Wise Words from the Launch of Launch Conference

On the first day of Launch Conference in San Francisco, we got to meet a lot of great companies. Entrepreneurs, investors, and developers gathered to talk about the latest and greatest upcoming companies and ideas. Here are our three favorite gems.

High Def Humanity

It was “humanity in high def”. That’s how Uber CEO Travis Kalanick described his night as an Uber driver. As the evening wore on and his clientele grew more inebriated, the social interactions he had fascinated him.

Kalanick went on to encourage people to do what they loved. “I heard a hundred no’s a day for six years straight.” If he hadn’t been working on something he loved, it would have been impossible to keep going.

Robot Cops Are Coming

“As much as I’m scared of it, I kind of want one,” Jason Calacanis, founder and host of Launch voiced the general audience sentiment. Knightscope CEO William Santana Li had just walked us through the features of his five foot tall, 300 pound security machine, which has the ability to scan license plates and identify sex offenders using facial recognition.

Image via Launch.co

One of Li’s robots can patrol the premises 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for only $3,000 per month. That works out to just over $4 an hour. For people concerned about robots replacing human security, take the case of ATMs. Everyone was worried ATMs would destroy the banking industry, and they ended up enhancing it. Technology like this can act as a supplement or additional layer of security.

The Bar Is Low

“You don’t have to do any better than Apple or Facebook,” Y Combinator Cofounder Paul Graham encouraged the audience. He was referring to Apple’s initial production of 200 Apple I computers. Once they had proof their product was useful and in-demand, they improved upon the concept and produced more.

He went on to say you should build something users would be upset to see discontinued. Not just that they liked it, but that it was making a tangible difference to them. That’s how you know it’s a real need.

We had a great time the next couple days of the conference. We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of these companies make it out of beta mode and into the general public.

To learn about more developing technology and upcoming products, visit our “The Coolest Innovations to Watch for in 2014” blog post.