Getting Started

Interesting Companies

I have this running list of companies that are building interesting products, or operating interesting spaces. The list formally started in July 2023. I've included the date of when I added them to the list and a little blurb on why. There are a lot of obvious ones on this list. But I mean, eventually I think all of them will be super obvious.

Where I've worked

  • Convictional (Feb 2020) - I believe dropshipping and connecting two systems to enabel trade should be seemless. I think the world will move to a more Micro manufacturing level, and being able to more easily connect nodes will only grow in value.
  • Integral (September 2023) - USDC will be a fairly standard way of paying across borders, and may be used to fight chargebacks + fraud. If so, you'll need to be able to close your books with those assets.

Already Massive

  • Stripe (July 2023) - Started using in 2013, and continues to be the easiest way to accept payments. You can see from both my medium blog and this one, the amount of writing because I've believed in the problem they are solving.
  • Mercury (July 2023) - We used this at Convictional. From my time at Capital One, banks aren't or bogged down from building in a modern way. There is an big opportunity.
  • Rippling (July 2023) - Again, used at Convictional and now Integral. People don't want to deal with HR, it's one tool to rule them all.
  • FigureAI (July 2023) - First heard from the founder on the MyFirstMillion. I think Robotics will be huge for the retail space. It will even out globalization.
  • Zapier (August 2023) - I tried to build an Integration platform as a Service (IPaaS). It was hard and Zapier was already number one. With LLM's they will take a bigger lead.
  • Riverside.fm (July 2023) - I love listening to podcasting, and I first heard about Riverside in 2020 from the IndieHackers podcast. It's a great product and they have pace.
  • SpaceX (July 2023) - I'm mean... what do I say. I thought Starlink was great unlock for a lot of Canadians. There's a decent amount of pricing power.
  • Render (July 2023) - I started using Render in early 2020. I was thinking about solving something similar using Digital Ocean + a bootstrap script. I kept using the same boilerplate project, and it seemed crazy that I couldn't say "Just run this docker container". I'm now of the view, most startups should keep all compute on Render. Product Engineers don't need to worry about infra.
  • Temporal (September 2023) - I started to use Temporal at Integral. It's definitely a great tool for async work. It's used by companies like Uber and Stripe. In personal projects, I roll a home grown version. In most company, you should just pay for Temporal. I also used Faktory at Convictional which wasn't as good.
  • Vanta (July 2023) - Used at Convictional. Kind of a no brainer for SOC2 compliance. I know there are cheaper alternatives like Secureframe, but Vanta has solid brand.
  • Loom (July 2023) - Working remotely at Convictional, Loom became the Async backbone of demo'ing. I think it's one of best tools even if the team isn't remote. You may present something in a meeting, then send a follow up Loom to go deeper on the subject.
  • Front (July 2023) - Used at Convictional. It was a really awesome product for teams and I think most startups should use it. I think their biggest hurdle will be Slack being the default even though its a worst product.

Canadian

  • Wealthsimple (July 2023) - They are so far ahead on features: no fees, fractional ownership, mobile friendly app, self-serve. Wealthsimple continues to be the best bank by far, and the regulatory challenges from starting are behind them.
  • Vault (July 2023) - The Mercury but for Canada. I think there's space for two because Canada won't be Mercury's priority.
  • FinChat (July 2023) - These types of tools are fanatastic for finding great information. Originally discovered when named Stratosphere.io, I wanted to build a similar product. Then discovered this one is exactly the outcome. Future of investing will be: ETFs / Roboinvestors, investors using tools like this, and gamblers.
  • Shopify (July 2023) - I'm trying to keep publicly traded companies off this list. But Shopify will continue to grow in my opinion. Tools like Magento, Commerce Cloud, etc. will continue to lose market share.
  • Canny.io (July 2023) - First heard from the founder on the IndieHacker podcast. Later on, I saw the product in action for Render. I think the tool is great for building in public for your community. Consumer products probably can't use it. But if you're building a verticalized SASS product for 1000 people, you should be using it.

Smaller Startups

  • Play.ht (July 2023) - Discovered from a YC post. Back when I recorded Youtube videos, I could product 5 - 10 blog posts for every 1 video. The challenge wasn't content. It was setup time. You need a quiet space, you can easily edit your mistakes, etc. Again, I enjoy listening to podcasts, and I think script to audio using this tool is the future. There still a human in the loop, but they are acting as a producer, not a host.
  • HeyGen (July 2023) - Added to the list for the same reason as Play.ht. Youtube videos would take way too long. This is huge for that market.
  • tandym (July 2024) - Loyalty programs are hard. I can't say I've ever used tandym, but definitely interesting from what I've read.
  • yarn.so (May 2024) - Saw them from a YC post. I did this with iMovie once and it took me like 8 hours of editing and repeatly performing an action while recording the screen. The output was a cool and clear launch video for a new feature at Convictional. Again, thought about building this out and discovered, I don't know much about video editing. This will be smaller than Loom, but at least one license at most companies.
  • Merge.dev (September 2023) - Similar to Zapier, I tried to build something similar. They have a good brand and it figured out. I don't really agree with the single API, but I do agree with the IPaaS. When I looked at their platform, it's built really well.
  • Mintlify (September 2023) - I built a beautiful docs app with Next.js. It took time, and requires some maintenance. I don't agree with Mintlify's pricing (too high for small projects), but probably worth it for most startups. There's also built in network effects with the "Powered by". We all want "Stripe level docs" and they make it easy.
  • Teal.dev (June 2024) - Building a ledger and accounting product is hard. I think there API is well thought out, and they may become the Stripe for verticalised ERP companies. Think Fulfill.io for retailers.
  • Polygon (July 2023) - As mentioned on FinChat, used their API. I thought it was really good and the free tier is nice. People on the algotrading sub-reddit don't like it, but I still think it will be a top tool for Fintech products. Unclear how much more growth exists.
  • Fey (July 2023) - Discovered when starting to build in the investor space. This application is really well done. Even if other tools move faster on features, Fey is building "for the luxury market". There's a whole market of people who will not adopt a Terminal and opt in for a tool like this.
  • LogRocket (July 2023) - Still my go to for session tracking. It was necessary tool for supporting our product at Convictional.
  • Replicate (September 2024) - Like many others, heard about it from Pieter Levels. I wanted to try out the Flux model. Great development experience, and I don't see a need do self-hosting these models during setup.

Retail Related

  • Studio McGee (July 2023) - I started following Studio McGee in 2016. The brand and audience they've built since then has been unbelievable. I think Syd is a secret weapon. I would 100% back this company because they definitely have a 1000 true fans (at least) with a high willingness to pay.
  • Toja (July 2023) - High quality patio furniture. The furniture is a good product, and I think they just need to expand. Toja Grid is also a great product. I owned both.
  • Icon.me (August 2024) - The AI models makes it easier for brands and creators to work together. See Play.ht reason on content creation time taking too long, and automating that away is priceless.
  • Pebblely (August 2024) - Product photography will always be a huge challenge. Many retailers don't have massive budgets to photograph an entire catalog. You want to be able to experiment faster, and this allows for that to happen.
  • Joshua Creek Furniture (Feb 2024) - High quality product, and great selection. I think they are undervalued.