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Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#21

Post by beamatronic »

kodablah wrote: post #4

I'll take a startup in a box. I want Kubernetes, Elastic, Kibana, FileBeat, Prometheus, Consul, Grafana, databases, HTTP gateways, etc all set up on on the cloud (or set of servers) of my choice and a dashboard that lets me add users (e.g. like a modern Webmin/cPanel+WHM) and make minor config changes if I don't want to run these myself. I want those things HA and I want stable hostnames for them (e.g. Consul DNS on…

Could you not go with serverless and eliminate all of that complexity?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#22

Post by sdiq »

I work in the humanitarian field in a poor country ravaged by war and famine. We have a number of humanitarian actors currently working in this country and no one actually has access to accurate population statistics. Well, none exists. The last census was conducted in 1975. I believe someone could use technology to get a much better estimate of the population. One thing that always springs to my mind is the possibility of using aerial imagery. It doesn't have to be exactly that, though.

I think this need, a real need that is, can potentially make millions for the enterprising type, here.

Why don't I try the same, you might ask. But, while I have some ideas, I am may not be able to raise the resources needed, at the moment.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#23

Post by kodablah »

kowdermeister wrote: post #14
kodablah wrote: post #4

I'll take a startup in a box. I want Kubernetes, Elastic, Kibana, FileBeat, Prometheus, Consul, Grafana, databases, HTTP gateways, etc all set up on on the cloud (or set of servers) of my choice and a dashboard that lets me add users (e.g. like a modern Webmin/cPanel+WHM) and make minor config changes if I don't want to run these myself. I want those things HA and I want stable hostnames for them (e.g. Consul DNS on…

Or maybe start small to test your startup idea and then you don't need a military grade server setup ready for WW3. :)

Depends on if, by "start small", you mean small effort or small money. Having those things I mentioned shouldn't be expensive, but are huge effort. I want to start small, but if I can't do something as simple as delegate SSH access or search my logs, I can't even test my idea. What I'm talking about is meant to increase the ability to start small for those of us w/out dedicated ops teams.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#24

Post by kodablah »

beamatronic wrote: post #21
kodablah wrote: post #4

I'll take a startup in a box. I want Kubernetes, Elastic, Kibana, FileBeat, Prometheus, Consul, Grafana, databases, HTTP gateways, etc all set up on on the cloud (or set of servers) of my choice and a dashboard that lets me add users (e.g. like a modern Webmin/cPanel+WHM) and make minor config changes if I don't want to run these myself. I want those things HA and I want stable hostnames for them (e.g. Consul DNS on…

Could you not go with serverless and eliminate all of that complexity?

Not easily across cloud. If as part of this package, it included a "cloud functions"/"lambda" component, cool. There are a few vendor-independent ones out there. But I need to search logs, store data in a database, etc. I don't want to go to the Google console to see my logs. Also I think traditional apps have many benefits wrt cross-request state management that are not as easy to do generically when serverless.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#26

Post by slow_donkey »

hunter23 wrote: post #18

I work in health tech. Here are some problems: * Helping patients select the right doctor. Currently most people use Yelp or through referrals. The problem is that Yelp has little correlation to quality of care. It's very difficult for patients to evaluate a doctor - usually what they end up doing is evaluating the customer service aspect of the doctor (did they speak to me nicely, did they make me wait for an appoin…

What's your opinion on current healthcare startups like zocdoc or Oscar insurance? I've seen a lot of new doctor review sites popping up but like you mentioned that's only 1 problem out of many/bigger issues

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#27

Post by cvaidya1986 »

hunter23 wrote: post #18

I work in health tech. Here are some problems: * Helping patients select the right doctor. Currently most people use Yelp or through referrals. The problem is that Yelp has little correlation to quality of care. It's very difficult for patients to evaluate a doctor - usually what they end up doing is evaluating the customer service aspect of the doctor (did they speak to me nicely, did they make me wait for an appoin…

Hi would you like to setup a call to talk more about these issues?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#29

Post by Semkas »

I do some illustration and have noticed on twitter how much every illustrator who gets some experience with 3d-tools likes to use 3d modelling to create block-outs for scenes they want to draw. By creating a simple scene out of blocks and shapes you can make your perspective work while drawing a lot easier. A tool that could be really populair would be something that makes making 3d mock-ups easier for 2d artstists without 3d experience.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#30

Post by dividuum »

scrollaway wrote: post #9

Patch distribution for games. Every desktop game does its own thing, with its own CDN, incompatible with other engines.

I don't really see a market for that. Most desktop games these days are handled by store fronts like Steam, GOG, itch.io, Origin or the Blizzard Launcher that already handle updates for you. But it's certainly an interesting topic and itch wrote about it a while ago: https://amos.me/blog/2017/efficient-game-updates/
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