After nearly three days and plenty of pitches, our list of 30 hungry startups was trimmed down until there were only seven startups left standing: Expect Labs, Gyft, Lit Motors, Prior Knowledge, Saya, YourMechanic, and Zumper. Their task? To take the stage one last time in front of our amazing panel of expert judges — Mike Arrington, Roelof Botha, Chris Dixon, Eric Eldon, David Lee, Marissa Mayer, and David Sacks — to undergo even more intense scrutiny.
The deliberation was a lengthy process, so let’s not beat around the bush any longer: This year’s TechCrunch Disrupt SF winner is YourMechanic!
YourMechanic — which is sometimes pegged as being the “Uber of car maintenance” aims to streamline the process of getting your car fixed or serviced without having to leave home. Using either the YourMechanic website or mobile app, users can quickly describe what the problem is (even in vague terms like “smell in the car”), find a local mechanic, and work out the payment details.
According to the YourMechanic team, the service’s independent, insured mechanics are able to handle about 80% of car issues without having to lean on the expensive amenities found in shops. That ultimately means lower prices for the consumers that use the service, and more money going into the pockets of the mechanics that actually do the work. The service has already struck quite a chord, as it’s locked up $1.8 million in funding from Y Combinator, Yuri Milner, Andreessen Horowitz, Lerer Ventures, CrunchFund (disclosure: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is a general partner of CrunchFund), SV Angel (disclosure: judge David Lee is managing partner of SV Angel), Paige Craig, A-Grade Investments, Jawed Karim, Justin Waldron, Joshua Schachter and Kevin Freedman.
And the runner-up: Lit Motors!
Congratulations are also in order for our runner-up, Lit Motors. The super-ambitious startup looks to shake up the automotive industry with vehicles like its sleek prototype C-1 electric vehicle. It’s the world’s first fully-electric self-balancing motorcycle, and is said to be “untippable�� thanks to the inclusion of two gyroscopes. The C1 — which, with any luck will be the first of many similar vehicles — can get up to 200 miles out of a single charge (on about $1 worth of electricity, no less), and has designed to be remarkably less complex than other electric vehicles on the market.
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