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Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#11

I am a single person in a city where I don't know anyone because I just moved here. I need something that will set me up with someone to run me home from the medical clinic as I need minor surgery and can't drive myself home. They will not release me to an Uber or Lyft or anything. So I need someone to drive me, sit there, then drive me home. The services that do this for old people think I'm insane. None of the car…

TaskRabbit?

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#12

I am a single person in a city where I don't know anyone because I just moved here. I need something that will set me up with someone to run me home from the medical clinic as I need minor surgery and can't drive myself home. They will not release me to an Uber or Lyft or anything. So I need someone to drive me, sit there, then drive me home. The services that do this for old people think I'm insane. None of the car…

Thanks for sharing! Gladly I never experienced that problem myself.

Interesting problem. There are therapeutic companion, mostly are for longer treatments. But I see how they can earn a few bucks with “easy” jobs like what your describe. Basically a therapeutic companion for shorter (or longer) periods, like Uber.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#13

I want to have fitted sheets that are easy to put on a mattress and will not snap back when I'm trying to put them on. Fitted sheets are constructed the same, more or less, so something that breaks the mold and does the above would be a game-changer.

Get a second, larger flat sheet and consider the game changed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#14

I am a single person in a city where I don't know anyone because I just moved here. I need something that will set me up with someone to run me home from the medical clinic as I need minor surgery and can't drive myself home. They will not release me to an Uber or Lyft or anything. So I need someone to drive me, sit there, then drive me home. The services that do this for old people think I'm insane. None of the car…

Prostitute...even I'm not sure whether this is a joke answer

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#15
I attend university in a small US town about ~2-3 hours from city life.

There is no public transit around here, so one of your best bets to get to the city (and back to university) is to find students with a car that are driving in your direction. The going rate that a student will charge you to let you ride with them is about $30.

Students post offers for rides (and requests) in a convoluted way: through a Facebook ridesharing group. Facebook is a terrible platform for this. The posts are not displayed chronologically. And even if they were, they offer rides for different dates which are impossible to sort; you have to manually scroll through the page and hope for the best while you wade through endless expired or irrelevant posts.

Apparently there used to be an app that people used at one point, but the developers graduated from school and I guess it stopped being supported. Anyway, I'd definitely like a better way of finding rides.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#16
While I agree ideas are cheap I think you're probably coming at this from the wrong angle. If you ask people what problems they have it's quite likely you won't actually find ideas people are willing to spend money on, or enough money to sustain a business. People will say they want all kinds of ideas and apps and services and then you give it to them and they realise they don't actually need/want it. Listen to people's problems but also always look for places people or businesses already spend money and work back from there.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#17
post #13

I want to have fitted sheets that are easy to put on a mattress and will not snap back when I'm trying to put them on. Fitted sheets are constructed the same, more or less, so something that breaks the mold and does the above would be a game-changer.

Get a second, larger flat sheet and consider the game changed.

How would you keep the flat sheet in place? I have a love-hate relationship with fitted sheets, but when they're on the mattress they usually stay put.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#18

I want to have fitted sheets that are easy to put on a mattress and will not snap back when I'm trying to put them on. Fitted sheets are constructed the same, more or less, so something that breaks the mold and does the above would be a game-changer.

The answer is a loose-fitting sheet with a draw-string fastening.

Remember me when you make your first billion.

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#19
post #15

I attend university in a small US town about ~2-3 hours from city life. There is no public transit around here, so one of your best bets to get to the city (and back to university) is to find students with a car that are driving in your direction. The going rate that a student will charge you to let you ride with them is about $30. Students post offers for rides (and requests) in a convoluted way: through a Facebook…

Something like blablacar?

Re: Ask HN: What are some promising side/solo business ideas?

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a second, larger flat sheet and consider the game changed.

How would you keep the flat sheet in place? I have a love-hate relationship with fitted sheets, but when they're on the mattress they usually stay put.

The so-called "military" or "hospital" corner

Here're two examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8d4-vA_sEY or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7nD-S7pIV8

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