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Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#111

Post by deepnotderp »

A method for semiconductor startups, especially in analog to tape out on the leading nodes.

Things that could expedite this:

Better affordable EDA tools (maybe even open source? startups that succeed and become self-sufficient would pay big bucks for customization and support). Especially for analog!

Some sort of business model which pays for masks, such as perhaps taking a percentage of the money in exchange for a MLM mask. This could be something that a mask work company does. Another related but orthogonal startup idea(albeit much harder than an app like snapchat)would be to develop a maskless lithography technique for cutting edge nodes, such as electron beam lithography.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#112

Post by zump »

lessclue wrote: post #87
zump wrote: post #36

Sleep. How can we make better use of that wasted time.

Sleep isn't "wasted" time. Without sleep, we'd be dysfunctional, and soon thereafter, dead.

- Why can some people get by with less sleep than others and thus be more productive?

- How can I determine the best time to sleep?

- What food to eat before sleep?

- How can I be productive all the way until I fall asleep?

- Why no sleep drug without harsh side effects?

Just a few things I'd like to see research into...

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#113

Post by dirtyaura »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #34
nradov wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cargo ships don't have enough free surface area to mount the number of solar panels that would be needed for propulsion. Sails are already being used on a few ships but they only save a small percentage of fuel.

I wouldn't write it off. There could be could add battery storage to be used during the journey. They could include wind turbines to add further power generation. Also ships can go slower. In my limited knowledge of boats every extra knot takes significantly extra fuel. If we were bringing multiple power sources 'slow' cargo may be viable. And the has to be other ways to increase this function. And there is always hy…

Norsepower provides modern sails: "a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power to propel a ship."

"When the wind conditions are favourable, Norsepower Rotor Sails allow the main engines to be throttled back, saving fuel and reducing emissions while providing the power needed to maintain speed and voyage time. Rotor sails can be used with new vessels or they can be retrofitted to existing ships."

http://www.norsepower.com/

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#114

Post by morgante »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #4

Contract Economy: There is still a significant opportunity for a Freelancer/Upwork group to exist. Something that better vets quality while not pushing for Toptal prices. I suspect you'd need to set up physical presence in the likely countries properly vet and control quality but this could easily be covered by a premium for a know quantity vs going to western rates. Crytpo Currency: There is room for more disruption…

> Something that better vets quality while not pushing for Toptal prices.

Why do you think this is possible?

That's pretty much exactly what Toptal or other premium shops like Gigster do: vet remote developers to ensure high quality.

The idea that you can get great developers from India for rock-bottom rates is mostly a fallacy.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#115

Post by morgante »

kul wrote: post #11

Mostly posting this because I want to see it, but drones to automate residential property inspections. I'm actually thinking about miniature drones that can do internal and external residential inspections. My startup is in property management and a lot of the work a human does could be done by a drone + healthy amount of machine learning on the images captured.

That sounds like pretty much what EagleView is doing: http://www.eagleview.com/

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#116

Post by morgante »

nanch wrote: post #37
ernestipark wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://www.rainforestqa.com/ , a YC company. They do some of this.

Was definitely interested, clicked through a bunch and wanted to see pricing and sign up. Unfortunately it's a "contact us for more info" situation, which is really a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for the recommendation though.

Realistically speaking, it's unlikely that something which provides as much value as essentially replacing QA would be priced transparently.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#118

Post by free2rhyme214 »

cperciva wrote: post #64

Figure out a way to reduce the not-in-San-Francisco penalty for startups. There are some very good reasons why startups flock to the bay area, including "lots of available talent" and "that's where the VCs are", but there are also problems with being in the bay area -- talent is considerably more expensive (due in part to the cost of housing) and visa issues (particularly under the current presidency) being the first…

I'll stick with an in person Paul Graham meeting any day over Go To Meeting or Hololens.

Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?

#119

Post by sidcool »

ernestipark wrote: post #8
lwhalen wrote: post #7

Outsourced testing. I can think of a few sites that would pay a pretty penny to have unit, spec, and acceptance-tests written for their pre-existing code.

See https://www.rainforestqa.com/ , a YC company. They do some of this.

What is the tech stack they use?
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