Here's a great idea: bitcoin settlement, custody, and clearing for institutional investors. There is a huge first mover advantage to be had signing up to prime broker every hedge fund's bitcoins and help settle OTC transactions. I know people who need this. Good luck.
Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
101–110 of 580 posts
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#102I'm sure it must be out there already in some form, but you might want to give a shot at "uber for day laborers". It seems to me like there are opportunities on both the supply and demand side. On the supply side there its lots of room for improving gig hunting and payment assurance for laborers. Staffing agencies are of course in this space, but are pretty inefficient and catch only a small fraction of potential gig…
There are lots of people who need jobs and need someone to tell them where to go and what to do. This could be a real winner. Call it "Slaves 2.0".
Your comment made me lol. But also made me think :)
Indeed its not hard to imagine how "uber for day laborers" could increase worker exploitation. In particular the possibility of somehow skirting around worker's comp insurance by arguing that it only facilitates transactions is an obvious starting point. However, I think such a technology could also be used to mitigate exploitation. The one thing that I already mentioned was payment assurance. In general socializing the risk exposed to laborers as part of the service could be a great benefit in growing the service.
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#103The marijuana industry is only growing, you might want to see what opportunities lie in that space.
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#104Tough love: You've done too much reading on the subject already and will learn nothing from reading even more by indulging yourself in the comments here. And although good teams can find good ideas they have to "try and fail" at things, not just "consider and not try" things. I'm not sure how long you've been at this and which ideas you have considered and rejected and for what reasons, but if it has been longer than…
Yeah I agree that they appear to be missing a designer or product developer. More concretely, they need someone who is imaginative and can see the big picture from a user/customer perspective.
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#105Did you look under the couch?
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#106Baby's first Bitcoin: an online platform for parents to introduce their babies to the world of cryptocurrency.
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#107Here's my idea. All I ask for is a free one if you use it.
A drone fence. Hear me out.
Problem: Fencing is FUCKING expensive. For many people who want to keep animals out (garden, animals pooping in the sandbox) buying a fence is really cost prohibitive. Plus they don't always work anyways.
Solution: Self driving drones with IR cameras in specific locations. Place a camera or two in strategic locations, and have a drone take off and chase off deer or rabbits. Return to the main station, land, recharge, repeat. Might need to have a squirt gun with some vinegar or something to scare off the more aggressive deer.
But combine some machine vision (don't want to chase children), autonomous flying drones, and some smarts, and you could have a $2000 system that replaces a $X0,000 fence.
Sorta the opposite of an invisible fence for animals.
I would LOVE one of these. I just don't have the capital or talent to make it happen...
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#108What non software domains are you experts in? There are lots of businesses out there with problems that are solved with spreadsheets for which a focused SaaS offering would be a 10x solution. See procore or gingr for examples (those are just off the top of my head). But you need the domain expertise (or be willing to acquire it). Then, you also need to be passionate about it. To avoid the long slow SaaS ramp of death…
So how do you get domain expertise? Sometimes I think the best way to go about it is to become a consultant, look around in companies, and when you've found something, build a product for it.
That's how I do it.
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#109Idea: build a job agency for (groups of) great developers that want to work from home or their own office.
You could be your first customers :)
Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea
#110How about buying a category killing .com domain name, and use that as inspiration to build a business? The domain name can be your guide.
Here's one: Glowstick.com .. it's currently at auction. http://www.namejet.com/pages/auctions/standarddetails.aspx?a...
Go buy it, and create an online ecomm store selling stuff to party folks, halloween folks, safety folks, etc.
Or hire a domain name broker like MediaOptions.com or Evergreen.com to handpick a domain - that way you have an unfair advantage out of the gate, and a somewhat business direction already baked in..