[ { "id": 109, "name": "Opez", "slug": "opez", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png", "website": "http://opez.com", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Opez is dedicated to helping you discover exceptional service professionals. But who are these people, you might ask, and what are they like? Well, friends, let us tell you. To us, exceptional service professionals are individuals who consistently exceed your expectations in their line of work because they love what they do and because they love their customers.", "one_liner": "Yelp for service pros.", "team_size": 11, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Home and Personal", "launched_at": 1326789421, "tags": [ "Marketplace", "Reviews" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2011", "status": "Inactive", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Home and Personal" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/opez", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2011/opez.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": null, "x_url": null, "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/opez", "github_url": null, "logo_url": null, "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 7828, "full_name": "Paul Chou", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/plchou", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b270b3e9d1eb77f7a658abb60a4c57fdedb86c30.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 12004, "name": "Simmer", "slug": "simmer", "former_names": [ "Foodie" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4be0985a92bf18bd1d92588d83a79cf064fac2cd.png", "website": "https://www.usesimmer.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Today’s delivery apps are bad experiences. First, you have to choose a delivery platform. Then, you scroll through dozens of restaurant and finally, you decide between hundreds of dishes. And even if you choose the right restaurant, you might get the wrong dishes.\r\n\r\nOn Simmer, we tell you the best reviewed dishes across all delivery apps. You first choose your dish on Simmer, and the delivery companies just take care of logistics. Through this, we are able to charge affiliate revenue for every order.\r\n\r\nNo one has done this before because determining a city’s best dishes requires millions of users to leave dish reviews.\r\n\r\nOur unique insight is that all the data required already exists online, in blog posts, social media, newspapers. It just needs to be aggregated, analyzed, and indexed. We have built a custom sentiment analyzer to do just that.\r\n\r\nOur vision is to be the first place people go when ordering delivery. \r\n\r\nThe founders have backgrounds in engineering and data science from UChicago (their alma mater) and they have both worked at food tech companies like Lolli and Pops and Blue Apron.", "one_liner": "We do reviews for dishes. Our app helps users find the very best…", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Travel, Leisure and Tourism", "launched_at": 1541473396, "tags": [ "Delivery", "Food", "Reviews" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2019", "status": "Inactive", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Travel, Leisure and Tourism" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/simmer", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2019/simmer.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/usesimmer", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4be0985a92bf18bd1d92588d83a79cf064fac2cd.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 299916, "full_name": "Richard Wu", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Went through YC in winter of 2019 with the food review app Simmer. We were trying to build Yelp for dishes. Beforehand, I bootstrapped a social impact startup called Kitchenet. Now I'm the director of product at Woflow, which is building the automation infrastructure for commerce.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/wu-richard/", "x_url": "https://www.twitter.com/heyrichardwu", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a79fd88191ef2e424008ea6cd26864c9d16023d5.jpg" }, { "user_id": 276557, "full_name": "Vaibhav Verma", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/vaibhavverma9", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/7ecf1abb098132036cfe8c5ba067149440805568.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 29582, "name": "Cheers", "slug": "cheers", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/319852b81dd897865aad034d9eccd66519d3b017.png", "website": "https://www.cheers.tech", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "AI assistants are replacing search for local businesses. When someone asks ChatGPT for a plumber or hotel recommendations, reviews are the primary training signal, especially in local markets where other data is sparse. This is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).\r\n\r\nCheers is the full-stack GEO platform for local service businesses. We audit AI visibility, build optimization plans (schema markup, citation fixes, review strategy), and give frontline teams NFC tools to generate reviews with employee-level attribution.\r\n\r\nVivint generated 70,000+ five-star reviews in 5 months. They now rank #1 on ChatGPT and Google Search across their markets.", "one_liner": "Win local search on ChatGPT & other LLMs", "team_size": 2, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1721413814, "tags": [ "Analytics", "Feedback", "AI", "Reviews" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/cheers", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/cheers.