Realius

Ryan Kim and Adam Kopytoff from the San Francisco Chronicle ran a good article on the TechCrunch40 Show. Out of the 100 companies in the Demo Pit, they covered two three- Aviary, 1800Pharmacy.com and Realius.

A quick spin around the DemoPit, where another 100 startups showed their wares, revealed a number of ideas:

–Bay Area real estate fanatics will love Realius ( www.realius.com),
a Berkeley startup that’s building an online fantasy game based on
housing prices. Users sign on to a Web page and a house or condo
listing pops up, giving the usual information in any MLS listing. But,
on Realius, users guess how much the house is worth. Using comp
listings, the site gauges whether a guess is close to market value.
The usual fantasy-league high jinks ensue, ranking competitors
nationally and awarding prizes.

It was great to be in the pit with my fellow entrepreneurs. The buzz from the Demo Pit at the Palace Hotel was loud and constant. As I walked the floor, the typical discourse went as follows – “nice product, who are your customers and how will you make money.” Most of the answers were focused and concrete. I only ran into the “we’ll figure that one out later” comment a couple of times. It is refreshing to see product innovation and strong business models emerging.