MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF — The always-entertaining Dave McClure kicked off 500 Startups Demo Day today with a video about Sharknado, otherwise known as "the best worst movie ever."
"We hope our startups go as viral as Sharknado did," McClure said. "Building a startup is as insane as chainsawing your way out of a great white shark's stomach every now and then."
Today is the culminating event for the sixth class to complete 500 Startups' accelerator program. Twice a year, the accelerator program selects around 30 startups from around the world to participate in a three-month program where they receive mentorship, work space, and an extensive network of resources to help get their businesses off the ground. 500 Startups has made a major push over the last year to attract more women and international founders and McClure is a vocal advocate of seeking out untapped opportunities in emerging markets. This batch is made up of 28 companies, with two-thirds hailing from abroad. It also contains 500 Startups' first investments in Africa and the Middle East, and eight women-founded companies. The event, as I have come to expect, was riddled with rap music, goofy outfits, foreign accents, and even a sword.
From the global "tribe" of startups that presented today, here are the ones that stuck out.
Mayvenn
Mayvenn is a service for African American hairstylists to add a retail component to their business. Founder Diishan Imira said that African American women spend $6 billion every year on hair extensions, outspending all other demographics 3 to 1. 95 percent of African American hair salons don't have a retail component because the costs of maintaining the inventory are too high — customers go to separate beauty supply stores to buy products and bring them to the salon. Using Mayvenn, hair stylists can create personalized e-commece websites and mobile apps to sell hair products. Mayveen will fulfill the orders and stylists earn 20 percent of the sale.
"This makes a material difference," Imira said on stage. "The average hair stylists earns $24K a year and Mayvenn can help them double the revenue per client and increase their yearly income. For the consumers, we deliver hair products at a lower price."
Like most in the audience, I don't know much about this market, but I appreciate that Mayvenn has found a big opportunity in a sector largely overlooked by technology companies.
Boxc
Boxc is attempting to improve the process of overseas shipping. It lets online retailers in China sell directly to U.S. consumers. The company has collection centers in Shanghai and distribution centers in Los Angeles. It aggregates and optimies shipping demand to reduce international shipping costs and speed up delivery time. The company is targeting 2 million Chinese sellers who are trying to reach 100 million U.S. buyers, without going through a middleman. With all the amount of manufacturing in China, the growth of e-commerce, and a supply chain that is still slow and expensive for international orders, Boxc aims to become the best logistics provider for global e-commerce.
School Admission
School Admissions is an Indian company simplifying school search for parents in India. Founder Rajan Arora described the admissions process for Indian schools on stage.
"You have to research multiple schools and there are no resources available online or offline," he said. "Then you have to track admission dates and every school has a different date. You have to go to the schools to procure the forms and buy them from the schools. Lastly you have to wait for the results. Imagine doing this for 30 schools. Entire families get into action and there will be long queues outside schools starting at 4am."
When Arora did this for his child, he said it took 5 months. He took 20 days off from work and it cost him more than $20000. There will be more than 40 million new admissions in India by 2015 and in 2012, $250 million dolalrs were earned by schools from the sale of forms, in Delhi alone.
School Admissions is working to put the entire admissions process online. Parents input what they are looking for and the school matching engine will recommend which schools to apply to. They can sign up for admission alerts and complete applications online for multiple schools. The company will charge both parents and schools, as well as make money from lead generation and ads from brands that are targeting parents. It recently formed a partnership with Airtel, India's biggest mobile operator, to power its school admission helpline.
India is a massive and rapidly growing Internet market. About one-third of India's population of 1.2 billion is under the age of 14 and around 15 million of them will apply to private school. If School Admissions can build up a strong enough marketplace, this could be huge.
Geekatoo
Despite the fact that I make a living writing about technology, I have absolutely no idea what to do when my computer has a problem. I racked up countless hours with Best Buy's Geek Squad, over the years, including one tearful night at 9 pm right before a college exam. Geekatoo brings the Geeksquad to you. The company cuts out the middlemen and can offer cheaper service, since there is no storefront or inventory to maintain. Customers orders help online and a verified, skill-tested technician arrive at their door. No leaving you computer for weeks at a repair shop. No embarrassing breakdowns in front of strangers trying to buy TVs. The company launched just a few months ago and is already processing $1000 a day, with 3000 providers in its system. This "Uber of tech support" approach also benefits computer specialists who can make extra money or a living on Geekatoo.
Unda
Unda is a video messaging app that according to Oscar Noriega, "is how messaging should be."
"Life is bigger than texting," he said on stage. "This is very different from social video. This is more like a video walkie talkie."
I tend to be skeptical of messaging and video apps. I only recently started using emojis (mostly as a joke) and get pitched constantly on yet another way to communicate with friends. However there is no doubt that video is dominating the Internet and popular social sites like Instagram and Twitter with Vine see the power in communicating using video. Unda's app lets you take a quick quick video and send it. When the recipeient opens the message, they can watch it. They don't need to be available at the same time (like Face Time), and the video history is stored in cloud.
Noriega said saying "I love you" is better than texting it, and he thinks that soon a huge chunk of the texting market will be video messaging. Unda has had 12,000 downloads in one month alone and users send 1000 video messages per day. SnapChat is now valued at over $800 million, Unda could be the next startup in this vein.
Feast
Finally, as someone who recently learned to cook and still struggle with cracking the perfect egg, I have to give a little shout out to Feast. Feast is an online marketplace for cooking classes, dedicated to "teaching this generation how to cook." Founder David Spinks said 30 million people search for the phrase "how to cook" every year, but the results are chaotic and overwhelming. After trying multiple methods of teaching people to cook, he and cofounder Nadia Egbhal found taht what people really want to learn are basics like how to hold a knife. Feast breaks cooking down into simple lessons and sends a "crash course" every day in an email with quick educational videos. The team is focused on building a community around the content, and like well-known food writer Michale Pollan's latest book, encouraging people to live healthier lifestyles and improve the American food system by simply, cooking.
McClure wrapped up the day by emphasizing the importance of bringing Sand Hill Road to the rest of the world. Startup ecosystems are just beginning to emerge in Latin America, Africa, SoutheastAsia, and the Middle East and many entrepreneurs with great ideas still struggle to find the guidance and financial support they need. 500 Startups has multiple initiatives like Geeks on a Plane and dedicated regional funds that are designed to nurture founders around the world and create opportunities outside of Silicon Valley. I was impressed with the startups that presented today, and plenty more presented that I found interesting. For the complete list of startups in this batch, go here. Any startup interested in applying to 500 Startups’ 7th batch, you apply through Angelist.
Filed under: Entrepreneur
John Koetsier 25 Jul, 2013
enclosure: http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/500-startups.jpg?w=160
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Source: http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/24/the-six-most-memorable-startups-from-500-startups-sixth-class/
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