What’s on the startup radar?
Apple and IPhone dominated the blog bandwidth for quite some time over last few weeks. So I thought it was time to give some attention to some new companies that are Silicon Valley favorites and on every investor’s radar. The three I list here are involved in different lines of businesses. While Dropbox solves our fragmented storage problems, Quora brings a social component to questions and answers service and Airbnb is the flag bearer of the hottest new trend for startups-collaborative consumption. The journey so far has been quite impressive for these hot new startups but there are quite a few challenges for them in future. Some challenges that may be the difference between staying alive and going bust. More on these in the next post.
Dropbox
So let’s say you have an IPad and an Android phone and a laptop. You have several documents on your IPad and laptop and several pictures on your Android. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one central location that’ll store those documents and pictures? This is the problem Dropbox addresses. It works across platforms- independent of vendors, to store everything-files, documents, pictures, videos in one place. And if someday you happen to drop and crash your IPAd, or accidently put your phone into the washer, you’ll still have all your data secure on Dropbox. And if you happen to take some new videos with your phone , Dropbox will automatically update it everywhere-including its website.
This silicon valley online storage startup is making waves because of the $250 million it just raised for expansion. It currently has some 45 million users, nearly double of the 25 million it had in April. People in 175 countries save 1 billion files every three days using the service, the company claims. Story goes that founder Drew Houston an MIT alumnus refused a buyout offer from his hero Steve Jobs of Apple back in the year 2009. Jobs told him that what he (Houston) had was a feature and not a product. But the cocky young entrepreneur responded by saying that he would rather build and grow his own company. And so far, Dropbox has had a pretty good run. A free trial will let you have 2 GB of storage right away!
Quora
Founded in June 2009 as a question answer service that is ever evolving. Quora is a very nicely designed site that requires users’ real identities (via their Facebook accounts) to participate, and uses a system of authority (via peer endorsements and personal bios) and voting to inspire good contributions. Once a question is asked and tagged into categories, users with that subject knowledge are alerted to answer it and even revise the question itself for clarity.
Back in the year 2010, Quora received $11 million in series A funding. I tried looking up Quora for answers on a few technology gadgets and the depth of answers I received was quite impressive. The promise of Quora is giving you answers that go beyond your search results.
Airbnb
Collaborative consumption is just fancy speak for sharing. We are not new to the concept. Think-Zipcar, Netflix, eBay. They all work on the same principle that timely access is more important than ownership. Airbnb is the hottest and most successful startup that further expands on the idea of sharing. It allows people worldwide to rent out extra space in their homes for travelers and tourists. Many investors tout this as a trend that will disrupt the way hospitality industry works. In July this year, this company joined the billion dollar startup club by raising $112 million, valuing the company at $1.3 billion.
The big question is, will the promise and idea behind these companies be enough to overcome the volatile tech landscape? Stay tuned for more on these companies.
Follow Aditi on Twitter: @aditibhide