Spring means rain, the return of flowers, and of course, the day of Y Combinator's first demo of the year. On the first of two pitch days for this prestigious accelerator's 2024 Winter Cohort, the entire TechCrunch staff tuned in, took notes, joked, and slowly whittled down the dozens of presenting companies and early stages. We have compiled a list of our favorite companies.
From AI-generated music and grant applications to cool new fintech applications and even healthtech initiatives, there was something for everyone. It will resume for the second day of pitching on Thursday. In case you weren't able to watch it live until then, here are some of the best from day one.
TechCrunch Staff Favorites
Aidy
What it is: Uses AI to help businesses find and apply for grants Why we love it: Getting grants isn't easy. Max Williamson, Peter Crocker and Greg Miller know this all too well. They work between the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where subsidies are the common currency. Finding and applying for grants requires sifting through mountains of paperwork and filing countless forms, which can be expensive and time-consuming. So why not let AI help? That's the idea behind their startup Aidy, which is currently focused solely on Rural Energy for America program grants. After asking a few questions, Aidy evaluates your organization's competitiveness for the grant by navigating the eligibility requirements and scoring criteria, and takes you through the first pass of filling out the associated forms. Aidy is clearly in the proof-of-concept stage, judging by the state of its tools. But assuming the platform's AI doesn't make that many mistakes, the concept is interesting.Selected person: Kyle
give front
Function: Acts as a banking platform for nonprofit organizations. Why it's popular: In the nonprofit sector, compliance and regulatory requirements require financial management to be done a little differently. That's where Givefront comes in. Co-founded by Ethan Sayre and Matt Tengtrakool, who previously launched a Nigeria-based loanee startup, Givefront provides banking, spend management, and financial governance services for nonprofit organizations. I am. Specifically, Givefront provides nonprofits with an account to store funds and consolidate donations, payments, and redemptions, as well as features for automated reporting and annual regulatory filings. Granted, Givefront isn't the only option for nonprofit banks. However, he appears to be one of the first built from the ground up for this purpose. This certainly has its own charm.Selected person: Kyle
buster
What it does: Software that links databases and large-scale language models Why it's popular: There's a lot of market focus on companies that create large-scale language models. The bigger we are, the faster and smarter we are. You get the idea. However, when it comes to actually implementing the latest AL models within an enterprise, data issues are encountered. For example, one of his startups I recently covered, Skyflow, is working to prevent confidential information from being leaked by the wrong users of LLM. Buster caught my eye because it seemed to be tackling problems that would be faced by entire companies in disarray. Sure, the new model is cool, but selling software picks and shovels during the AI gold rush is probably a very good business model. I'll dig!Selected person: Alex
Numo
What: Banking Services for Emerging Market Contractors Why We Love It: Creating better payroll solutions for remote and international workers is nothing new, but with a focus on emerging market contractors. Numo's approach stands out in particular. It's also smart that Numo is building a banking product in addition to its own payroll system. This gives you a safer place to store the money you earn, even though many of your contractors will be based in countries whose currencies fluctuate frequently.Selected person: Becca
intercept
What it is: Uses AI to help consumer packaged goods brands aggregate retail fees and dispute invalid fees. Why it's so popular: Many consumer goods brands, especially emerging ones, have very slim margins and are squeezed by numerous fees that cover things like shelving, packing incorrect quantities, and packaging. Shipping damaged products. The Intercept says that by discovering and reporting invalid charges, consumer brands can potentially recoup an average of 15% of the revenue that would have been spent on inaccurate charges. This seems like a problem worth solving.Selected person: Becca
Nuanced Co., Ltd.
