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Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#151

Post by jokethrowaway »

valdiorn wrote: post #3

My startup ideas :) I've been designing and building audio software and hardware components for musicians since I was a teenager. VST plugins to start, then moved on to digital guitar effects and now Eurorack synth modules. I've also built custom midi controllers, traditional guitar pedals, you name it, I've designed and built it. I have absolutely no doubt that I could build a small, semi-successful company around t…

I decided to launch products several times (alone or with 1-2 friends) and, while I got some decent passive revenue, I was able to reach 250k per year profit only once - and not forever, that opportunity actually dried up completely.

My startup on which we poured 3 years of work by 10 people, failed to ever earn back the money spent on it.

I think you are underestimating how hard it is to sell and how fleeting can success be.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#152

Post by leobg »

drdrek wrote: post #95

Stand up from the computer and walk out the door, pretty sure you'll find your local problems there. Do local brewers need better distribution to stores? Can you connect local handymen with clients? Can you organize local neighborhood cleanup days, maybe supported by local businesses? You'll be amazed what can be done with the technology of outside, its like the internet just with real people! :) Some call it web 4.0

I like the suggestion. But learning about other peoples problems is hard.

How do they even know it’s a problem if they have no idea that it can be solved, i.e. that life without that problem is even thinkable?

It’s a bit like Ford’s saying that, if you had asked customers what they want, they’d said they want a faster horse.

In an ideal world, i would love to walk you to random people in the street, invite them to have a coffee with me, and let them tell me about their life and their work. And i am sure that, eventually, in pretty much all of those conversations, I’d find something I can help them with.

Do you see a better way?

If I dropped you off in some city, and you’d have to find ten high value business ideas merely from talking to strangers about their real world needs, how would you do it?

Or, if anyone here has done it in actuality, how did you do it?

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#153

Post by samsquire »

Let me share an idea.

Imagine lifestyle subscriptions. You have an app that is a digital catalogue where you type in your salary and then it tells you what packages you can buy with your salary.

Think of it as a life personal trainer and adviser with a shop attached.

* Coffee at Starbucks every other morning on way to work

* Gym once a week

* You could get a job at these companies if you tried.

* I drink coca cola or Pepsi with my pizza

* I drive a Prius and I want a max 1 hour drive

* Move to X neighbourhood

* I am a vegan or I am vegetarian

* I cook at home

* I go to a restaurant once a month

* I subscribe to Netflix only

* I am learning to play the piano. Here's the address of the place you can learn and practice.

Use recommendation algorithm and futures to reserve restaurant tables.

Allow user generated curriculum to get your desired lifestyle.

Integrate with calendar and meetup.com

It's a one stop shop for following any dream

Schedule your life to work towards a goal

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#154

Post by leobg »

gofreddygo wrote: post #136

For months now, I've been thinking and backing off from building a virtual queue for small shops (think barbers, food stalls at events, anything where people queue up) Scan a qr code, get in line. Or via a url or app. Sounds simple enough, useful enough. Friends easily pointed out issues with how this could go wrong and with very little extra time after work, I dropped it. Comments on this thread just stirred it all…

Had the same idea for a cafè at the beach we visit often. Reserve your place in the queue without having to actually stand there. Then again, if people don’t have to pay the price of standing in line, wouldn’t the line just get longer and longer? Maybe a better approach would be to send in orders. And the business accepts them based on availability and order size. If it’s busy and you just want a coffee, you won’t get a seat. But you will if you’ll order three burgers plus drinks.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#157

Post by nnoitra »

HermanMartinus wrote: post #105

I work on 2 $100k ideas Bear Blog ( https://bearblog.dev ) JustSketchMe ( https://justsketch.me ) Both are profitable enough to keep me quite comfortable while being niche enough to not appeal to any company with VC funding.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#158

Post by lambdatronics »

gofreddygo wrote: post #136

For months now, I've been thinking and backing off from building a virtual queue for small shops (think barbers, food stalls at events, anything where people queue up) Scan a qr code, get in line. Or via a url or app. Sounds simple enough, useful enough. Friends easily pointed out issues with how this could go wrong and with very little extra time after work, I dropped it. Comments on this thread just stirred it all…

I like it. Some restaurants hand out little pagers, this could substitute for those.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#159

Post by robocat »

$100k financially makes little sense for any professional because it completely ignores the risk attached - I suspect you are between 1 and 2 orders out (although you are very unclear how much time you are looking at spending).

I suspect it is easier to think of it in time invested and returned: if you invest a year of time at a 10x risk, you need to get 10 years of early retirement to cover that risk. That is easier to back-calculate how much you need to bank to reward your risk - 10 years of after tax income is a huge figure for most people (far far more than your $100k).

VCs target 30-times return for each individual investment to cover their risk, and they spread their risks over multiple investments. You usually have only one concentrated investment, so a sensible target profit for yourself alone could easily be $10 million if you have high earnings, and the revenue target is probably much much higher than that (depending on profit margin, and dilution, etcetera).

There are a few mitigations that could lower the multiplier. I regarded starting a business as university-of-practicality, so I also valued learning. I had also said no to previous valuable opportunities in my past, so I knew the regret and opportunity cost of saying no. If you can do something on the side and slowly ramp up the proof-of-profitability, you can dramatically reduce risk and so far lower profitability is needed (but beware of the slow ugly death at one_second_per_second of time wasted on a failing business). Many people value autonomy highly (although beware that it is common to make clients your boss, and end up with a lack of autonomy in your own business).

Background: I founded a business over a decade ago that has let me semi-retire, however in hindsight I am still unsure it was worthwhile, because there are other serious costs and risks beyond my time investment.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#160

Post by hindsightbias »

autotune wrote: post #140
hindsightbias wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch a few of those YT channels and it seems like a race to the bottom. Truckers in debt and driving at prices just to make payments, brokers taking advantage of everybody and every truck built in the last decade with all sorts of electrical and emissions issues. Now, if I had a $1B to disrupt that industry with some Uber model…

Any videos you specifically recommend? Would be interested in learning about it more on the practical side, my org just does invoice factoring to help truckers get paid more quickly.

Years back, I’d met a couple that did team driving (they could go 20 hours a day). They were raking it in. $300-400K/yr as owner-operators. Sounded sweet.

I don’t watch older guys lately, lots of grousing. Gas prices, inflation, Mexicans, Biden, etc. Those that have a lot of time and long-term relationships with brokers have it good, others who seem like asses probably explains why they’re always whining.

younger guys who I watched under the assumption “I lose job, what would it be like”: https://www.youtube.com/@DrivenTrucking/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ALEXTHETRUCKINGGUY https://www.youtube.com/@alexnino_ https://www.youtube.com/c/smigclick/videos

I think if you’re young, can get ratings and work for non-sociopath corps you can make a decent salary now. But a lot of people who try to be owner operators get over their heads very quickly, trucks are super expensive now, don’t know how to work on their truck, and lose their shirts (or drive for $2/mile and ruin it for everyone else).

I think it’s like any industry, shippers of old were loyal and now everything is commoditized. It’s a giant traveling salesman problem where it just seems like it shouldn’t be so hard, but shippers/brokers are failing/retiring and n00bs take over and efficiency is out the window.

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