YC Winter 2013 (W13) companies

Airware builds integrated hardware, software, and cloud services for enterprises operating commercial drone fleets. It targets industries that rely on aerial data collection, replacing fragmented, manually managed drone operations with a unified platform for fleet management, flight safety, and data processing at scale.

Appcubator builds a drag-and-drop web application builder for non-technical users who need to prototype and launch web apps without writing code. Customers assemble pages through visual controls and prebuilt themes instead of hiring a developer or learning to code from scratch. The product replaces early-stage contractor work and the technical learning curve that otherwise blocks founders and small teams from getting a working web app off the ground.

BeatDeck builds a music analytics platform for the music industry, aggregating streaming performance and social signals into a unified dashboard. It gives labels, managers, and A&R teams a data-driven view of artist traction, replacing manual tracking across disparate platforms. The product centers on key performance metrics and social data to support artist evaluation and discovery decisions.

Bitnami packages, deploys, and maintains open-source server software so developers and IT teams can skip the manual work of configuring applications from scratch. Its catalog covers 500-plus pre-built containers, Helm charts, and application stacks ready to run on any cloud or infrastructure platform. The Bitnami Secure Images line targets regulated industries, delivering hardened, continuously updated images with SBOMs, CVE scan results, and compliance support for FIPS, STIG, and FedRAMP.

BuildZoom connects homeowners with vetted general contractors for remodeling projects, replacing the manual, opaque process of finding and vetting local contractors. It aggregates over 160 million building permits, contractor licenses, and government records to score and match contractors to specific projects, then assigns a dedicated consultant to guide homeowners from bid comparison through hire.

Cheetah builds a B2B logistics and supply chain platform aimed at small business owners, giving them a faster and more cost-effective way to manage procurement and delivery. It replaces the slow, expensive, and fragmented ordering and fulfillment processes that small businesses have traditionally relied on.

CircuitLab builds a browser-based circuit simulator and schematic editor for electrical engineers, students, and electronics hobbyists. It lets users draw schematics, run analog and digital simulations, and export professional diagrams without installing any software, replacing desktop EDA tools and manual bench prototyping. The platform also includes an interactive electronics textbook and a community Q&A forum.

Coin builds a smart payment card that consolidates a consumer's credit, debit, gift, and loyalty cards into a single credit-card-sized device. Shoppers switch between stored cards using a button and electronic display, then swipe or tap at standard point-of-sale terminals, replacing the need to carry a physical wallet full of cards. Coin also provides a developer program that lets wearables makers add secure payment capability to fitness trackers, smartwatches, and jewelry.

CrowdMed connects patients who have difficult-to-diagnose medical cases with an online community of medical detectives, who pool their knowledge to generate ranked diagnostic and treatment suggestions. Patients submit their symptoms and history through a questionnaire and receive a report to bring to their physician. The service replaces the long, costly diagnostic odyssey that patients with complex conditions often face before reaching a correct diagnosis.

Etleap builds a pipeline platform for Apache Iceberg, handling ingestion, transformation, coordination, and automated table maintenance in a single integrated layer. Data and analytics teams at B2B companies use it to keep Iceberg tables fed and healthy in production without custom engineering work. It replaces the manual ETL setup, orchestration, and maintenance that would otherwise fall on data engineers.

Experiment runs a crowdfunding marketplace where scientists raise money directly from the public for research projects that traditional grant-making bodies pass over. Researchers post proposals, collect pledges from individual backers, and then share results as lab notes and peer-reviewed publications. The platform replaces the grant-writing process for early-stage or unconventional scientific work.

Fivetran automates data movement into, out of, and across cloud data platforms, handling the extraction, schema drift, and transformation work that otherwise falls to data engineers. Enterprise teams at companies like Autodesk, JetBlue, and Morgan Stanley use it to keep data pipelines running without manual intervention. It replaces the custom pipeline code and ongoing maintenance that data engineering teams would otherwise write and babysit themselves.

FlightCar connects airport travelers who need a rental car with local car owners who would otherwise pay to park while flying. Owners list their vehicles and earn money during their trip; renters get a car at rates below traditional rental agencies. The model displaces both conventional car rental companies and paid airport parking.

Goldbelly connects consumers across the US with specialty food makers, regional restaurants, and artisan producers by shipping their signature foods nationwide. Customers order from celebrated local and iconic restaurants that would otherwise require an in-person visit, replacing the geographic barrier between a buyer and a specific food they cannot get locally.

GrepData builds a B2B predictive analytics platform that gives marketing and sales teams visibility into which buyers are actively in a purchase cycle, what they need, and when they intend to buy. The platform identifies in-market accounts across channels and feeds that intelligence into downstream sales and marketing systems, replacing manual prospect research and guesswork about buyer timing and intent.

