Author name: William Smith

Mention startups and the first thing that comes to mind is the hotbed of innovation and technology, Silicon Valley. Some of the world’s most innovative and high-value companies come from this region. How did this area in California become the hub of technological advancement, innovative start-ups and the best place to grow a business? There are numerous reasons and we shall present a few below. Here’s why Numerous Silicon Valley Startups are successful Plenty of Investors and Funding It’s well known that Silicon Valley is the center of investors who are happy to groom startups and invest their hard earned money on them. Rather than paying up huge taxes to the US Government each year, investors are looking out for innovative businesses which will pay them high dividends in future. The sheer number of startups blooming in Silicon Valley ensures sufficient success stories which investors are ready to chase. Startups are bursting with confidence due to this increased financial support, alongside the mentorship, guidance, and connections provided by the investors. Where Academia, Private Sector, and the Government Meet Some of the world’s best universities and talent can be found in Silicon Valley. In fact, there’s plenty of cash and a very stable place to launch a startup for any kind of business. With the right mix of talent, skills, and connections, success is bound to find you. It’s a junction point for academia, private sectors, and the US Government. With top-notch universities like Stanford and Berkeley, there’s a constant influx of new ideas and budding entrepreneurs. The result of this heady mix is talented tech minds, business people, researchers, vibrant capital community and experienced people to pull you up. Besides, the laws are favorable and helpful in launching a business in California. Access to Amenities Another solid reason for the boom of successful startups is the access to amenities in the area. Since it is near San Francisco, where the amenities are in plenty, which includes world-class hotels, conference centers, unique entertainment options and a lot more, it’s hardly surprising that entrepreneurs are making it their home and settling for the best. Such amenities bring potential investors, clients, and new business to the city. The target market is huge and people are willing to try out new trends. Platform gave more Precedence than Product The business world always looks at products that can be sold to make money and be successful. However, more product output doesn’t mean long-term profitability. Especially in Silicon Valley, physical products are not what spell success to their startups. It’s here that platform development is given more precedence over product innovation. Innovative companies like Facebook are building platforms to suit the demands of their users, so platform focus is how the future should be. Now that you know why your startup could easily flourish in Silicon Valley, here are a few startups from Silicon Valley to watch out for in 2018. 1. Modsy Founders: Shanna Tellerman This company provides homebuyers with a digital platform where they can design their own virtual furniture. You can just upload a picture of the room where you want to add the furniture, provide dimensions, and voila, a 3D model is ready for you. The platform then connects you to interior designers who will bring your imagination to life. Modsy is path-breaking for transforming the interior designing industry interspersing it with a digital platform. 2. GRAIL CEO: Jennifer Cook Based in Menlo Park, California, GRAIL has over careful research, developed a blood test, which allows for early detection of cancer. This life sciences startup with a mission to cure cancer with early detection has venture funding and is in the expansion stage after signing up a massive $238.35 million. 3. SPOKE Founders: Jay Srinivasan, David Kaneda, Pratyus Patnaik This startup is all about simplifying the employee ticketing process with a software powered by artificial intelligence which integrates with the popular app, Slack. It answers employee questions and assigns tickets to the HR department and management. It connects an employee to the right point of authority to answer any queries in a company. This helps companies drive better internal efficiency. Spoke has some high-profile investors like Accel Partners and Spider Capital and are keen on improving the way companies handle their daily tasks.

