Every few years there are certain startups that come around and disrupt the world with their ideas. There was Facebook in 2004, Uber in 2009 and Blue Apron in 2012. Each of those companies has disrupted their respective industries.
In 2018, these five startups are hoping to make a name for themselves by changing the world.
#1 Brandless
Brandless is a new e-commerce startup that sells everything on their website for just $3. Yes, you read that correctly. You no longer have to wonder how much each item will be.
The company sells everything from food to kitchen wear to office supplies. If you wish, you can pay for shipping or you could pay the yearly membership for $36 and receive free shipping.
The premise of the company is that shoppers don’t care about name brands as much as they think they do.
By choosing to use Brandless you’re also choosing convenience. You can choose the items you need online and get them shipped to your location in two to four days.
Brandless is able to make their products so cheap is because as the name says, they aren’t a brand name. Instead, they private label their products, allowing you to cut costs from name brands. This allows you as a consumer to save money and allocate your spending elsewhere.
#2 Hound Labs
When I first read about Hound Labs, it was one of those moments where I wonder why I didn’t think of it. Hound Labs is one of the first breathalyzers for marijuana.
This company is interesting because there are breathalyzers for alcohol, there hasn’t been one for marijuana. This would make the job of law enforcement a lot easier when trying to determine if someone was driving high or not.
Like me, you may be wondering how does the Hound Labs breathalyzers work? The breathalyzers are able to measure and detect THC, which is a known chemical compound in marijuana. The goal of the breathalyzer is to determine the amount of THC present.
By knowing how much THC is present in someone, you can determine if they were driving or working while impaired. This innovative startup will help law enforcement.
#3 eMINDSCLUB
eMINDSCLUB is launching their platform in less than a month from now, and I couldn’t be more excited. The concept of the club is to bridge the gap between people who have connections and those who don’t. The goal of the company is to connect entrepreneurs together, whether they went to Harvard, work in Silicon Valley, or dropped out of high school.
With the club, you’re able to connect with entrepreneurs in ways that hasn’t been possible before. Let’s say you’re good at design and you meet an entrepreneur on the platform who is good at marketing, you can trade your services with that entrepreneur, incurring no costs. Perhaps you don’t want to trade your skills with another entrepreneur. In that case, you could bring an entrepreneur on to help you and pay them by giving them a small percentage of equity in your company. The app also helps you to find investment partners.
eMINDSCLUB connects entrepreneurs who have a wide variety of skills and backgrounds with each other. By enabling you to connect with other entrepreneurs, you’re creating one big mastermind to help yourself.
#4 Acorn
What do you do with your spare change? Do you put it in the tip jar or put it in the console between your seats only to never to use it again? Acorn, a company founded in 2012, takes the spare change you have and invests it into one of their over 7000 stocks or bonds.
Say you purchase a coffee for $3.28 using your debit card. The rest of the $0.72 would be invested in your acorn account!
While some may say the company is already big, with over 2-million users in the world, I believe everyone with a debit card should use this app, and I see definite room for growth and further disruption.
Acorn also offers recurring investments where you can decide how much money to put into your account each week or month. You can also boost your account by adding $5 to $50,000.
The next time you think about discarding your spare change, think about how you could grow your investments with zero effort.
#5 Zing
You’re a busy person, and your child needs to be dropped off or picked up at school. What are you going to do? For a lot of mothers and fathers, this can become a problem. This is where Zing comes in.
Zing is a ride-sharing service, much like Uber for kids, that allows parents of children eight and over to ride, carpool, or be dropped off at an after school activity with ease.
You can choose to either be a driver or have your child ride with a certified Zing driver.
The company has done a soft launch in Miami and is looking to expand across the country.
While it’s not guaranteed that all the startups on this list will succeed, I expect most of them will due to their innovative ideas.
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