What it does: Helps detect deep fakes and misinformation Why it's popular: Interested in technology finding ways to parse the inevitable rise in deep fakes and misinformation we're already encountering there is. Artificial intelligence is becoming more sophisticated by the minute, and we are entering a world where right and wrong, fact and fiction are already starting to blur. Deepfakes are a particular concern for women, as shown by what happened to Taylor Swift, and government regulation in this area has been slow, so there is a need to focus on addressing growing cybersecurity needs. I welcome new research and technology.Selected person: Dom
vector view
Feature: Custom LLM Evaluations Why it's so popular: One of the things you often read when a new major LLM comes to market is its benchmark statistics. For example, Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus model has a 0-shot CoT of 50.4% in “Graduate Reasoning, GPQA, Diamond”. That's very clear. All kidding aside, it's not. That's why we like the idea that Vectorview is working on: the ability to test LLM and AI agents for a company's specific use case. Vectorview believes it can accomplish something big by bringing testing tools closer to the end user than the academic side.Selected person: Alex
abel
What it does: Uses AI to help lawyers process legal documents faster Why it's popular: Sean Safahi, co-founder of Abel, says it allows lawyers to get “depth over breadth.” I said you won't have to choose. I think any technology that helps lawyers make more informed arguments and decisions is a good thing. Making the legal process faster and more accurate seems like a solid strategy. It is worth noting that Abel users should tread carefully as bringing AI and automation into legal proceedings further increases privacy risks.Selected person: Becca
Soundry AI, Sonauto
What it does: AI-powered music generation Why we love it: Soundry AI's technology is very useful for creating music that fits neatly in the background. Muzak, elevator songs, corporate learning soundtracks, whatever is playing in a noisy restaurant may be a song you know, even though you can't quite hear it. This is a big market and we see companies tweaking their own mixes to get the right vibe. Next, a startup called Sonauto wants to back the blockbuster. I'm more skeptical here, mainly because the music I love the most requires a lot of humans working extremely hard to push the boundaries of music. His latest Tesseract record is a good example. Oh my god, what an amazing piece of art. That said, I accept that I'm wrong here and that robots will eventually write better progressive metal, pop, and experimental jazz than us humble meatbags. I love music and I love technology, so I think I'll end up loving their union. (There are also copyright concerns regarding the source material, but I have to add because it's not interesting.) Selected by: Alex
starlight charge
What it does: EV chargers and management software for apartments, condominiums, and commercial buildings Why it's popular: Unless you live in an apartment complex, most EV charging is done at home. There is a lack of infrastructure in apartment complexes, forcing drivers to find power elsewhere. This is not only a headache for drivers, but also an unrealized profit for building owners. Starlight Charging centralizes key parts of your infrastructure to reduce costs. “The installation costs are so low that we can actually offer a solution with no upfront cost and still make a profit,” founder Andrew Kohli said. “Our payback period is less than a year. The company also seems to be keen on the small details, complying with plug-and-charge standards for payments and removable for easy replacement in case of damage or vandalism. We offer our own charging equipment that comes with a standard cable, which should help with maintenance that has stumbled with many other EV charging networks. Selected by: Tim
eggnog eye
Features: Online video creation and hosting AI-generated clips Why we love it: I muted the Demo Day stream to try this out — you can check out my work here — because I'm always disappointed For one thing, there's a dearth of new sci-fi movies to watch late at night. we need more! Therefore, a video creation tool based on user prompts is very interesting to me. Given the fact that AI-generated content may not be permanently established on mainstream video platforms (brand safety, copyright concerns, the list goes on), eggnog may be on to something. There may be. Still, while my little video clip was decent, my doodles are as close to a feature film as the best animated series out there.Selected person: Alex
pump
What it does: Allows small businesses to bundle and save on AWS Why it's popular: It allows small businesses and startups to get the cloud services they need without spending a significant portion of their capital on software This is a good approach for Pump's decision to monetize through AWS rather than the small business itself is a smart one and is very likely to generate strong traction. It's easy to get excited about a company dubbed the “Costco of cloud computing.”Selected person: Becca
Pico
Feature: Attempts to organize screenshots. Why I love it: I love it because I have about 13,000 photos on my phone, most of which are screenshots. And when you need to find a screenshot, you end up trawling through the abyss of your phone's library. Having something to help you group those photos together could be a lifesaver so you can focus on important tasks, like sending timely memes to a group chat. The founder billed this as her Pinterest for screenshots. This also fascinated me, an avid Pinterest user of his. Anything that makes grouping and sharing photos easy and fun is a must-have product.Selected person: Dom
TrueClaim
What it is: Uses AI to help self-funded businesses save 7% on health insurance. Why it's a money saver: Health insurance costs are skyrocketing. Large companies can “eat” fees, but it is much more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to absorb high costs. Small businesses are often forced to pass on a large portion of their salaries to their employees. While 7% may not seem like a lot, health insurance can cost thousands of dollars a year, so the savings can be meaningful for small businesses and startups. There is a gender.Selected person: Marina
manifold cargo
Feature: Spot Freight Aggregation Why it's so popular: The founders discovered the demand for spot freight technology when building a similar solution at Convoy, and it became the only profitable part of the company that was shut down. Yes, we noted that it was acquired by Flexport. Manifold Freight focuses on companies with fleets of 50 or more trucks. This means we target a customer base that other shipping software misses. Additionally, targeting major carriers means customers are likely to have more money to spend on new technology.Selected person: Becca
shepherd
What it does: A personalized teaching assistant that combines a human tutor with AI Why we love it: Unlike other learning assistants, Shepherd works with academic institutions, which is why we like it. This means that the startup is not only authorized to tutor students, but also knows exactly what content they need to learn. Shepard also claims that it helps students plan and manage their time. He wishes he had had this when he was a student. It wasn't always clear which learning tasks were the most difficult, consuming a lot of valuable time. Some of the countless hours I spent writing code and learning to make programs work could have been better allocated to calculus, but it wasn't easy either.Selected person: Marina
Senso
Features: An AI-powered knowledge base for customer support in regulated industries, starting at the credit level Why we love it: We hate being stuck on customer support calls. The conversation can sometimes feel like it lasts forever as the agent keeps putting me on hold for several minutes to understand the regulations or other issues I'm trying to solve. If customer support professionals can quickly find answers to difficult regulatory questions, it can potentially save customers and banks (or insurance agents) time and money.Selected person: Marina
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