Casey Neistat is a vlogger and filmmaker that is active on YouTube. Beme was his first startup, but he already shut it down a few months ago. Neistat is a creative man who was born in 1981 in Connecticut. He even did not finish his school during junior high school. He was a difficult man and he even left his family to seek for his own life. In short, he started vlogging and uploaded his first video “scariest day of my life” a few years ago. Neistat’s Career with Beme Neistat began to upload a daily video on Youtube since March 2015, and then he informed that he would incorporate with Matt Hackett to build a mobile app for video sharing which was called Beme on July 2015. Beme was a cool app that users could use to edit video content that they found in social media. Then, users were able to share the videos with other subscribers, but they could not review them. Simply, users could only give reactions to the uploader or sending their own photographs. It seemed that Beme got its success because since Beme was first released, there were so many users on Beme who also shared videos over one million videos. One year later, CNN informed that they would acquire it with a fantastic value. Then, Matt Hackett sent emails to the entire Beme users that they would shut down Beme. A few months later, Neistat uploaded a video about Beme update in which he stated that he did not work on Beme anymore. He said that he was not fired, but Beme and CNN were no longer work together. However, since he does not work anymore with Beme and Beme is no longer available, he still wants to run a new project which is fresher and better. Even though he was frustrated to work in a team, he knew that there would be a better way to awake. Eventually, he has a new project that was first released on April 2018 called 368. Neistat’s Career with 368 The day that he was waiting for is coming since he was not working with Beme anymore because he now works with 368. He is going to start uploading his daily vlogs again with fresher stories. He intends to create something bigger and he wants to tell a story of his life. In this case, he will work with other artists such as YouTube stars, filmmakers, podcasters, and even musician. Meanwhile, the name of his vlog channel called 368 is taken from his address where this project begins at 369 broadway that was also the base of Beme. In this project, Neistat will collaborate with Dan Mace as his editing partner. Though this business is still fresh and new, he is always optimistic that it will be successful because he currently has over 9 million subscribers from all around the world. Finally, that’s a brief story of Casey Neistat when he was working with Beme until he shut it down because of a certain reason. But, today he has a new project that is better than Beme and he feels optimistic about it.

Startup company becomes a great phenomenon in the US that brings new innovations to support human life. This startup also develops globally including in the USA itself. There are so many new startups in America that brings creative ideas. Though running a startup company is not easy, some businessmen in the US have succeeded to make their startup companies grow. Here are some top 10 hottest American startups of 2018. Uber The first hottest startup of 2018 that is based in the US is Uber that runs a car rental and taxi service based on an app. It also has a lot of investors from other enterprises such as Baidu, Google venture, Benchmark Capital and much more. Airbnb Nowadays, Airbnb has a big asset as much as USD 25.5 billion with total investment as much as 2.4 million dollars. Some company like Sequoia Capita, Andreessen Horowitz, and other companies also did not hesitate to invest in this startup because Airbnb has its future prospect. Snapchat Another hottest startup in America goes to Snapchat that is basically still new in which it was first launched in 2012 by Spiegel in California. Some popular capital firms such as Alibaba, Yahoo, and even New York Capital Management also invest in Snapchat. SpaceX Elon Musk is a man behind this startup where he first started the company in 2002 in California. This startup is successful to get capital as much as 1.1 Billion dollar and they also get some investors from some popular enterprises such as Capricorn Capital Partners, Fidelity Investment, Google, Founders Fund, and much more. Pinterest Pinterest is a startup that runs in the field of social media network that was first built in 2008 in San Francisco. Today, this startup is led by Ben Silbermann and has obtained fun as much as 1.3 billion dollars with total valuation up to 11 billion dollars to challenge Facebook, Instagram, and even Whatsapp. Citizen Citizen is a startup that can help people to avoid crime in their neighborhood. It is an app that can make people safe and it can inform the people all about crime in certain areas. This app can also give you a notification when you are in an emergency situation. Now, this startup has some investors and get funded as much as 13 millions dollar fro Sequoia Capital and other investors. Jopwell When somebody wants to seek for a job vacancy, it seems that Jopwell can be a good source. This startup has an incredible idea to help people find some jobs in various industries. Moreover, Jopwell also has some partners from popular enterprises such as Pinterest, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Adobe, and others. Meural Meural is a nice startup that combines technology with fine art. In this case, homeowners can change their house wall accoridng to your wishes by simply swiping their fingers. Meural provides and sells digital canvas with HD display. Quip Quip is another startup of 2018 that can help people change the way they brush their teeth with their new advanced toothbrush. This can provide a solution for everybody in order to keep dental care under control. Brooklinen Brookline is a startup that runs a business in the field of bedding. This new company becomes one of the best bedding suppliers and manufacturers in the US because they sell some luxurious bedding. So, homeowners can find some nice bedding products according to their wishes.   Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels