I’ve spent the last 3 days at TechCrunch Disrupt learning about the latest and greatest tech startups Silicon Valley (and actually the world) has to offer. I noticed that many of the start-ups, many of which launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, are doing very similar things. Here I’ll summarize the trends I saw. While not totally relevant to the social enterprise world, I do believe many of these technologies can be leveraged to make a difference or at least improve the operations of a sustainable business.
1) Mobile everything
- Pay with your phone with BlingNation. MobilePay does something very similar. Easily build mobile apps with ApplicationCraft. InstaMobile creates a mobile store fast and simple for anyone. With ParticleCode you can automatically port mobile apps across platforms. DudaMobile turns websites into mobile sites.
- Clixtr lets you collaborate with friends and strangers on event related photo albums. Pinger provides free texting!
- Apsalar provides mobile analytics.
2) Social networks for everything
- Yammer is a social network for the enterprise.
- CapLinked is a social network for companies raising private funding.
- Clothia is a social network for trying on clothes.
- Just to name a few…
3) Find and hang out with your friends
- Posterbee is a group communication solution.
- Connectsy lets you connect with your friends real time to let them know you’re having lunch and they can join. Foound does pretty much the same thing. As does REI-Frontier. And Vol.ly.
- Marco uses GPS to find your friends.
4) Social shopping
- Scandit from Mirasense lets you scan barcodes and get product information as well as request feedback thru facebook. Zappli’s MyShopanion does pretty much the same thing.
5) Email enhancements
- MailVU lets you send video emails.
- Ovia does something similar for video interviews.
- Baydin turns email into a game.
- Meshin is a semantic Outlook sidebar to help you find information when you need it.
6) Blogger tools
- Clp.ly lets you turn any website into a formatted image perfect for sharing or blogging.
- Storify lets you use social media in your stories.
- Postling lets small businesses and individuals track and react to social media easily.
It definitely crossed my mind that all this brain power could be better spent focused on more pressing problems, like poverty, climate change, education etc. That said, some of these are certainly applicable. Next up I’ll tell you about my favorite start-ups from TechCrunch Disrupt which include the ones I see as more beneficial to society as a whole, not just Silicon Valley dwellers.
COMMENTARY: These startup trends are not a real surprise given the huge interest in everything social, not just social networks, but social games and crowdsourcing. I don't see anything mobile slowing down: smartphones, tablet pc's, ebook readers, mobile apps, location check-ins, augmented reality, and the list continues.
Social-oriented startups are now more niche-oriented (see the above list), and more are coming, no doubt. Facebook is coming out with a social mobile phone. Will there be a Twitter blogging phone next? Mobile apps alone are predicted to be a $30 billion industry within five years.
The video of TechCrunch's founder Michael Arrington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, where Michael agreed to be acquired by AOL, and both company CEO's signed the buyout agreement, is a bonus which I did not count on. I hope you find this interesting.
Courtesy of an article dated September 30, 2010 appearing in TechCrunch
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