Given the wealth of opportunity that the web offers, fresh startups come fast and furious, flooding the online world with high expectations before often burning out, never to be heard from again. Thankfully, in the midst of all of those projects that just didn’t make the cut are more than a few highly promising, almost sure-to-succeed startups.
Whether you’re looking for your own next big idea or you simply want to get in on the cutting-edge action where freshly-minted business models are concerned, here are four promising startups to keep your eye on into the new year (checkout the list of most promising startups of the previous year here and keep an eye for a site of the day published by DirJournal directory):
1. Happier
Happier is an interesting startup that makes social crowd-sourced. It builds your social community by letting you find people with similar interests and allowing you to find deals and special offers for you.
Discover most powerful deals, share money-saving guides, become the saving geek!
2. Fancy Hands
Coming up with a successful idea for a startup means coming up with something unique and genuinely useful, and the folks behind Fancy Hands have tackled a niche that was not only underserved, but non-existent!
Providing their clients with a virtual assistant, the Fancy Hands team takes requests for common tasks, performing all of the legwork required by each job for you from a remote location, saving you time and hassle when it comes to those chores that you simply don’t want to take care of.
Have a dog that needs to be walked? Your Fancy Hands virtual assistant will scope out local services and prices, providing them to you in an easy format from which to make your selection. Need a cab scheduled to take you to the airport next week? A simple request with Fancy Hands will see that a car is to your door the minute you need it.
Fancy Hands has gotten a tremendous amount of love since its launch, featuring in major newspapers and online magazines alike, and it currently serves as an example of one of the most promising startups on the globe!
3. LikeOurselves
The interesting idea behind LikeOurselves isn’t exactly unique, but it does tackle an old problem from a new angle. The idea is this: people sign up, express their hobbies, interests, and the people that they’d like to socialize with, and the LikeOurselves engine does the rest, connecting like-minded people for everything from chat about work to serious dating.
Currently localized for use in the United Kingdom, the team behind LikeOurselves is aiming for international use in the near future, making this one startup with the potential to really surge with their expansion into vast new markets.
4. SideTour
Whether you’re interested in crazy new experiences, educational opportunities, or just about anything else, there is no better way to involve yourself in the things that interest you than by pairing up with someone in the know, and that’s exactly what this startup offers!
SideTour is an online marketplace that sells experiences, rather than products. Users sign up, then specify the kind of activities and events that they’re looking for in a particular city, and SideTour instantly gives them access to real local people who are looking to share their expertise and passion for the things they love with others.
Already established as a promising new business model, SideTour is now working to raise awareness of what it offers, garnering mentions by several high-profile media outlets in the process.
5. Storific
We’ll end things off with another highly unique startup, this one focused on the restaurant business. Enter Storific. This handy service allows you to order from select restaurants via a simple mobile app, foregoing the need for live service and so threatening to oust waiters and waitresses around the world!
Storific is called a “smart ordering companion” and it is just as helpful as any good companion should be. By partnering with a wide variety of restaurants, cafes, bars, and clubs, this app is able to allow you to place your food and drink orders ahead of time, whether while you’re on the road speeding towards a reservation, or at a moment’s notice when you’ve just popped in spontaneously, helping to streamline the least favorite part of your time out in favor of simply getting what you want.
As Storific expands its range of partnerships, its available menus and ordering possibilities will continue to grow, and there seems little doubt that the idea behind the app will only become more popular as we find ourselves connected to the web at all times, making this a startup with nearly limitless potential!