Heap builds a product analytics platform that automatically captures every user interaction on web and mobile without engineers writing manual event tracking code. Product, marketing, and data teams use it to analyze funnels, map user journeys, and identify friction points, replacing hand-coded tracking plans, custom ETL pipelines, and fragmented analytics tooling. The platform adds session replay, heatmaps, and AI-driven analysis on top of that automatically collected data.

InfluxData builds InfluxDB, an open-source time series database and platform for collecting, storing, and querying metrics and events generated by machines, sensors, and infrastructure. DevOps teams and IoT engineers use it to power real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and telemetry applications, replacing general-purpose databases that were not designed for high-volume, timestamped data workloads.

Kalibrr operates a two-sided job marketplace connecting white-collar professionals in the Philippines and Indonesia with local and global employers. Companies use it to hire remote sales, product, engineering, and design talent in Southeast Asia. It replaces the manual sourcing and screening work that would otherwise fall to in-house recruiters or regional staffing agencies.

Lawdingo connects consumers who need legal help with solo and small-practice attorneys, replacing the slow, opaque process of finding available counsel. Lawyers on the platform tend to offer more flexible schedules and more competitive rates than large firms. The service handles the matching work that would otherwise fall to referrals, directories, or cold calls on both sides.

Logiblock delivers electronics engineering consulting and intellectual property to startups and established companies building connected hardware products. Its engineers handle the full stack from chip-level hardware design and ultra-low-power wireless firmware to cloud integration, replacing the need for an in-house embedded team. The firm specializes in Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi, and also offers Galago, a companion microcontroller board, and an open-source IDE to accelerate prototyping.

Lollipuff runs a luxury authentication service for pre-owned designer goods, including brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Christian Louboutin. Buyers submit photos of items for review and receive an authenticity certificate, replacing informal guesswork or in-person boutique verification. The service targets individual buyers, resellers, and second-hand shops who need a fast, reliable verdict before a transaction.

Medisas builds workflow and collaboration software for hospital care teams, replacing paper patient lists, fragmented hallway handoffs, and legacy clinical systems. Its CareOS platform centralizes patient data, staff notes, and care coordination into a single interface designed to match the usability of consumer apps. The product cuts the administrative burden on doctors and nurses so clinical attention shifts back to patients.

MedXT builds a cloud-based platform for managing and sharing medical images, including X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs, for imaging centers, hospital radiology departments, and radiology groups. It replaces on-premise PACS and RIS infrastructure with browser-accessible tools, and includes HL7 connectivity for integration with existing clinical workflows.

Meldium gives teams a central dashboard to connect employees to cloud applications, managing shared passwords and user accounts across all of them. IT administrators and team leads use it to create, edit, and remove user access in one place, replacing manual, app-by-app account management. It handles everything from shared credentials to user provisioning without requiring dedicated IT involvement.

North builds wearable hardware that reads electrical signals in the forearm muscles to translate physical gestures into wireless commands for computers, phones, and other digital devices. The product, an armband, replaces conventional input methods such as keyboards, mice, and touchscreens by letting the body itself serve as the control interface. It targets consumers and developers seeking hands-free, natural interaction with digital technology.

Padlet builds visual collaboration tools, boards and digital canvases, for educators and creative teams. Users collect, organize, and share ideas in structured visual layouts, replacing conventional documents and slide decks that are dense to produce and passive to consume. The product serves both classroom and workplace contexts, giving students and teams an interactive surface for lessons, activities, and shared thinking.

PayTango builds invoicing software for small businesses and freelancers who currently cobble together spreadsheets, word processors, or heavyweight accounting tools to bill clients. It lets users generate and send polished PDF invoices from any device, replacing the manual formatting and data-entry work that traditional methods require.

Posmetrics builds tablet-based customer feedback tools for brick-and-mortar businesses. Very short surveys, displayed on iPads mounted at the point of experience, replace paper comment cards and manual data collection. Results and service-improvement recommendations are delivered in real time to business operators.

Prophecy Sciences builds cognitive assessment tools that help employers identify the best candidates for a role and help managers improve team performance. The tests combine behavioral measures with biosignal sensors to capture data on mental aptitude, personality traits, decision-making styles, and interpersonal dynamics, drawn from multiple subfields of neuroscience. This replaces traditional personality and aptitude tests with a richer, neuroscience-grounded profile of each individual.

RADAR builds a combined RFID and computer vision platform for physical retail stores. It tracks every item in a store in real time, down to precise location, replacing manual inventory counts, paper-based replenishment processes, and staffed checkout lanes. Retailers use it to automate stock visibility, fulfill e-commerce orders from store shelves, and capture item-level data on how shoppers interact with products.

