Tech Hunch Thrifty: Web 2.0 Companies Started on a Hunch and a Prayer

Just finished my first session at the Web 2.0 Summit-- a panel session hosted by Guy Kawasaki. Nine different start-ups, each given 6 minutes to demo their product. Most of the panel members appeared to be twenty-somethings. Eight of the 9 presenters were using Macs. The central theme: the days of $2M in funding with only a business plan and no product to demo are over.

WuFoo – Kevin Hale

• Online HTML forms builder
• Can embed form directly into website, including CSS.
• Can process online payments: through PayPal, Google Checkout,
  
• Business model: hosted, monthly subscription fee: free - $199/month.
• Y-Combinator seed funded: $18k + angel money $100k. Profitable. Based in Tampa, FL

Yoics - Instant networking

• Built into various devices to network-enable them. For example, surveillance cameras.
• Can load the yoics client onto other PC’s
• Business model: license the technology to manufacturers.
• Bootstrapped by 2 founders. Raise money from there.

DropBox – founder Drew

• Share files across computers. Synchs files across computers. Files show up in a folder, using standard file management. Files are synched across network.
• Can easily “export” files by dropping them into the dropbox folder.
• Files also available over web. Files are automatically versioned. Can restore to previous versions of files or undeleting.
• 9 person start-up: Windows, Linux, Mac.
• 2 gigabytes free. 50 gig: $20/month or $100/year.
• Developed prototype in 4 months (while working at another start-up). $15k in Y Combinator + $5k loan for 9 months total.

Disqus – Jason

• Management system for blog comments.
• Central place to track all my comments on web sites. Can also follow comments from other disqus users.
• As a publisher, can manage/moderate/view comments from all websites.
• Supports blog platforms, but needs a plug-in that you drop into
• Biz model: subscription model. Also looking at going to bigger publishers.
• Financing: Y Combinator funded 1 year ago: $15k in summer 2007.

Mighty Quiz - Kelly Bennet

• Trivia site – you can make your own quizzes.
• Can plug into blogs or social networks.
• People can create questions. Other people can rate questions (thumbs up/down)
• Authors can write questions. Can add questions to categories. Automatically pulls in images from Yahoo images.
• Portable, available as a widget.
• Cyworld (social network) imports Mighty Quiz widget.
• Y-Combinator funded: $10k. Raised few hundred $100’s K. Based in San Francisco.

SlideShare – Rashmi Sinha (CEO)

• Share power point presentations online.
• Space on the web to upload and share presentations.
• Presentations converted to YouTube-like video format. Users can comment on presentations.
• Typical use case: people upload a presentation, then link to their website/blog.
• “Meet Henry” presentation: a preso format for advertisements. Has created a category
• Can also synch presos with audio. (mp3 file or podcast) to create a slidecast.
• Traffic: 9M unique visitors last month. SlideShare avail on LinkedIn. Some traffic from organic search.
• 2000 presos uploaded / day (not counting LinkedIn)
• Funding: $0 funding. Built prototype while working at other companies. Launched, written by TechCrunch. Revenue from other funding. 2 years into company, secured angel funding then Series A.

Posterous – Garry Tan (co-founder)

• Blogging by e-mail. No sign-up required.
• Blog directly from e-mail account. post@posterous.com.
• Automatically expands links into pictures/video widget.
• Zip files automatically expanded into a JavaScript picture viewer.
• Use it as a way to share pictures and videos with family.
• Raised $50k from Y-Combinator from Boston session. Launched in the summer.
• Biz model: premium services.

Rescue Time – Tony

• Time management software
• Measures which software and websites you’re using. Provides aggregated stats to manager. Lets people know how they compare to their average team member.
• Tracks apps (Word, Excel) and individual web sites (active use).
• Can also block different websites
• Lets managers get data by dept, group, etc.

Poll Everywhere - Jeff Dunap

• Text participation during presentations.
• Realtime participation by people sending SMS messages.
• $0.30/participant/month for size of 100’s of people
• For 250 person audience, costs $65/month. Monthly charge =
• Financing: $9k (self-funded), $20k (Y-Comb), cash flow positive, based in Chicago & Boston.