Robust classification of EEG data from humans in real time in controlled environments (no motion, perfect contact quality, on subjects you can communicate with, etc) is difficult enough. It's part of the R&D that I do now. But on pets? How do you keep them still enough and the sensors seated and wet? Is the classification purely based on unsupervised learning? How the heck does one gather meaningful training data?
My skepto-meter is really pinging on this one. Especially with the flex-funding model.
Studio Total (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Total) who are involved with the product are known to do crazy stuff to get PR, like the 'teddybear airdrop' over Minsk. Some things they make buzz about does not exist yet :)
RapidMiner is hardly a startup. They've been around since roughly 2007.
Moreover, though their headquarters are in Boston nowadays they're essentially a German company (most of the research that went into their product was done at the TU Dortmund).
This might be seen as nitpicking but as today German startups are mostly considered copycats those which are not should at least be noted.
I'm not seeing anything worth watching in this list. There's not much unique or different about any of these companies.
I'm sure some of them will do well, but personally I'm interested in companies at the least tackling the "frighteningly ambitious" ideas pg has written about, even if those alone seem far to insular.
Home automation, robotics, Medicine, 3D printing, renewable energy, etc, etc. That's what I want to "watch". I couldn't care less about the next t-shirt maker.
I don't know that they're not worth watching but I'd agree many of them aren't that unique. The list was made based loosely on the "hottest" startups outside SV according to MatterMark along with some editorial input.
I really like you're idea of making some lists of the top "frighteningly ambitious" ideas of pg you're referencing.
I think we might take you idea and run with it. Be on the look out for a new list of those in the next couple days. Thanks!
I'm with Nick. Those companies aren't trying to be frighteningly ambitious, but now I'm especially curious to discover the ones who are. Thanks for the comment!
What's the line between "Getting a lot of buzz" and "I've never heard of them". I think for everything except teespring and ughworthy on this list for me is the latter.
Also I don't know about you but "Spring.me proves that we’re not through with new social networks" depressed me.
The most interesting thing I saw about this list when I wrote it was how many content and/or content marketing companies are getting big buzz. I'm wondering if we'll be so sick of content marketing by June.
I think Written seems pretty cool. At least for what I do.. There's some other products out there that help brands and bloggers with syndication too like PublishThis. Would be interested to see how they differentiate?
http://www.nomorewoof.com/
http://oresundstartups.com/no-more-woof-aims-read-dogs-minds...
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/no-more-woof
TLDR: they sell brain-scanning equipment that translates your dog's thoughts into human language.