Comments on: NextWeb - Startup pitches round 3 (Day 2)

By: Ryan M.

Ryan M. — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:05:40 +0000

I like the andUnite concept. I would find it interesting because I am searching for specific types of collectibles that most people have in personal collections but do not sell. And the people who do sell them usually inflate the price way too much. So I see this as a potential way to find people with the same interest that broadens the market beyond vendors who display goods online. It seems like a way to communicate with the people who do not take the time to post on message boards or get involved with a particular site (the visitors rather than the users) — assuming they would be open to communication.

By: Dragos uberVU

Dragos uberVU — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:24:13 +0000

Our product helps people filter the noise in their social media. We allow people to start distributed communities based on their interests and start conversations with people across multiple platforms.

But what is the problem we’re solving (we had like 10 slides about the problem in our presentation):

You follow your friends around on multiple platforms and manage your content on multiple platforms. Maybe you DON’T like to know that your aunt got a new cat, or that some distant friend watched some lame movie.

But maybe you’re interested in, say, photography. You post to your blog about photography. You upload pics on Flickr. And people respond. They comment, they digg your stories, they write similar stories. How do you connect with these people? How do you manage the conversation? How do you start a community that features all of this content and conversations, from people that you may not know personally, but that’s related to what you’re passionate about? How can other people join the community and this distributed conversation?

That’s what uberVU is trying to solve: building distributed communities, centered around interests, on top of social platforms, so that people can contribute and connect regardless of the platform they are using.

By: DC Crowley

DC Crowley — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:32:47 +0000

I am a bit surprised that backbase were among the startups. I subscribed to their newsletter 3-4 years ago. They were doing a kind of proprietary AJAX before there was any AJAX. They had a free license back then, but it just gave you permission to play but not deploy what they were doing. That last step needed an expensive license.

By: Bernd

Bernd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:20:40 +0000

Several thousand andUNITE users say that andUNITE sounds bonkers (@ Ben: Thanks!) and is a lot of fun. Just try it!

By: shafqat

shafqat — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:47:17 +0000

I don’t get it. If these startups are paying money to present and have an opportunity on such a big stage, they should be bouncing off the walls with excitement. Did someone sedate them?

Regardless of the stage, if you are startup founder, passion should be exuding from ever pore. I really hope its just a language problem..

By: Ben Ayers

Ben Ayers — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:17:37 +0000

Gawd andUnite sounds bonkers.

By: Paul J.

Paul J. — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:57:54 +0000

But Mike, tell us, how do you really feel about andunite?