Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2020329

by pennyfiller • 16 years ago

46 52 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

tell us who and why

thushan2• 16 years ago

I don't know if they are a startup or an offshoot of someone else's already existing technology, but the group behind WorldLens (QuestVisual) have my votes. Yes maybe I'm saying that in light of this week's release being on my mind, but I think they have some wicked cool technology. Shockingly wicked if I say so myself. Hipmunk would be my vote for second.

jf• 16 years ago

They are a startup. It's two guys: Otavio Good and John DeWeese. They built their own technology and aren't an offshoot of someone else's.

thushan2• 16 years ago

Thanks for that info.

vaksel• 16 years ago

probably groupon, they had huge growth in 2010

DenisM• 16 years ago

My own. Doubled the revenue and will do it again next year.

jaxtapose2• 16 years ago

5.8% growth per month, not too shabby. Must be getting exciting.

olalonde3• 16 years ago

Sencha (http://www.sencha.com/) is doing very well and innovating in a cut throat industry.

olalonde3• 16 years ago

I'd be curious to know why this was down voted.

jaxtapose2• 16 years ago

MineCraft

runevault• 16 years ago

Have to agree with this. Guy had done lots of other work, and just kept plugging away. Then this (an alpha, for those who might have missed that fact) just takes off and he starts bringing in millions.

kin• 16 years ago

i concur.

It's always been discouraging to to build an entire video game and be mildly popular. Then comes a guy to single handedly accomplish this. Certainly gives me a lot of hope.

jakerocheleau• 16 years ago

The branding behind Foursquare has been amazing (http://foursquare.com/)

Not to mention the power they have with mobile apps on all major OS'

olalonde3• 16 years ago

Hunch (http://www.hunch.com) for tackling a very hard problem (recommendations) and being pretty good at it.

ziadbc• 16 years ago

Although its been overexposed in the media, the reality for me is Facebook. Not since Google have we seen a company expand to that magnitude of usage within the wider population.

Facebook was probably the first truly bubble 1.0 company to reach that milestone, and will pave the way for many other companies to do the same.

elliottcarlson2• 16 years ago

Upvoting this not because I agree, but because someone downvoted the parent.

This is an opinion based thread - why are people downvoting people when they disagree with an opinion? Especially in a thread like this one?

KingOfB• 16 years ago

Not that I dis-agree, but do you consider facebook a startup? They seem like they've entered out of that phase to me.

schammy2• 16 years ago

Facebook is not a startup.

yaknow• 16 years ago

Quora (http://www.quora.com) has assembled a community of brilliant people who inspire me daily. Q&A done right - hope it stays this good!

huangm• 16 years ago

Foursquare (http://foursquare.com/).

Foursquare's ascension into the mainstream has been incredibly fast & impressive, especially given that on the surface there was little differentiation among all the competing LBS check-in services a year ago.

I think 4SQ is a good case study in the importance of the execution over the idea (a commonly harped on subject in these parts).

4SQ's success also helps to validate NYC as having some distinct advantages for certain types of social media plays.

pchristensen• 16 years ago

It's still fresh, but Word Lens blew me and everyone else away this week.

guiseppecalzone• 16 years ago

clickable: http://questvisual.com/

3pt14159• 16 years ago

Guestlist (guestlistapp.com) partially because I'm privy to some of their internal numbers and partially because they are some of the nicest guys in the whole Toronto tech scene.

timmorgan• 16 years ago

Not sure why this got a downvote -- the question was what startup inspires _you_ the most. Inspiration doesn't have to come from the the biggest players.

bayareaguy• 16 years ago

Dropbox, because it solves a real problem my family has.

dshankar• 16 years ago

Quora or Groupon.

Quora because it provides an extremely high-quality Q&A community.

Groupon simply because of the crazy growth and insane amount of revenue/profit they generated.

DevX1012• 16 years ago

HipMunk. They demonstrated that design & UI really matters.

schammy2• 16 years ago

Nice call. Not sure if I could call it my "favorite" of the year, but it's definitely a damn nice product. I used it to purchase tickets for all of the flights I took this year and was very happy with the experience.

