Curatti

Startup Trends 2014 II

  • Martin (Marty) Smith

    • Note
    No sooner than I finished this post than my friend Evan Sanchez Tweeted that Google purchased Nest.com for $3.2B. If that doesn’t make you want to fire up a startup I don’t know what will. Amazing and Nest.com is covered in our Distributed Home section below.

    In Startup Trends 2014 I covered five macro trends from Internet of Things to Learning To Think Like Video Game Developers. Today’s post covers five more macro trends including:

    Fjord created great icons we used to organize this and next week’s Startup Trends 2014 report on Curatti.com. Notes such as “Internet of Things” are my addons to Fjord’s organizing graphic:

    The Smart Home

    Our homes are about to get smarter, more social and interactive. Everything from our thermostats to our televisions will connect to two distinct webs: The Internet of Things and The Social Web. Our fridge will know when its filter needs changing and, with the right assortment of apps, our “filter subscription” will fill the need even before we realize its that time again.

    As our intelligent things have conversations with themselves we will be “in the know” too. The data about our usage will be summarized, pivoted, shared and compared. If you are away and left the upstairs window open it will show in the data and a PING will go out or “business rules” will simply close the window. AT&T’s “Cabin” commercial explains the “intelligent home” with humor:

    Cool startups wanting to help your home get smarter include:

     

    Healthcare

    Healthcare is near and dear to me. I am a cancer survivor, but healthcare is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Americans pay more to get less than almost anyone in the world. Technology is the answer, but there are significant hurdles such as the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act HIPAA (1996), entrenched bureaucracy and overwhelming demand.

    The combination of 80M boomers living longer and needing more healthcare is creating a tectonic shift. In Durham we see the shift. The shift makes Duke’s hospital not its world class college the center of a recent building boom. Hospitals are the new “city centers” springing up condos, restaurants and services as fast as they can be built to service a growing number of customer patients.

    Brave startps are tackling the unique challenge that is healthcare. I just founded a startup to help crowdsource cancer research working with The Duke Cancer Institute (Durham, NC), UNC Lineberger Cancer Center (Chapel Hill, NC), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY) and Carbone Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI). Cool healthcare startups:

    Insurance Is Money

    One of the many things Warren Buffet knows better than you or me is Insurance = money (why he owns several insurance companies including the lovable geco. Since insurance is a statistical bet with sophisticated algorithms predicting redemption cash other cash must be put to work. With CDs generating 1% return insurance companies have gone looking for better return and may be about to underwrite the next round of the digital revolution.

    What about bringing innovation and creativity to the insurance and finance space. Who is doing that?

    Telcos Own Our Souls

    Not hard to see what we spend our time and money upon these days. Go to any public place and observe. You will note people sitting at tables together with heads down as they text others. You will see people walking and texting (a dangerous idea). You will see that our phones are rarely more than a few feet from us.

    Smartphones are the teddy bears of a new generation.

    Expect Telco M&A to go up in 2014 and expect the creators of the web’s backbone to get better at understanding how to use SoLoMo (Social, Local and Mobile) reach, marketing and the infinite number of service possibilities scaled and ubiquitous connection brings. Cool mobile startups include:

    You Are The Internet

    The web will be part and parcel to every aspect of your life. Our phones will be close, our thermostats will be smart and our children will love us unconditionally and forever. Well two out of three isn’t all bad (lol). When a watch company receives $11M when they asked for $100K something is up.

    Wearable tech is about to be Large and In Charge. Here are a few startups looking to harvest some pebbles too:

    Wanted to finish up strong with this very cool, inspirational video from BitBangerLabs showing off their PiexlStick light painting application. Too cool just wish I could understand how it actually worked (lol). For another day. Thanks for reading and please share your favorite startups in comments here or on GooglePlus (Martin W. Smith).

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    Martin (Marty) Smith

    Founder at Story of Cancer Foundation
    Passionate cancer survivor, Internet marketer and former Director of Ecommerce who believes in Margaret Mead's quote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Glad to be an "Editor of Chaos".

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