Categories: Inspiration

Best Startups We’ve Heard About Last Year

If you have a very good idea or a business project, it doesn’t matter when you’ll launch it and what’s going on across the market, or if there’s a downturn in funding. When one works hard enough, he or she will eventually reach the goal, get funding, and live the dream.

For some startups, 2016 has turned out to be their last year on the market, and many well prospering companies failed and now remain forgotten. Fortunately, the last year witnessed not only the depressing breakdowns but also inceptions of up-and-coming startups all over the world.

Below, you’ll find just a few of them, some founded by the very beginners and some by those who have quite a big experience on the market ­– everyone is different, and the diversity is something that matters regarding keeping the business among the best companies on the market.

Starry – Forget About the Internet at Low Speed

Starry is the company which designs easy to use WiFi products and radical ways to use the Internet. These devices and technology will let you deliver remarkably fast services; they also will allow you to speed up the Internet up to 1 gigabit per second – that’s quite a lot! It will be all done via using the wireless equipment with a beautiful and futuristic design. Imagine the situation that you want to download a 2 hours video; normally, it takes about 15-20 minutes to do so – with Starry you’ll be able to get it just in a couple of seconds.

How does it work? Starry makes a Starry Point which fulfills the function of the receiver; it hangs out of the window like an antenna. The company not only provides all the equipment and the ultrafast Internet connection, but you can also count on 24/7 Expert Help for all your Starry devices.

Lemonade – From Necessary Evil to Fast and Easy Insurance Solutions

Lemonade is an insurance startup which offers a unique product – peer-to-peer homeowner’s and renter’s insurance. It’s a whole new way of providing this kind of service – the company successfully combines artificial intelligence and behavioral economics. It’s the best solution for those who hate the paperwork – Lemonade replaces brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning. In contrast to any other insurance company, Lemonade is remaking insurances as a social good rather than a necessary evil.

The company sells rental insurance policies for as little as 5$ a month, and home insurances for as low as 35$ a month. What makes it even more convenient and easier to use is the fact that the business is conducted entirely online via an app.

Cheddar – News for Young Entrepreneurs

Cheddar is a use and on-demand video news network focused on covering the most innovative products, technologies, and services. Its founder has quite a big experience when it comes to the news – John Sternberg is a former president of BuzzFeed and CEO of Daily Mail North America. He founded Cheddar to present business news with a huge twist for millennials. As younger and younger people start to kick off their activities, it may be a great channel for them to get the most valuable information of what’s going on the market, in the clear and understandable language and the mild form of the word.

Now, the company is using a paywall as the kind of reward for services, but Cheddar also gives the possibility to watch short interviews clips completely for free. Cheddar’s team is hoping that young entrepreneurs will pay to have news tailored to their interests.

Pearl – Devices that Care About Your Safety

The company is dedicated to game-changing products that are to revolutionize the auto industry. Their aim is to deliver advanced and continually improving driver assistance features. What is such a tidbit is the fact that people who create Pearl’s products are mostly former engineers of the biggest giant on the market – Apple. It has already launched its first product, which is brilliant – license plate frame that connects to your mobile, giving you the extensive perspective review of what’s going on around the street and whether you can back the car or not.

When it comes to costs, I have to admit that it’s quite expensive at the beginning because the device itself costs 500$. Nevertheless, the company promises that in the future it will do far more than just giving a well-visible view of what’s going on behind your car.

BrighTap – Make It Clear and Healthy

As all people around us, all the medics, health specialists, and even personal trainers emphasize how important it is to eat healthy food and drink healthy drinks to make our organisms healthy and to make ourselves happier. The next product doesn’t provide the knowledge what to eat and what to avoid, but when it comes to water, it’s a professional adviser. It’s a smart water meter for tracking your water usage and quality. What’s more, it gives you the information how much water you’re using and how much money you’re spending on it. The IoT (Internet of Things) meter can be attached to any standard water tap helping you to control the quality of water you consume and also to reduce your water bills.