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/cheers-software/", "x_url": "https://x.com/Cheers_Software", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/319852b81dd897865aad034d9eccd66519d3b017.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1314282, "full_name": "Dylan Allen-Arnegård", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Dylan is the CEO & Co-Founder of Cheers. Dylan previously helped build Azure Linux at Microsoft, and interned as a product manager and software engineer at Podium (YC W16), and Weave (YC W14). Before getting his degree in Computer Science from BYU, he spent more than 5 years in different frontline roles across Texas, Utah, Idaho, and Argentina.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/dylan-allen", "x_url": "https://x.com/dylan_a", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d14e64b72488a95cf7c30c0d7da99ab88f96b9f8.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 93185, "title": "Cheers - The GEO platform to win local search on ChatGPT", "tagline": "We help service businesses win local search on ChatGPT & other LLMs", "body": "Hey there!\n\nWe’re [Dylan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-allen/) and [Amadeus](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amadeus-peterson/), the founders of [Cheers](https://www.cheers.tech).\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=93185&key=user_uploads/1314282/4f3b1be6-d50c-4917-a18c-279469925471)\n\n### TL;DR\n\n**TL;DR** AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini) are changing how customers find local services. Soon, they will be booking appointments and buying on our behalf. AI recommends based on **reputation, not ads**. This shift is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).\n\nCheers is the full-stack GEO platform for service businesses. We ensure AI recommends you first. We analyze your reputation, build a strategy, and turn your frontline employees into a reputation engine—capturing reviews at the point of service and attributing every outcome to the individual employee.\n\n**Ask:** Know a multi-location service business (home services, retail, field sales)? Intro us: [dylan@cheers.tech](mailto:dylan@cheers.tech) (10% referral bonus for closed deals!)\n\n### **Video:**\n\nhttps://youtu.be/P42T7HQSncA\n\n# \n\n# The Problem: The End of Local Search As We Know It\n\nLocal search is dying. Consumers are moving away from traditional Google searches and asking AI assistants for recommendations. Soon, AI will move from recommendation to action—booking and buying directly.\n\nThis is the era of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and it changes the rules:\n\n* **You Can't Buy Ads on ChatGPT (yet):** You can pay to be at the top of a Google search, but you can't pay to be suggested by ChatGPT. AIs ignore ad budgets and analyze authentic reputation signals (reviews, citations, social proof).\n* **Reputation is Everything:** If the AI cannot find strong, verifiable evidence of your quality, your business is invisible.\n* **The Execution Gap:** Most service businesses generate goodwill face-to-face but fail to systematically capture it on the 3rd party sites AI trusts.\n* **The Attribution Gap:** Even when they get reviews, they lack attribution. Managers can't see which employees are driving their reputation, so they can’t scale what works.\n\nYou can’t win GEO if you don’t generate the right signals, and you can’t optimize the signals if you can't attribute them.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=93185&key=user_uploads/1314282/818afe3b-2ce0-4f37-8696-cd0e783ee073)\n\n# Our Solution: The Full-Stack GEO Platform\n\nCheers is the platform built natively for GEO. We help businesses generate the reputation signals that AIs trust and attribute those signals to the people who create them.\n\nHere’s the platform:\n\n1. **Analysis & Strategy:** We analyze a company’s existing online reputation and build a custom GEO optimization plan (covering the reviews, citations, and evidence hubs that AIs parse confidently).\n2. **The Reputation Engine (Execution):** We equip frontline employees with ultra-low-friction tools (like NFC taps) to capture reviews and social proof right at the point of service. We route these to the 3rd party sites AI actually cites.\n3. **Employee-Level Attribution (The Key):** We attribute every review and referral back to the specific employee and location. Managers can see what behaviors drive growth—and coach, reward, and scale them.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=93185&key=user_uploads/1314282/951ec0e5-9b68-47e4-9489-b6c7374e7172)\n\n**Traction & Proof** The demand for GEO is exploding. **Cheers has grown 115% in the last 40 days.**\n\nOur methodology is proven at enterprise scale. [Vivint Smart Home](https://vivint.com/) used Cheers to operationalize their reputation strategy across 400 locations.\n\nThe results: **70,000+ new 5-star reviews in 5 months.** Vivint now dominates AI recommendations for smart home services in all their service areas. 🤯\n\n# **The Team:**\n\nWe've been friends for more than 5 years, and moved from Utah to San Francisco to make Cheers into a decacorn.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=93185&key=user_uploads/1314282/009f2142-052e-4699-9b7a-6c988c72e5a8)\n\n[**Dylan Allen**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-allen/) (CEO) is a technical founder who's worked in experience/reputation management across [Podium](https://www.podium.com/) (YC W16), [Weave](https://www.getweave.com/) (YC W14), and [Microsoft Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/) before starting Cheers.