What comes after Y Combinator? These 3 startups opted for Austin instead of Silicon Valley

More than 1,700 miles away from Austin, nestled in the center of Mountain View, CA, Y Combinator makes its home as (arguably) the most prestigious startup incubator in the world.

 

The Silicon Valley powerhouse has been churning out strong cohorts of early-stage startups since 2005, with Reddit, DropBox and Airbnb among its roster of notable alumni. The biannual bootcamp offers two, three-month cycles to help young companies get off the ground, providing seed funding, counseling, emotional support and valuable introductions to tech’s biggest players.

 

Y Combinator’s program ends with a Demo Day, where each startup presents to hundreds of invite-only technology influencers. The demonstration can lead to millions in financing for the most-impressive startups, and funded or not, most of these companies remain in the Bay area.

 

However, this group of YC alumni migrated away from tech’s occidental promised land, and ventured south to Austin. Here are the Austin startups who started out as carefully-selected Y Combinator bets:

 

 

OwnLocal is the digital ad agency for local media. They help legacy media companies (print, radio, television) make money online through automating the digital sales process. They offer an affordable web presence for small business customers through our traditional media partners.

 

 

 

Cratejoy is an e-commerce software that could help you become the next Birchbox. The startup automates subscription processing and transactions for online merchants and will charge customers a small fee (less than $1) for each transaction as well as a small percentage of the customer’s revenue. Customers also have the option of paying Cratejoy a monthly fee of their own in order to reduce the transaction fees and revenue percentage. On top of handling all of the financial transactions for their customers, Cratejoy also provides services like inventory management/shipping tools, brand-building assistance, and in-depth analytics. Cratejoy went through Y combinator as Toutpost, a community for experts and enthusiasts to discuss and discover the best products and brands.

 

 

 

 

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