The 630 startups at Collision 2016 came from all over the world with a common goal: to meet with investors and gain exposure for their products. InfoQ had the opportunity to meet a few of those to talk about what their product does and why they came to Collision. Below are brief introductions to six of those startups.
Connected Living out of Boston showed off an app meant to connect families together. The app has a very Instagram-like feel to it, but provides much more than just photos. Middle-aged family members can keep track of their aging parents not just via their location, but also with information such as their battery charge. Parents and kids can also get a quick look at where someone else is the family is right now. "There's a missing piece in technology which is the place you can connect with those closest to you," Connected Living CEO Sarah Hoit told InfoQ. Their new app lets families "really have that dialog and know where they are and know that they're OK; share those photos and share those thoughts. And everyone's starved for that."
WhoaStork from Santa Monica, CA has built what they call an "AI-backed Strain Genie and Marijuana Dispensary Locator". In Silicon Valley-speak, it's a "GrubHub for Cannabis". The web site lets cannabis users declare what kind of mood they're in or what ailment they're experiencing and the site matches that information to an appropriate strain as well as provide a location to obtain the product. They're currently operating in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Nevada. David Ngyuen, COO and CoFounder says "There's so many different strains and products of cannabis out there; the same strain that I use isn't going to have the same effect for you."
Promoter.io came to Collision to "connect with potential investors, existing customers, and potential customers," says Ricard Reyna, CTO and Co-Founder. Their product is a customer feedback platform based on the Net Promoter Score methodology. They send out surveys to a company's customers asking how likely they are to recommend the brand or product. Reyna says their survey response rate is around 30-40% and the end result is a "customer loyalty metric in one number."
Parking Plus came from Romania to show off their IoT parking solution and smartphone app that lets drivers "find available parking spots, book in advance, and pay by phone." Their custom hardware device can be installed at the parking gate to allow drivers to open the gate using their phone. Parking operators have their own dashboard that gives them more insight into the capacity and status of their garage. Ioana Danciu, Head of Marketing told InfoQ that they are "concentrating on Romania, but we are preparing for commercialization in the US."
Reward Expert, based in New York City, was at Collision to show off their product that helps consumers figure out how to use various airline mileage programs to book free tickets. Co-Founder Roman Shteyn says, "There's millions of points out there and people are spending them unwisely. People tell us 'we have points with United, Delta, American Express Points, etc. I want to go to Paris. Which program do I need? What can I use to get a ticket there?'"
hiTabs is like a "DropBox for links", storing all of your links in the cloud, across browsers, with the ability to group and share with others. Based in Washington DC, Koyla Tevosyan says they won a free ticket to Collision came to find investors and potential customers.