BrighTap is easy to use, and it’s equipped with a small display which shows its users the real-time data and also stores it for tracking through a monitoring system. It’s possible to make your bills smaller now, and to monitor whether the water quality gets better or worse.

One Test Diagnosis – Noble and Necessary Novelty

It’s headquartered in Cambridge, and it’s a biotech startup. One Test Diagnosis’ aim is to develop a novel method of tracking cancer’s responses to therapy. One Test’s approach makes it possible to reduce the time needed to diagnose whether the cancer responses correctly to the medications prescribed. According to the course of the cancer disease, every day counts because very often the disease progression is extremely fast. Thanks to the project it will be possible to make rapid and incredibly important decisions which can save a man’s life.

This project is the best of its kind, it helps to monitor personalized treatment, leading to improve patient’s quality of life and increased survival rates.

Marini Naturals – Cares About Natural Curly Hair

Its mission is “to be Africa’s first very own all-organic quality hair care line, suited to all women of natural hair.” It is based in Kenya, and it caters exclusively to women with natural, African hair and all woman with Afro-textured hair. Marini Naturals formulates, manufactures, and sells the full set of natural products such as sulfate-free shampoos, detangling leave-in conditioners, curling gels, curling butters, moisturizers, and potent hair growth oils. For those girls who have curly hair, it is very hard to find good cosmetics which can make their hair beautiful and healthy, this idea of all-organic cosmetics can be a great solution for those whose hair isn’t straight and smooth. Now the company launches products in East and Central Africa, as well as in France. Hopefully, they will start to sell all of the products all over the world.

Marini Naturals’ aim is not only to provide the best cosmetics but also to make women know how to treat their curly hair properly and make those girls proud of their beautiful and natural curls.

Lola – LOngitude and LAtitude

Lola” stands for “longitude” and “latitude”; it was created to make seaborne navigation easier and safer than ever before. It’s an application which lifts the travel agent industry to the whole new level. It provides on-demand travel service through a smartphone application, which is incredibly easy to use. Nowadays, as we’ve got less and less time, it may get extremely hard to plan holidays, everyone wants to do it the best, because for the next leave they’ll have to wait the whole year. Lola seems to be a great solution. Application’s users can simply call her out and make her plan the best vacations. How does it work? The Lola app instantly connects people to the team of travel agents who will do whatever the user wants – it can book all the flights, hotels and rent a car.

It isn’t just about planning; the service supports its users while they’re on a trip. You can leave all the fears and troubles behind, and enjoy your free time, whatever happens – your special travel agent will help you to solve all the problems.

Nucleus – Get in Touch With Your Family Easier than Ever Before


Everyone knows the old intercom systems. Today, regarding all of the new communication technologies, the big novelty and a breakthrough from the past seems to be a little bit obsoleted. Nucleus, however, is inspired by these old and well-known systems. It combines the family phone, video calling, and smart home management to give families all-in-one tool for modern communication. How does it work? It’s very simple – it connects to your home’s WiFi to enable an easy and completely wireless communication with those you love – doesn’t matter if they’re upstairs or hundreds of miles away. As well as communicating with family members you can also use The Nucleus as a way of getting in touch with homes that have the same system.

The Nucleus was launched on the market in August 2016 and was sold out on Amazon on the first day.

Simple Habit – Project That Helps To Keep All the Things Together

After burning out and selling first startup, Yunha Kim wanted to help other overworked millennials in the similar situation. She wanted to do it by showing them how to meditate properly – the only thing that helped her to get through that tough time. Now Yunha’s app seems to be the best meditation app, which takes only 5 minutes of its user’s everyday life and makes them focus or contemplate on topics that matter to them. The Simple Habit meditations are designed by Harvard psychologists and guided by the best teachers – from mindfulness teachers in Google to young former monks to authors to veterans.

If you want to reduce stress, improve sleep, or boost focus and memory – try this one out! You can check whether it’s your cup of tea or not by using seven days series for free. Enjoy!

All of the ideas and projects above are relatively young on the market, but their plans and services are fascinating and sometimes even noble. All we have to do now is to track their development and keep our fingers crossed.

Olga Goralewicz

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Olga Goralewicz

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