads for the the original app everyday.
Looks for these YC companies to not only have strong years, but continue strong growth for years to come. Each of these companies have strong concepts and room for massive growth as this is only the beginning. Which companies do you think will become the next big thing?
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TheSixtyOne.com seems pretty cool. The UI is definitely different, but intriguing in its own way. The more I use it the more I like it and that is a good indicator.
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