Imagine if a certain type of medication you needed wasn’t available in your country and was expensive to ship or acquire. Many people rely on friends or relatives traveling to these countries to bring back items that cannot be purchased in their country, whether it’s jamon or an iPhone. Backpack connects users with travelers who can bring desired products back at discounted prices. Backpack, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects shoppers and travelers to empower consumers to buy overseas products at a discount. Shoppers get access to foreign products by paying travelers coming to their country a fee to purchase and deliver the items. Read the full story on TechCrunch Sign up for weekly updates from Y Combinator.Total Equity Funding$ 1 Round 1 InvestorMost Recent Funding$ Seed July 16, 2014Headquarters:Menlo Park, CaliforniaDescription:Backpack is a website that connects travelers and shoppers globally.Social: Founded:2014Employees:1 - 10 |

2 in CrunchbaseBackpack is a peer-to-peer platform that connects travelers and shoppers to give everyone access to all the products in the world. Within a week of launching the MVP, Backpack has received 66,090 hits from 84 countries around the world and 259 deals were being negotiated among the close to a thousand signed up members through the platform. Backpack will leverage the increasing 1.03 Billion travelers commuting in 195 countries and create an unified market free of distortion and externalities for the 7.15 Billion shoppers around the world. Amount / RoundValuationLead InvestorInvestors$120k / Seed——1DateNews - More stuff, or better stuff? - YC Demo Day Session 1: Gingko Bioworks, Bikanta, Checkr, WalkSource, ClearTax, And More! - Backpack Connects You With Travelers So You Can Purchase Items In Other Countries - 37Signals gives 5 Groundbreaking Tips on Competition for Startups - Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work - 10 Fantastic Places for Finding Designers OnlineLoading backpack2014's tweets...

Backpack on TwitterHeadquartersMenlo Park, California 94025United StatesMany people rely on friends or relatives traveling to these countries to bring back items that cannot be purchased in their country, whether it’s jamon or an iPhone. Backpack connects users with travelers who can bring desired products back at discounted prices. Backpack aggregates items that you can search on the website through Amazon and Ebay, or you can manually enter a link of any product you need with the price. Travelers earn money based on the product’s size and dimensions and Fahim Aziz, co-founder and CEO, says on average per trip, travelers make up to $250, but by delivering multiple items. On the site, there is a Travel option and a Shop option. The Shop option lets you find your product and request a “Backpack.” Shoppers can add item remarks and indicate the country from which they want the product.  Once your request goes in, a traveler has to review and confirm the request, and the shopper pays a product cost and traveler’s fee, kept in escrow by Backpack.

Backpack allows shoppers to pay through Paypal, check, wire transfer and localized mobile payment methods. The Travel option lets travelers share flight date and location. When a shopper’s request matches with the traveler’s location, the traveler gets a notification about the product. The traveler has six hours to accept or reject the request. So far, Aziz says more that two thirds of requests are fulfilled, and more requests will be fulfilled as more travelers sign up.hoffman backpack aqua dash Backpack has been live since February, but a large part of its customer base is from Bangladesh, but it’s slowly seeping into China. g75 backpackWithin the first week of going live, the website received 70,000 hits from 86 countries, and has a 15 percent growth per week.arrow backpack runescape

The company, which is getting advice from ex-Googler Nash Islam, has made certain deals available to other countries when travelers do travel to the shopper’s country, but they soon hope to expand to China, South America and Europe. If something happens to the host, Aziz says Backpack will take care of them, but the company hasn’t implemented an insurance policy yet and are looking at options.dakine backpack 11l “Some people might take it as a delivery service, but I see it as a lot more than that,” Aziz said. echo 750 backpack blower“I think that it’s incredibly powerful.”bamfield backpack Once Backpack opens in more markets and has a large traveler following, the service seems to be a simple and incredibly useful tool for those unable to buy items in their own country.mcm backpack cr7

Something happens to you when you sit through 75 Y Combinator startups all vying for press coverage and investment dollars. Well, besides the fact that you body goes numb from sitting in a plastic chair for nearly seven hours, you see the patterns of a pitch: intro, product explanation, financials, team experience and a call to talk while they wander the event floor. But while the patterns are similar, this latest batch included companies that were vastly different. backpack dizionarioFrom valet services for commuters to nuclear fusion. efish backpackFrom a fellowship for data scientists to a projector for furniture showrooms. mixxmix backpackThe Summer 2014 Y Combinator was long, sometimes confusing, but a good barometer on where technology is headed.mammut backpack nirvana