RoverRide builds a real-time urban transit app for San Francisco commuters. It pulls live data from Muni, BART, and Caltrain to surface the best route to a destination at that exact moment, replacing the manual work of cross-referencing schedules and guessing connection windows.

Screenhero builds a collaborative screen-sharing tool that lets two people share any desktop application in real time, each with their own independent mouse pointer and full control. It targets remote teams and pairs who need to work together on software, documents, or any on-screen task. It replaces the one-way screen broadcast model, where only one person drives, with true two-way interaction.

Scuba builds a real-time behavioral analytics platform, now operating as Behavure AI, that ingests, correlates, and queries event data across AI agents, models, systems, and users. It targets enterprises running autonomous AI stacks who need to detect agent drift, trace decisions, and govern behavior across distributed systems. The platform replaces manual data pipeline work and slow batch-query tools with a schemaless, edge-processing engine that surfaces behavioral patterns in real time.

Semantics3 builds a data and AI platform for e-commerce marketplaces, logistics providers, and brands. Its APIs and feeds handle product catalog generation and enrichment, UPC lookups, automated categorization, attribute extraction, and HTS tariff classification, replacing manual data curation and classification work. Dashboards surface price monitoring and market trend reporting for brand and marketplace teams.

SimplyInsured sells health insurance to small businesses through a fully online platform, replacing the traditional broker relationship. Employers compare thousands of medical, dental, and vision plans across major carriers, complete enrollment in about ten minutes, and get automated payroll deduction management. Customer support handles carrier issues on behalf of the business and its employees.

Strikingly builds a no-code website builder that lets entrepreneurs, creatives, and small business owners publish a mobile-optimized site in under 30 minutes. It replaces the need for a designer or developer by offering a click-to-edit interface with built-in e-commerce, handling everything from storefront setup to payment collection via PayPal or Stripe.

StyleUp delivers daily outfit recommendations tailored to the weather and each user's personal style, replacing the time and guesswork of deciding what to wear. Users provide feedback that sharpens future suggestions, creating a loop of improving personalization. The product targets everyday consumers who want a curated, ready-to-use answer to getting dressed each morning.

Swapbox operates a network of self-service kiosks that let consumers send and receive packages without being home for a delivery. Shoppers redirect online orders to a nearby kiosk and pick up at their convenience, eliminating missed deliveries and porch theft. For outbound shipments, users drop off unpackaged items at a kiosk and Swapbox handles carrier selection and fulfillment via UPS, USPS, or FedEx, replacing the trip to a shipping counter.

Swish runs a crowdfunding and retail platform for physical products, letting hardware makers launch and sell directly to early buyers. It replaces the traditional retail gatekeeping process by giving product creators a dedicated channel to validate demand and move units before mass distribution.

Teespring builds a marketplace where independent creators design and sell custom merchandise directly to their audiences, with products made to order. Creators connect their social accounts to receive brand analysis and audience insights that guide product development. The platform replaces the need for inventory management, fulfillment logistics, and third-party brand research tools.

Trainzen builds an online test creation and delivery platform for teachers, replacing paper-based exams and manual grading. Teachers author tests in a browser-based editor, administer them digitally, and receive instant scores along with per-question analytics on difficulty and student performance. A reusable question bank removes the need to rebuild assessments from scratch each time.

VaycayHero operates a marketplace of professionally managed vacation rentals across major U.S. and Mexico destinations, serving travelers who want a reliable booking experience. Every listing is verified with accurate details and live pricing and availability, replacing the guesswork and last-minute surprises common on broader rental platforms. A built-in travel hub distributes inventory across multiple channels, and a booking concierge handles requests for travelers who prefer human assistance over self-serve search.

Watsi connects individual donors to patients in low-income countries who need surgeries they cannot afford, channeling contributions directly to medical partners who perform the procedures. It also finances primary care coverage through a pooled monthly giving model. The platform replaces the gap left by absent insurance and government funding, letting donors fund a specific patient's care end to end.

Wefunder runs a crowdfunding platform that lets any retail investor put as little as $100 into early-stage startups, a market previously limited to accredited investors and institutions. Founders use it to raise capital from their own customers and fans rather than relying solely on professional investors. The platform replaces the traditional gatekeeping role of early-stage venture capital for both sides of the deal.

Wevorce guides divorcing couples through a structured, mediated settlement process, replacing the traditional model where each spouse hires a separate litigating attorney. A specially trained attorney-mediator works with both parties together, bringing in financial and parenting experts as needed, to produce a customized agreement that keeps children's needs central and costs lower than contested divorce.

Zenefits builds an HR platform for small businesses, consolidating benefits administration, payroll, onboarding, and talent management into a single application. It replaces the patchwork of manual processes and disconnected tools that HR teams and business owners use to manage employees. The product gives employees direct, mobile access to their own HR information, reducing the administrative burden on whoever runs HR.