The 10 Most Innovative Startups 2013
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The following is a list of the 10 most innovative startups of 2013 plus a bonus startup at the end of the article!
SendHub
SendHub is a new startup which has recently secured $3 million in funding in addition to previous funding of $2 million and undisclosed funds from former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush. Personally I believe that SendHub will be the next big thing when it comes to business communication. I myself use RingCentral at the moment which is ok, but I really wish there were more features like calling directly from the mobile app or web. This solves that issue and get’s rid of my ip phone which really is in the way a lot of the time. This is a solution to solve all my problems and it adds text messaging! It’s so simple and I could see myself benefiting greatly from this. Currently it is only available to US phone numbers, businesses in Europe will have to wait.
Thumb
Instant opinions by real people. Thumb is a nice app and I gave it a go myself. I had some yellow shoes which I had bought a long time ago and decided to post a picture to see what kind of feedback I got. Most of it was negative and some of it funny. However it was truly interesting to see who liked or didn’t like what I posted. You could tell if the person was male or female and what country they were from, not that it mattered too much for my yellow shoes but it may be interesting for others. It’s free, give it a try!
Lift
Another app which I downloaded and tested. I like it, it motivates me to get things done. But I did find a lack of categories and support groups for someone who is a programmer, sometimes it can be confusing to navigate and hard to find what you are looking for. All in all though the app has actually made me slightly more productive and I’m sure people who can get more engaged into the social aspects of the app it can really benefit to improve work, get exercise or perhaps lose weight.
Leap Motion
This is an awesome product and I love it. I think that our computers will eventually adapt to use similar technology and we will never need a keyboard or mouse anymore. Once the ground work is done we will be able to accomplish tasks much faster using our hands in mid air. Here is a description taken from their website.
A tiny device with a huge idea.
Imagine if you could do things on your computer just like you do them in real life. If natural movements replaced all those clicks and taps and drags and drops. Imagine if technology finally figured out people, instead of the other way around. That’s how we see the future.
The Leap Motion Controller senses your hands and fingers and follows their every move. It lets them move in all that wide-open space between you and your computer. So you can do almost anything without touching anything. It’s the tiny device that just might change the way you use technology. It’s the world’s most natural technology that just might change the world.
Ouya
I have followed Ouya for a while and it’s a nice idea and I think it could really give developers a boost because it is so cheap and easy to develop for. It’s truly a platform for indie games. I think one of the main problems is pirated copies due to the fact that it uses android, we will see how Ouya deals with this as time goes on. Here is a quick description of Ouya.
OUYA offers every game free to try because we believe you shouldn’t buy anything until you know you love it.
We love playing games on the TV and we want to bring the most creative, innovative and engaging games back to the TV by allowing any developer—big or small, experienced or new, paparazzi-famous or up-and-coming—to easily build games for the big screen. Your favorite and soon-to-be-favorite games in 1080p—what’s not to love?
Divshot
Divshot brings you the future of web development with the ease of use of services like Wix but with more flexibility and customization. Divshot supports multiple frameworks and outputs code which is compliant with the framework you picked. It sets itself apart with clean and usable code, much better than older visual HTML editors, with a horizontal split screen you can work both visually and with code at the same time if you need to. Once you are done you have all the code you need to run your website right there on the page. You can even bring the whole team on board with multiple accounts for developers, designers, project managers, clients, and more!
Udemy
I gave Udemy a try, they have many course and some of them are even free. I liked it, it was fun to go through the courses although the free versions could at times almost feel like advertisements. I think Udemy is one of the first steps out of many which will bring high quality education to the internet and make it available for all, which in the end will benefit humanity greatly. Below is an excerpt of Udemy’s description.
Udemy helps students make moves. Whether you want to get promoted, break into a new industry, start a company, further a passion, or just accelerate your life, Udemy helps you learn from the amazing instructors in the world, so that you can get there and get there faster.Our team recruits the world’s top experts, including New York Times best-selling authors, CEOs, celebrities, and Ivy League professors. These expert instructors have taught over 500,000 students on Udemy, helping them learn everything from programming to photography to design to yoga and more. Founded in 2010, Udemy is funded by Insight Venture Partners, Lightbank, MHS Capital, 500 Startups and other investors who previously foresaw the internet giants YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon and Yelp. Udemy is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Scout
Scout brings you the power of a full fledged security system in a smaller DIY kit. This is a smart way to secure your home, if it works. I love the video and I would love to try the security system. However I would be skeptical to replace this system with my current security system until scout has been able to be tested by many users and not fail in it’s purpose. I don’t want these boxes to run out of batteries or lose power when I need them most. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Handshake
Although a bit controversial perhaps, I like the idea. You as the user can sell your data to big corporations. I am not sure I would do this myself even if companies are already buying and selling my data, it feels like this may just add to the problem even if it does earn me some short term income. I also think it could be hard for handshake to rule out fake accounts and this would lower the amount of money you as the user would get paid. It will be interesting to see how these problems are handled and how this evolves in the future.
Did you know that companies spend over $2 billion* a year in the US alone to buy personal data from data brokers? That’s a staggering amount of money. But when was the last time you got a check in the post for the information about you that is being sold?
Fleep
I love the idea of Fleep, I avoid using skype on my phone due to the reduction in battery life and the annoying sync of messages. I also find it annoying to have to go through all the messages on all the computers seperately, there should be some better sync functions here. We will have to wait and see how this one progresses and if Skype will make any updates to fix the issues with their own software. Here is a description from Fleep’s website.
There were four of us. Working at Skype where its own instant messenger was the company’s main internal communication tool.
The company’s development focus, however, was on voice and video calling. Chat was not a priority. So we learned to live with shortcomings like these:
no offline messages: to get all messages, you had to be always online
to add new people to a conversation, they had to be Skype users first
mobile app drained batteries like a pool pump
if you used Skype on several devices, messages didn’t sync right or got lost altogether
no proper file sharing, just live file transfers between devices
no way to search across all conversations
Finally, we’d had enough. “No kurat noh,” someone said in Estonian. “For Fleep’s sake,” another added. “Yeah,” we all sighed in unison. “The world deserves a better chat. One that respects those who use it.”*
And that’s how Fleep got started.
Bonus: Anveto
Anveto is the bonus startup I added to this article. It is my own startup and although I personally feel that it is innovative I have yet to hear anything from other users. Hopefully I will have a clearer picture once the beta get’s going in the fall.You can sign up for the beta here!
Anveto plans a free beta launch in the fall 2013. Anveto is a startup based in Sweden by student and entrepreneur, Markus Tenghamn. Anveto brings radically new and innovative ways to think about analytics, an analytics tool for web, mobile and social media platforms.