New York is a growing hub for startups and entrepreneurship
I recently did a study on Respondent where I helped a researcher answer multiple marketing questions over a couple of days.
I knew the company had an Aussie founder but was surprised to see that Respondent was actually HQed in New York. This gave me the idea to produce a list of early-stage startups to watch out for specifically in New York and since my visit a few years back.
New York has always been the king of finance but has since become a central hub for tech and startups. I even discovered a great website that specifically finds startups in NYC and you can even search for startups under different characteristics like if they offer free catered food!
Let’s take a look at some early-stage startups to keep an eye on:
Respondent
This New York startup is only in its seed stage but has a worldwide presence. Respondent is a marketplace that connects researchers with participants with a specific focus on qualitative research.
You might think that this field has been overdone especially with bigger startups in the space like Usertesting.com or TryMyUi but it has one specific feature that creates a unique value proposition over every other one of these startups.
That is—it has a high supply of professional people on the platform ranging from database administrators to tech marketers. This is especially useful for businesses looking for specific users that have a very niche job function like managing Azure workloads.
ChartHop
HR is ramping up into a huge industry. The big firms in the past were mainly focused on recruiting people but companies soon realize like sales, churn is as important as bringing in new faces.
Charthop focuses on providing people analytics, a method that helps managers and executives make decisions about their workforce.
“With HR and people functions so crucial to the growth and success of businesses, it’s unfortunate that most HR teams lack the critical people data to drive organizational decision making,” David Ulevitch, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz
They recently raised a $35 million Series B round and looking to ramp up their year in 2021 and beyond.
I think if done well, these ideas have huge potential since employees are the biggest cost for any company. Being able to retain talent can save huge amounts of money for companies.
Wingocard
Getting young people into trading and finance was a huge goal of Robinhood, which targeted millennials and Gen Zs. With the recent pandemic, they received a surge in accounts, with many using their stimulus cheques to fuel their trading habits.
Wingocard is taking it one step back instead by going after teenagers and gamifying the banking experience. I remember as a kid, holding cash in my desk drawer instead of a bank because I simply didn’t see a need to place it in a bank.
Wingocard is hoping to teach financial literacy early to teenagers so they can get money smart early on.
“We all have this little anxiety for teens to be financially smart, and to one day, be successful,” co-founder and CEO Sebastien Brault told Built In. “Our mission is really to empower the new generation of teens to become smarter with money by providing them a great banking experience and tools for them to learn.”
Recount Media
Media has predominately been an area less invested in the entrepreneur world. This one is an interesting investment as it isn’t really a big tech idea. This company is mainly known for its short, social media-friendly videos, with a focus on politics right now.
Launched by media veteran journalists John Battelle and John Heilemann, its unique value proposition focuses on using these short videos to convey news to the general public.
I am not sure how far this particular company will go but considering it’s only 2 years old, I find its growth to be impressive.
If you’d like me to cover a specific city—let me know!