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YC Demo Day Session 4: Shoptiques, Pair, Daily Muse, Per Vices, iCracked

50 points| canistr | 14 years ago |techcrunch.com | reply

24 comments

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[+] Alex3917|14 years ago|reply
I am curious about Pair's user acquisition strategy, as the concept is (by definition) almost as anti-viral as possible. It seems like it would be much easier to create something similar for cliques, make it support up to 8 people, and market it to middle- and high school kids. And then enable anonymous inter-group (as opposed to intra-group) messaging, so that way there is a vector of virality. Obviously a smaller market though.
[+] karamazov|14 years ago|reply
It's not anti-viral; I tried it out with my significant other to see how it worked, and I'll recommend it to people who travel frequently or are in long-distance relationships. Obviously, I won't be using it with them, but that's different.
[+] newhouseb|14 years ago|reply
Per Vices is every geeks dream but how on are they going to get past FCC regulations?
[+] rdl|14 years ago|reply
Software Defined Radios have been sold for a while -- just not so cheaply, and as easy to use. (I think the Ettus USRPs have been around for a while; first as kits and now as assembled devices; SDR itself has been built into a lot of shipping products).

The FCC actually came out with revised regulations in 2005 and 2007 to make SDR easier to approve, and to allow open source software for them. I think there are different regimes for test equipment vs. type-approved consumer devices.

[+] panthera|14 years ago|reply
Re: pair, what if you have more than one chick?
[+] kyenneti|14 years ago|reply
I am so impressed with icracked and their 2 awesome business models. Onsite Technicians and repair yourself tool kits. This is a real business. Hope they succeed big time.
[+] defen|14 years ago|reply
In case the Per Vices people are reading - I tried to go to the "Buy It" link but I'm getting a PHP error.
[+] wollesen|14 years ago|reply
Thanks - The Per Vices people are reading, and the link is fixed.
[+] psycho|14 years ago|reply
And what's so cool about AnyVivo?
[+] rdl|14 years ago|reply
People buy a lot of pets, Amazon won't touch them (one of the few legal areas of commerce which Amazon can't dominate; guns are another...).

They've been making a lot of money (and 50-60% margin) in the past few weeks selling jellyfish, which I didn't realize was even possible to keep as a pet. Presumably as they move into other more interesting pets, they will make more money.

[+] frisco|14 years ago|reply
Maybe nothing. But they're out there selling $150k in jellyfish a month on 50% margins, and probably having a blast doing it. Their potential market isn't exactly small. Not sure what else you're looking for.
[+] itmag|14 years ago|reply
Maybe this is just step 1 for them and they have some kind of world-changing ambition that they plan to implement once they have enough cash and customers.

  1. Sell jellyfish online
  2. Make money, acquire customer base
  3. ???
  4. Take over world!