“The most awesome stage”Last year, Facebook's VP of Design thought the TNW Conference main stage was the best she'd ever been on.Here are the startups that we think are not just the best of the day, but potentially could be larger than what was presented on stage. Retail showrooms take up a lot of space. Many retailers end up with multiple versions of the same couch each with a different fabric. chrome orp backpackVizera wants to change that with its projector technology.samsonite backpack vizair The company proposes that there be just one couch with swappable fabric images beamed on to it. fei xiang backpackThe results are impressive to look at, but it lacks the tactile feel of different fabric types. rogue laptop backpack timbuk2

Still, if all you’re worried about is the look of the pattern, it’s cool way to see multiple versions of your next couch. “Is this even legal?” was my first thought about Backpack. The service connects a traveler with customers in their destination country who want to purchase products that are cheaper overseas. For example, in the United States, a laptop might be cheaper than it is in New Zealand. condor bison backpack for saleVia the peer-to-peer service, I post that I’m going to New Zealand and someone in that country might ask me to buy that laptop for them. best size backpack for philmontI then fly to New Zealand, give them the laptop and collect a proceed of the sales, while they get a cheaper laptop.cose bags price list philippines

Basically, you’re a mule. Now you might be breaking some tax or commerce laws, but hey, if it offsets some of your airline ticket, it can’t be all bad right? Here’s something you don’t hear a lot about in the Bay Area. People leaving high paying jobs to spend one year working on project that can bring about social good. But it’s happening at the Bayes Impact. The non-profit takes 8-10 data scientists a year and throws them at 10 to 15 problems that will benefit society. vip i5 extra secure laptop backpackFor example, the same sort of data research that makes it possible for your Uber to arrive in a few minutes could be used to do the same thing with ambulances.obey commuter black & grey laptop backpack The team isn’t exactly hurting for scientists up for the tasks, the say they have already received 250 applications for the next round of eight spots.agumon backpack

Nuclear fusion is cheap, clean power. It’s what powers the sun. Too bad no one has been able to make it work. But startup Helion Energy says it can have fusion ready to go in three years using magnets. Is there anything magnets can’t do? It’s not only intriguing, but if they pull it off, the company could change the world. But, fusion is tricky and it’s going to take more than a slick presentation and fancy charts to make it happen.meinl cajon backpack We wish Helion Energy the best of luck in its endeavor and will check back with them in three years.exfo backpack Let’s keep the nuclear theme going shall we? sony fs700 backpackUPower creates shipping container-sized nuclear reactors that can be transported to and installed in remote locations.backpack hablando sola

The “kit” comes with two shipping containers. One has the tiny reactor that’s powered by thorium and buried in the ground. The other sits above ground and contains all the necessary instruments to needed to transform that power into electricity. Now the UPower team assured me that the even if the reactor was breached, it would not create a radiation leak that would decimate a country side. igloo backpack cooler maxcoldIn fact, you could safely venture near the reactor the next day because instead of spewing out, if breached it would stop the reaction and actually create a vacuum.vanguard sedona backpack It sounds cool and potentially safe. zixtro backpackPlus, it lasts for 10 years.jual tas laptop bodypack kaskus

Like it our not, social media is a giant bucket of traffic just waiting to be poured on your site. But figuring out exactly which headline or image combination resonates best with your Facebook or Twitter followers is tough. Naytev claims it can cut through the guessing with real world A/B testing of social media posts. Sites using the service get real-time analytics from their posts and can adjust their social media strategy accordingly.stihl br 400 backpack blower priceFixed fixes those tickets by contesting them for you. teton backpack 5200All you need to do is take a photo of the ticket and Fixed does the rest. mw backpack pathfinderIf they win, you pay 25 percent of the original ticket’s fine.udg backpack s4

The company is looking beyond parking mishaps, however. It’s planning on a future where it disputes everything from speeding tickets to cable company overcharges. In other words, it’s aiming to be everyone’s favorite app. There were a lot of Bitcoin pitches at the YC demo day. Hell, there was even an ATM that I didn’t use because I currently have like four Bitcoin wallets with potentially money in them. laptop backpack bidorbuyThat’s the problem of Bitcoin. coheed backpackIt’s still too confusing and weird and where do you spend these things… and what’s a Satoshi again?backpack cuck Shift takes some of the confusion out of the crypto-currency by tying it to a debit card that you can use anywhere you use your regular debit card at. einstein backpack hype

You can finally use Bitcoin to buy anything anywhere. Plus, the company is planning on using the debit card to let you cash out your airline mileage rewards and other types of digital currency. It’s Kickstarter for local businesses. Before you roll your eyes so hard they get lodged in the back of your head, Local Lift provides a valuable service for businesses that might not be able to get a loan from the bank.godfreys backpack vacuum cleaners Like Kickstarter, backers get rewards for their support. kickflip backpack black carharttBut instead of backing some random person on the Internet with a 3D printer and a dream, Local Lift campaigns are put on by a local business hoping to expand with access to customers that not only want to see a local business excel, they want to be part of that success.meeko backpack