Economic slowdown notwithstanding, new startups are optimistic

it easier for people to discover food from small producers. Foodoro launched 2 1/2 months ago, and has items from more than 60 producers.

Even though retail sales have slowed on and off the Web, Moon is optimistic about Foodoro’s chances. After all, people will still give gifts.

The bad economy also seems like a ripe opportunity to Shazz Bhunnoo, 25, co-founder of Propable, which rents apartments from property owners, furnishes them, and then rents them out to people by the room. Propable has not yet officially launched, but Bhunnoo said investors approached him Wednesday.

Jodie Griggs had a similar experience. The co-founder of Nambii, which has made iPhone dating applications like “Kiss or Miss” and “Pick Me Up” that can be used to flirt with people near you, said she had a “pocket full of business cards” after speaking, most of them from potential investors. “It’s very flattering to have people come up to you,” she said, grinning.

Toni Schneider, a partner with Palo Alto-based True Ventures — which invested $300,000 in a startup called BackType that Y Combinator funded last year — said the startups at Demo Day could have good timing. By the time they have grown larger, the economy might have turned around. “Also, these are very capital-efficient teams — they don’t need a lot of money to keep going. That fits the times,” Schneider said.

Wayne Crosby, 31, and Robby Walker, 25, had an unusual perspective at the Y Combinator event — it helped make them rich, and now they were in attendance as possible investors. After a Demo Day in 2007, Crosby and Walker’s startup Zenter, which lets people create online slide presentations, was bought by Google for an undisclosed amount. With money from the Google deal, the two started Mixin Capital, which provides small amounts of angel funding — about $10,000 to $20,000 — to tide startups over between the investment they receive from Y Combinator and what they can raise down the road. Mixin might invest in a couple of startups that presented during Demo Day. Crosby and Walker were intrigued by Skysheet — a company offering a Web-based spreadsheet application — and Heyzap, which makes it possible to embed games on Web sites.

Recession or no, Crosby thinks it is a good time to launch a startup.

“I think if you’re an entrepreneur,” he said, “you’re always an entrepreneur, regardless of what the economy is doing.”