Barefoot Concepts: David Smith YC'11 and Jay Sullivan YC'11
An athletic shoe venture. Our product is a minimalist, "barefoot" shoe designed to not interfere with the natural motion and function of the foot. Most athletic shoes today feature overcomplicated technology that has been shown by current scientific studies to actually decrease athletic performance and increase the occurrence of joint problems and back pain. Barefoot Concepts' shoes would allow the foot to work more naturally, improving performance and alleviating pain. www.barefootconcepts.com
Blind Pig Media Group: Alena Gribskov YC '09 and Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim YC '10
Reinventing publishing for the digital age. By publishing content that takes advantage of diverse media platforms (books, music, video, hypertext), BPMG can be responsive to how modern customers consume media and information, and capture the power of social networks to direct, promote, and inform content. BPMG will reinvigorate the publishing model and pursue new profit-generating strategies designed for today's quickly changing market.
Career Cadence: Alan Carniol SOM '10 and Paul Holzer SOM '09
According to the CDC, stress among college students is as high as that among working professionals. For many students and graduates, the single most stressful thing is finding a good job and choosing the "right" career. Now more than ever, they need help finding their direction, charting a successful path, and articulating that which makes them competitive in the job market. With the use of proprietary assessment tools, Career Cadence provides just that help. www.careercadence.com
Clothed Circuit: Sophia Lee SOM/PhD '14
An online wardrobe management system that helps customers to organize their existing wardrobe virtually. Using advanced algorithm, it makes recommendations based on the customer's prior selections and preferences. Why take time out of your busy schedule to select the perfect outfit when Clothed Circuit can help you with that decision process? Clothed Circuit provides free personal shoppers and professional consulting services for customers to ensure that they receive the ultimate shopping experience.
Cube Knowledge: James Rapp MED '10
An educational platform that unifies the educational experience for students, teachers, educational institutions, and content providers. We offer students a more efficient way to create, organize and review their knowledge while providing educators with the tools to provide a personalized, engaging learning experience for all students. Online, our innovative sharing and collaborative tools create a novel marketplace where user-generated educational content competes directly with traditional publishing houses.
The Green Bride Guide: Kate Harrison FOR '09 and Henry Finkelstein YC '09
The Green Bride Guide online is a comprehensive, one-stop resource for eco-friendly wedding ideas, products and services. Currently, green vendors -- many of whom are small business owners -- are lost in the shuffle while couplease seeking green elements worry about the credibility of "gree-washed" brands. Leveraging the buzz of The Green Bride Guide book and the credibility of our proprietary 5-Leaf rating standard, we have created a new platform to connect engaged eco-conscious couples with green vendors in the area. The number one site in the rapidly growing Green Wedding space, The Green Bride Guide is well positioned to create real value for couple ans vendors while fundamentally changing the wedding industry's impact on the environment. www.thegreenbrideguide.com
Grilled Cheese ToGo: Michael Inwald SOM '10
Grilled cheese is one of the most popular American snacks, yet cannot be found in malls, major transportation hubs, or rest stops. Based on a proprietary survey (214 respondents), 84.7% said they eat grilled cheese at least a few times a year, with 33% eating monthly. There are only a few quick and healthy fast-food options in high-traffic locations throughout the United States and this business fills that gap with a fast-food grilled cheese franchise - "Grilled Cheese To Go"
HST Workhorse: Anthony Annunziata GRD/ENG '11
Developing automated robotic platforms for material handling that leverages the judgment of humans with smart machines to produce a safer, more efficient work environment. More conversationally: Imagine a robotic cart and forklift merged into one machine that can navigate on its own using state of the art automation technology, and can follow a worker and respond to his commands when prompted. The worker only directs; he is protected from directly lifting or handling anything.
Mynt Cards: Robert Howl SOM '10
A content delivery provider seeking to solve many existing shortfalls within the greeting card industry and with the retail purchase process through a highly scalable strategy consisting of:
1. In-store card printing kiosks featuring a proprietary design interface and online connectivity
2. Online design community loaded with both professional and user-generated content, voted on by members
Lucem: Kamil Wasilewski GRD/ENG '09
Provides document management services to law firms that improve the speed, security, and cost of litigation discovery and allow access to case sensitive data on the fly. Documents can be grouped by topic, similarity, or trial and fully searched under one flexible system built to bridge the world of digital and hard copy. Access to the system and documents is gained from anywhere in the world via a secure connection.
Snuzu: Daniel Hakim YC '10 and Michael Waxman YC '11
An online tool for music discovery. Users can search for and stream mp3's gathered from across the Internet. Snuzu's ultimate goal is to help listeners find new bands and to help bands find new listeners, particularly for new and independent bands, who are severely underrepresented on the web.
TBD: Edo Liberty GRD/CS '09
Targeting ads on the web (matching ad and user) has been shown to be very effective. Although Google and Facebook do it, most web advertizing platforms do not. The main reason is that ad targeting is inherently complicated. Most companies don't have the time, the knowhow, or the resources for developing such systems. We plan to provide this as a service and enable advertisers to improve their performance and overcome the development burden.
Tezin Software: Jazear Brooks YC '11 and Philip Shao YC '12
Web applications for making websites. We will develop and manage Web 2.0 websites and applications for professional clients, offering a high degree of customization and the option for clients to modify their website themselves with the ease of editing a Word document or a Myspace page. We will also create websites for startup ventures in the Yale community at an affordable rate so they can develop their ideas without being hindered by a lack of technical expertise.
YouRenew.com: Rich Littlehale YC '10 and Jerry Choinski YC '12
Helping people recycle their old handheld electronic devices: cell phones, iPods/mp3 players, digital cameras, graphing calculators, and gaming devices. YouRenew.com provides a platform for individuals to turn in their old devices for either a charitable donation or cash rebate. Collected devices are resold in secondary markets for either reuse or recycling. Given that electronics recycling rates are extremely low (approximately 15%), there is significant growth potential. Based in New Haven, CT, YouRenew.com has partnered with non-profits such as the Special Olympics and United Way to deploy its first charitable campaigns. www.yourenew.com
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