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=93185&key=user_uploads/1314282/c1ef80dd-107f-486d-9edb-03aec637cf6c)\n\n[**Amadeus Peterson**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amadeus-peterson/) (CTO) was a software engineer at [Northrop Grumman](https://www.northropgrumman.com/) working on the Sentinel Missile system before Dylan convinced him to quit and move to SF.\n\n**Our Ask:** Do you know anyone at a multi-location service business (Home Services, Field Sales, Retail, Hospitality)? PE rollups are also a great fit.\n\nEmail [dylan@cheers.tech](mailto:dylan@cheers.tech) with an intro → We offer a 10% referral bonus on the annual contract value of any closed deal.", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/OEz-cheers-the-geo-platform-to-win-local-search-on-chatgpt", "votes": 94, "created_at": "2025-08-20T14:29:27.340Z" }, { "id": 83053, "title": "Cheers: The super-app for in-person employees", "tagline": "Meet Cheers, the all-in-one platform for in-person employee excellence.", "body": "**TL;DR:** We’re [Cheers](https://cheers.tech), building the super-app for in-person employees (think home services, restaurants, D2D sales). We’re starting with NFC-enabled employee badges that make key tasks—like collecting reviews and verifying employment—seamless. It’s our first step toward becoming the central platform for in-person work.\n\n# **🥂 What is Cheers?**\n\n_Cheers is on a mission to revolutionize how in-person employees work._ We’re building the super-app that will become the central hub for everything these employees need—from managing schedules and tracking performance to accepting tips and capturing customer feedback—all through NFC technology pre-enabled on smartphones today.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83053&key=user_uploads/1314282/43a513ab-a934-4a14-a112-05fa155cc8a3)\n\n# **🧨 The Problem We Solve:**\n\n**In-person customer and employee interactions are often inefficient and filled with friction.** Whether it’s collecting feedback, verifying employment, or capturing leads, these processes are typically slow, manual, and prone to errors. This inefficiency not only frustrates employees and customers _but also leads to missed opportunities for businesses to optimize and grow._\n\nCheck out how it looks here: \n\n**Cheers aims to make every in-person interaction seamless, frictionless, and measurable.** We’re starting with NFC-enabled employee badges that go beyond basic identification. These badges enable employees to perform key actions with just a tap—whether it’s gathering a 5-star Google Review, collecting a lead, or verifying employment—right when it matters most, face-to-face with the customer.\n\n# \n\n# **🚀 Why We’re Excited About Cheers:**\n\nWe believe that these badges are our wedge into businesses. They address immediate needs (better Google Reviews, etc.) while laying the groundwork for something much bigger. **As employees and owners tap into Cheers’ early features, they quickly see the value in capturing and attributing customer interactions to individual employees.** That means the right employees get the proper credit and feedback, which is actionable at a more granular level. We’ve already seen this open the door to deeper integration across operations. _(**also, Apple** made an announcement about **iOS 18.1** that really excites us, check it out _[_here_](https://9to5mac.com/2024/08/14/apple-nfc-chip-iphone-ios-18-1/)_.)_\n\n**Example:** Imagine an employee tapping their badge to allow a customer to leave a 5-star Google Review in just 3 taps: notification, rating, post. Or, picture a customizable employee page where customers can perform multiple actions—like booking services or leaving feedback—all in one place.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83053&key=user_uploads/1314282/0777f19c-8ae1-41f0-8d8e-c09eaa28b4e5)\n\n# **📈 Our Traction:**\n\nWe have 25 customers, the majority of which are small businesses, like your local bridal shop or burger joint. We have one enterprise-level client with whom we’ve been running a successful paid pilot for the past 2 months. **We’ve grown our MRR from \\~$1,400 on July 1st to \\~$4,000 now.** Cheers has already processed over 3,000 internal and external reviews for our customers. \n\nOur reporting software is delivering real results—**our average customer has 5-10x’ed their monthly 5-star Google Reviews.** Managers are using it to track performance, run competitions, and provide targeted feedback. **(See the screenshot below for a look at what our customers do when hosting competitions).**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83053&key=user_uploads/1314282/c932da5c-dd75-4579-ab20-080c058000e3)\n\n**But this is just the start.** We’re building Cheers to be the central operating system for in-person businesses—a platform that will transform how in-person teams operate, from scheduling and payments to customer engagement and beyond.\n\n# **🙏 Our Ask to You:**\n\nWe’re looking for intros to folks who manage—or know someone who manages—in-person, customer-facing teams: anything from self-storage to solar sales. Cheers is _especially_ helpful for companies that currently struggle with getting online reviews (Google, TripAdvisor, Thumbtack, etc.).\n\nOur first product, the Cheers NFC-enabled employee badge, is already delivering strong results, and with your help, we can build something truly impactful. Request a text from one of us, or schedule a call with our CEO Dylan, [here](https://cheers.tech/get-started).\n\nAnd finally, a toast, to people like you. Cheers! 🥂", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LbZ-cheers-the-super-app-for-in-person-employees", "votes": 65, "created_at": "2024-08-14T22:06:15.209Z" } ] } ]