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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?

#161

Post by pyromine »

hectormalot wrote: post #146
cvarjas wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that cargo capacity is currently expanding. Maersk is taking delivery of 11 new ships within the next year and a half: http://theloadstar.co.uk/maersk-refines-fleet-second-generat...

I'm under the impression that both are true. There is overcapacity in the shipping market, which drives down prices. Because prices are low, shippers are investing in ever larger (more efficient) vessels, in order to turn a profit. This in turn leads to more overcapacity, which leads to a drive for even larger and more efficient ships. It's a type of 'tragedy of commons' situation, where every shipping company is mak…

An additional detail is also the expansion of the panama canal which allowed more and larger ships to travel through it cutting down the travel time for larger cargo ships eliminating a primary advantage of smaller vessels.

However ironically though, these mega vessels are considered with quite a bit of disdain by many in the industry. This link can provide quite the rabbit hole of information. http://www.supplychain247.com/article/state_of_ocean_contain...

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

#162

Post by rz2k »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #20

Here are a few, and I frequently have these conversations with VCs, albeit biased toward areas I work in: - Spatiotemporal analytics usually in the context of IoT. Most people currently repurpose cartographic tools for this purpose but the impedance match is poor and the tools are seriously lacking elementary functionality. There is no magic technology here, just exceptional UX/UI and an understanding of the problem…

I understood the question as, what makes you think: the current system could be streamlined so easily that I can hardly believe someone hasn't already disrupted the complacent firms extracting rent.

Such a question usually gets answers mostly comprised of work that is extremely boring at first glance. For example, create a system than halves the work to complete documentation for some sort of compliance with regulations.

Every one of these ideas just sounds incredibly interesting to work on. The type that gets a lot of really bright people together on a team (that I'd really want to be on too), yet they might not deliver a product, and possibly even less likely figure out how to monetize it.

Anyway, I'm not developing a friction-reducing product either, but worry about choosing something because it sounds like a rewarding, intellectual challenge.

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

#164

Post by mxstbr »

JamesBarney wrote: post #154

A marketplace for specialized micro-consulting(30 minutes to an hour). I've seen plenty of projects that are rife with anti-patterns because a team was unfamiliar with a problem or technology and made a bunch of bad decisions while they were still coming up to speed. The use-case I envision would fix this. Because it's really a travesty that when we're the least familiar with technologies is when we make some of the…

I've started offering a service like this[0] for React apps. The response so far has been really good, people love it!

It's exactly how you say it is, by spending some time identifying the biggest issues and then spending an hour with the team I can get them to rally around some easy fixes that'll be valuable for the business long-term.

Developers love it as their bosses finally understand the value of refactoring, and managers love it because they get actionable tips that'll help the business.

Making this a general platform would require a lot of good curation, but nothing impossible. Now you got me thinking…

[0]: https://mxstbr.com/audits/

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

#165

Post by WA »

Contraception. Almost everybody needs it. The current solution of flooding the body with hormones works, but causes side effects.

The pill for men won't make it. My prediction is that we'll have some other non-hormonal contraception within the next 20-30 years, probably invented by a startup that wants to disrupt this billion dollar market.

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

#166

Post by burgalon »

Here are my thoughts

1) Free p2p money transfers / gateway to bitcoin or other crypto-currency so that it's more widely adopted

2) Better open bank accounts - allowing open transparent accounting for organizations and companies

3) Solve democracy - better analytical tools for mass discussion, arguments and decision making which will encourage use of facts and science, and discourage politics

4) Human-Machine interfaces - memory augmentation

5) Solve the common cold and influenza

6) Robotics - better batteries, finer motors and sensors - possibly through the usage of biological systems

7) Public access to satellites - realtime security monitoring, crops analytics and forecasting

8) Solve weather or create private air-conditioned jackets ;)

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

#168

Post by cel1ne »

zump wrote: post #112
lessclue wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

For decades there haven been a lot of research on sleep if you bother to look up medical and neurological papers.

Also you're mixing up many different aspects. Feeling sleepy doesn't mean you're sleepy. Motivation is a different thing altogether.

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

#169

Post by cel1ne »

skynode wrote: post #26

We need to simplify the whole lifecycle of data management. It is still considerably complex. We'll see an accelerated revolution in other areas such as machine learning when this simplification is complete.

That is a wish that has been there since 50 years, yet nobody was able to solve it. There's just no golden rule for managing data. Even if you find smart ways to manage much of it, there will always be exceptions.

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

#170

Post by nodesocket »

JamesBarney wrote: post #154

A marketplace for specialized micro-consulting(30 minutes to an hour). I've seen plenty of projects that are rife with anti-patterns because a team was unfamiliar with a problem or technology and made a bunch of bad decisions while they were still coming up to speed. The use-case I envision would fix this. Because it's really a travesty that when we're the least familiar with technologies is when we make some of the…

I recently launched my third startup Elastic Byte (https://elasticbyte.net) a DevOps and cloud management company that offers simple monthly plans to design, build, and manage your cloud infrastructure. Pricing is transparent and upfront (which is rare for consulting/service companies) with no long-term contracts and no vendor lock-in.

We specialize in AWS and Google Cloud, and can help with simple LAMP/MEAN stacks all the way to complex multi-region microservice architectures using Terraform, containerization, Kubernetes and beyond.

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