YouNoodle Thinks AI Can Predict Startup Success

We cover a lot of startups here at TechCrunch, but I don’t recall ever having covered a startup that thinks it can use artificial intelligence to predict whether other startups will be successful. YouNoodle promises to do just that.

The site opens to the public today, and they chose the NY Times to pitch their product:

Kirill Makharinsky, 21, and Bob Goodson, 27, call their software a “start-up predictor,” and they say their company, YouNoodle.com, might give an edge to venture capitalists and other investors trying to decide whether to sink money into an early-stage company.

“We don’t want to replace investors,” Mr. Goodson said. “We simply believe that industries of comparable size have utilized artificial intelligence to inform decision-making.”

“Give us some information, and we’ll give you some idea of what the company will be worth in five years,” he said.

Call me a little skeptical, but I’ve been pitched AI that will predict the results of horse races for years, and ASIC warns against them.

Having said that, this quote is not inaccurate:

Paul S. Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and the author of the Infectious Greed blog, said that his industry was indeed inefficient at picking winners; typically, 90 percent of venture investments are not home runs.

It sounds interesting, but what do you think?