“I hope you all work hard to make a lot of money, hire a lot of people, and pay a lot of taxes!” said Bloomberg, during his time on stage. TechStars’s previous NYC class is currently being featured on a reality show on Bloomberg TV. Here are 5 takeaways from the event:
Education is still a hot industry, where the established players are the ones to beat.Food is still a hot industry, and startups are branching out from dish recommendations for diners.B2B can be cool: a bunch of these startups are delivering sleek, valuable services targeted at businesses, many focusing on engagement.With a plethora of ways to access content, we begin to need tools that bridge those platforms.It’s great to be in TechStars: almost all the startups have already raised money, with Coursekit bringing in $1 million from IA Ventures, Founder Collective, and Shasta Ventures.
And here are the 12 startups, selected from 1,200 applicants: Dispatch: A drag-and-drop service for aggregating and sharing cloud-based files. Singled out by Robert Scoble. SideTour: A marketplace for selling unique experiences, like talking startups and playing pinball with GroupMe. Wantworthy: A tool that lets shoppers on any site click “I want this” to save to their wish list. Ordr.in: An e-commerce platform for restaurants that lets users order straight from food blogs and websites, apps, and hotels. Ambassador: A platform for companies to reward “ambassadors” for promoting their brand on social networks. Solving a similar problem to AdbyMe. Urtak: A Q&A widget for sites that promises to bring in more responses and participation. MobIntent: An analytics tool to optimize mobile advertising campaigns along metrics like user time, downloads, or purchases. ChatID: A chat platform for companies to talk with customers on any site or device. Coursekit: A social network for education, and a jab at Blackboard. Contently: A network that lets freelance journalists build a portfolio and connect with publishers, and lets publishers manage their editorial operations. An attempt at buoying a floundering media industry. Piictu: A mobile social network for communicating with photos.