DevX1012• 16 years ago

Wasn't my favorite either. But I definitely learned a thing or two from their launch.

kn0thing• 16 years ago

Thanks! Even as someone from team hipmunk, I must confess that I gave my upvote to Groupon :) But 2011 is going to be a big year for us. Don't ever hesitate to drop us a note (contact@hipmunk.com) with any & all feedback. And if any of you would like something special for being superhuman early adopters, email me (alexis@hipmunk.com) with your shipping address.

mmaunder• 16 years ago

Groupon. I consulted briefly for them when they were ThePoint.com and I thought their original idea for ThePoint was a really bad one and they were going nowhere. Within a few months they had completely changed their business model and were profitable. Then they became massively profitable and Google wanted to buy them for $4 billion.

What I love about Groupon is that in the world of Google they've proven there is still a huge amount of revenue and profit available online.

They are also showing that revenue still counts for a hell of a lot and that pure growth without profit is not the only strategy and may even be a bad strategy.

I also love that they fly in the face of Google's attitude that software should do everything and the main role of employees is to write software. Groupon is a people company in the sense that people in their business deal directly with their customers (the businesses they market).

Groupon are also targeting a hugely unexplored space which is small to medium local businesses that target local customers. They're doing it with boots on the ground (or at least via a person to person phone call) in each city the launch in. So far "local" has been a cluster of servers in a data center and a group of developers. It feels like Groupon is doing local the way it should be done.

I also love that the Google/Groupon deal didn't work out because I think Google's culture and approach would have killed a wonderful business that we all continue to learn from.

ScottBurson• 16 years ago

Kickstarter seems to be getting some traction. Do you still think that's a bad model?

coolswan• 16 years ago

Yeah, their story is pretty inspiring. Going from basically a dead-end product to the top of the world in a matter of one year. Basically whenever I get close to losing hope, I just think of Groupon.

henry81• 16 years ago

I can't think of a specific start-up that has inspired me.

What has inspired me is the explosion in the sheer number of high quality apps/gadgets/tools/etc. that are actually innovative.

apollo• 16 years ago

Groupon, because they found a simple multi-billion dollar business hiding in plain sight.

hkr• 16 years ago

> hiding in plain sight.

Ah! I like that expression!

marksp• 16 years ago

Whapee (http://whapee.com) as they bring back the old-school account free internet and keep privacy on location based services.

emilepetrone• 16 years ago

Kickstarter - I can post a project, and potentially get thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars...without loosing equity?! Game changer.

auxbuss• 16 years ago

losing equity

hapholiday• 16 years ago

Of course Groupon is amazing and Word Lens is jaw-dropiing but I really am fond of intersect.com because it is such a good idea.

revorad• 16 years ago

When it comes to inspiration, it's hard for me to name any startup other than YCombinator, even in 2010.

YuriNiyazov• 16 years ago

Heroku, because their comparatively monstrous exit fully validated the YC model.

rdl• 16 years ago

Wikileaks, since a tiny group of people with limited resources has had such a big impact on politics, media, diplomacy, and war. I don't like or agree with some of what they have done, but they have undeniably changed the world.

Quora, for developing an amazing realtime UI and a great core of startup industry content and community.

Groupon, for breakout mass market commercial success from basically obscurity.

mconnors• 16 years ago

messagehop.com is a pretty awesome idea.

ztan• 16 years ago

Y Combinator probably does not count as a startup. But I'd still have to say YC has been the most inspiring company for me in 2010. Seeing PG talk at startup school about why right now is the best time to do a startup had a large impact on me. I'd argue that currently having the YC stamp of approval for a web/tech startup has more value and credibility than any other single incubator/funder out there. And its probably one of the best things that can happen for an early stage tech startup.

Ras_• 16 years ago

Rovio Mobile: Angry Birds.

For popularizing phone gaming. Having franchise potential in other platforms and even past games.

intdev• 16 years ago

AirBnB's story was pretty inspiring.

kapauldo2• 16 years ago

Fee

kapauldo2• 16 years ago

feefighters. Real business model, solves a real problem.

hariis• 16 years ago

Groupon refuses to inspire me. I am amazed at their growth, their adapting from ThePoint and their billion dollar valuations but I just don't see it as a viable business model Case in point, the two times I have bought such deals it was from Living Social even though I track Groupon every day.

So back to the original question, what inspires me is not one particular start up but all the open source contributions that are enabling these start ups including mine. It just wouldn't be possible for someone like me (full-time Windows dev) to bring my ideas to reality if not for the Ruby on Rails framework, jquery and the countless number of plugins.

etagwerker• 16 years ago

It was inspiring to see Foursquare make it to the mainstream.

Also, Heroku. But I'm unsure about the future after the acquisition. Hopefully they'll stick around and continue to rock!

Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?

Related Stories