25 Most popular stories from the first half of 2013
It's that part of the year again when you say, "It's already July! We just celebrated New Year's Eve!" Yes, time flies and especially if you're anywhere closely associated with the startup field, time flies on super fuel.
We come up with these lists of the most popular startups according to our analytics (like we did for 2012) and think of it as a good way to revisit some of the startups we've covered and relive all the beautiful stories. Since we're through the first half of 2013 (have a look at the Q1 2013 and Q2 2013 funding reports), we thought of doing a compilation here:
1) Hike: An instant messaging app which allows smartphone users communicate with other smartphone users with the app via IM and also communicate with non smartphone users via SMS. This came as a bit of a surprise for us, the app is popular it seems!
2) Airwoot: Airwoot is a New Delhi based social media listening and analytics startup that helps businesses to engage with their customers on social media and provide real-time customer support. This story about two PhD. dropouts certainly struck a chord with the audience.
3) Rasilant: Founded by Shiladitya Mukhopadhyay, Rasilant technologies is a Global Automation Solutions and System Integration Services company that has undertaken more than 35 major projects till date. This story about how the fateful day of the Mumbai floods shaped the life of an entrepreneur was in the popular charts for a long time!
4) Chatar Patar: Chatar Patar is an ambitious venture which plans to brand a product that India has been consuming since aeons, but never had a single brand name attached to it- Panipuri. Had to be popular!
5) Handybook: Handybook is based on a really simple idea. Booking services online, whether it’s cleaning or a painting/plumbing job, people don’t know who is reliable, when and where are the services available and what is the right price to pay. But the guy strated out after dropping out from Harvard, you sure want to know his story.
6) Webandcrafts: Webandcrafts mainly helps hosting websites and has the distinction of being the “first hosting provider in Kerala with payment gateway,”. Today the startup has successfully hosted over 2,500-plus websites. And the startup comes from a very young entrepreneur based in Kerala.
7) Fluid Motion: The Fluid Motion is a gesture recognition platform that allows you to fully control your computer via hand gestures with no external devices. The Fluid Motion is compatible with any hardware including TV, laptops, and projectors with your hands only.
8) CityShor: Founded by two young entrepreneurs based out of Ahmedabad, CityShor tells you what’s best in Ahmedabad in food, fashion, travel, events, home décor and entertainment; the unusual, and unheard stuff of Ahmedabad.
9) Dineout: Dineout is a hotel reservation and review platform, and was also the winner of websparks last year. Certainly a popular choice, not just with our audience.
10) Farsankart: FarsanKart sells farsans from Vadodara’s leading farsan stores like Payal, Sukhadia, Jagdish, and mukhwas from Vadodara’s famous JK Mukhwas. A DJ turning entrepreneur, selling farsan online, has to be a widely read article!
11) Housing: Housing.co.in is a location based listing of property available for rent that has a mobile website, an Android app, an iPhone app and a desktop website. 12 young co-founders from IIT Bombay, Housing has also raised close to $3 million and many people in the startup ecosystem have an eye on them.
12) AppStudioz: AppStudioz builds apps in various areas including 3D/2D games, Enterprise, and now also in wearable computing. AppStudioz has built more than 700 apps till date and bank heavily on quick turn around with quality work to keep the client satisfied. The company clocks in $2 million in revenues annually!
13) Wegilant: Wegilant (combination of web and vigilant), offers security audit services for websites, networks, wireless networks, mobile devices and applications, and compliance of IT regulations.
14) Shortcircuit: Shortcircuit exclusively focuses on the idea of corporate and retail gifting by adding a personal touch to the products. Another Ahmedabad based company, it looks like people want to read more about startups from upcoming regions.
15) Pune Express: Pune Express allow Puneites to buy grocery online and does an average of 220 deliveries a month. This story particularly pulled a chord because of the hardships the brothers have faced to keep the store running.
16) ideaForge: Netra is a small eye zooming in the sky to gather real time intelligence on the ground. This unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), shaped like a spider and weighing less than 1.5 kg, was used in the recent Uttarakhand flood rescue operations.
17) Mink: Mink is a footwear brand by two Chennai graduates that makes handmade, customized footware for people.
18) Shykart: Shycart, an e-commerce startup deals with products that people shy to buy at physical stores They focus a lot on adult hygiene,adult entertainment and lingerie.
19) Kamastra: The eCommerce wave in India has opened up areas which were considered rather unconventional. Kaamastra is an online store for adult products.
20) Travel Tiger Track: TTT provides services for various types of travels focusing on wildlife, adventure, culture, trekking, camping etc.
21) Shradha Sharma, founder of Yourstory's Journey on how she came about accepting herself as a woman entrepreneur.
22) PayAd: PayAd incentivizes the process of paying people with virtual currency for each video viewed. This virtual currency (called PACs) can then be redeemed for discounts on physical purchases
23) Nupinch: An online apparel shopping assistant.
24) Flocations: Flocations is a Singaporean startup which aggregates travel packages offered by offline tour operators. It has a team from different parts of the world, who met and started their venture in 54 hours!
25) Myshaadi: Myshaadi.in started as an idea to create a platform that can bring both couples and service providers together and slowly evolved into freemium model transforming into a wedding website at core.
Check out all our stories here.
