The Stealth Startups That Are About To Blow Up
You May Not Know Them, But You Should
You’ve seen the movies, read the books, and heard the stories. By now, you should understand that mega-companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter didn’t start out as behemoths. They grew up from something much more modest; Google in a garage, Facebook in a dorm, Twitter in an apartment.
Investors and early adopters have their ears to the ground, and have positioned themselves to get quasi-exclusive exposure to fresh startups that are winding back the springboard. It likely means that by the time you’ve heard about them, they aren’t in their infancy anymore.
As the cofounders of fatberry, Tim and I are particularly obsessed with startups. It’s in our job description. We’ve reviewed over five hundred to publish on our platform, and here are the five we think are loading on the launching pad right now.
Next stop…the moon.
Loup
For those who don’t have a car, they may rely heavily on a service like Uber or Lyft to get them to and from work. Same time, same places, same direction nearly ever day. However, riding solo in a car built for four or five may not be the most efficient or cost effective solution. Enter Loup.
Imagine a bus route, but instead of cramped quarters and fixed stops, you have comfortable passenger cars and dynamic routes. Loup’s stops are virtual and continuously optimized to ensure they are as efficient and effective as possible. Drivers pilot their own personal cars, akin to the approach so familiarized by ridesharing giants Lyft and Uber.
The fare isn’t quite as cheap as bus, but it’s certainly cheaper than a cab or a regularly priced UberX/Lyft. It’s great way to save some coin but still gain some convenience. The company is poised to scale quickly because of the sheer magnitude of the opportunity. Uber is widely known for being the market leader in a large space, but Loup could erode a material portion of existing marketshare, specifically those who are using it as a commuting mechanism.
YourMechanic
Having your cake and eating it too is a rare treat. However, YourMechanic embodies a bonafide delivery on the turn of phrase. The product is marvelously convenient, a user simply pushes a button a mechanic shows up to work on their car. At what premium shall thee pay for such service?
No premium. You’ll actually get a discount.
After our chat with YourMechanic CEO Art Agrawal last week, he stands firmly that prices are generally about 30% cheaper than what one would find at a premium shop or automotive dealership. (He admits that he’s not gunning after the $15 Jiffy Lubes of the world.) For those with a car in their portfolio of vehicles, it makes complete sense why YourMechanic would be the optimum choice for routine maintenance and unscheduled repairs.
YourMechanic has the tech, the infrastructure, and the momentum to seriously disrupt a stagnant and sizable space.
Zirx
Although they appear unrelated, Zirx is similar to Loup in one interesting way; they both are going after the highly publicized and lucrative space that is personal logistics. One of the cornerstones of Uber and Lyft is that a driver can circumvent that atrocious chore that is city parking. For car owners, it’s not so much that you need a ride, it’s that you don’t want to park it. (Or you are intoxicated, but that’s a whole different use case.)
Zirx solves this problem with it’s virtual valet street team. Whereas traditional valet operations are fixed to one specific locale, generally a restaurant, theatre, or nightclub, Zirx comes to you via an app.
Valet rates are traditionally steep, but Zirx has figured a way to cut the cost in such a way that is it comparable to self parking. Add in the convenience, and it seems like an obvious choice.
KitchenSurfing
When I asked a prominent figure in the sharing economy space what he thought was primed next to grow rapidly, he responded with unwavering conviction.
“Dinners at home. People have turned their homes into hotels and their cars into taxis. They haven’t yet turned their kitchens into restaurants.”
Social interaction is healthy and imperative for the human psyche. And of course, we usually/often/sometimes need to eat. But alas, going to even a moderately popular restaurant can be an overwhelmingly affair. Dinner at home is an option, although an entire day can be burned after preparation, cooking, and cleanup.
KitchenSurfing connects dinner party hosts with those who can actually do the heavy lifting. Your weeknight dinner will be prepared by a personal chef for $25 per person. Everything is made in your kitchen, so you know it’s fresh. Where this differs from traditional catering is in the product and the perception.
Whereas catering has a reputation of being reserved for full blown affairs, KitchenSurfing wants to eliminate that restrictive paradigm. Whether it’s a guest list of of two or twenty, the aim is to get you to use the service with much greater frequency than a traditional catering service. Twenty five dollars per person includes ingredients, thirty minutes of personal chef time, cleaning up, and gratuity. Plus, it’s really easy to book using their web interface. If we are being honest, it’s a steal.
Homejoy
To be fair, Homejoy certainly has some brand recognition. They aren’t so much stealth, but we couldn’t exclude them from this list because of the astonishing size of the market opportunity. Uber & Lyft have received much of the glory for playing in a large space, but the home cleaning industry trumps them in size of overall spend. Americans pay a whopping $46 billion annually for sparkling clean homes.
As you can imagine, the current state of the industry is incredibly fragmented. Aside from a few big names like Merry Maids and Molly Maid, most cleaning companies are staffed by just a handful of cleaners. No incumbent company has approached the space with scale and technology as core tenets like Homejoy has.
Other ambitious entrepreneurs have recognized the obvious opportunity; well-funded Handy and HouseCall come to mind. Even so, with nearly $40 million in backing for Homejoy, the future looks bright and clean for this team.
Did I miss one? Submit it here.
Written by Greg Muender, cofounder of fatberry.
Greg on Twitter | Greg on Medium | fatberry on Twitter
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