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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?

#201

Post by burgalon »

cel1ne wrote: post #186
sunshinejoy wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 3) Solve democracy, a friend showed me pol.is (neat demo of it: https://pol.is/demo/2demo ). Anyway, it's description is..."pol.is brings AI & machine learning to participatory democracy. Scale up outreach in online consultation & get powerful insights that can shape and legitimize policy." It would be amazing if U.S. politics could be grounded in legitimate understanding of each other.

The problem is not making the tools, it's getting everybody to learn and use them.

I'm wondering if some kind of mind-map/graph mashed-up with a wikipedia model and "likes" on each node, can help drive decisions or is it just too naive/simplistic and low adoption

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

#203

Post by Cthulhu_ »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #194
DiabloD3 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. Also, hilarious adventure I went on once: I ate 4000 calories of bacon a day and nothing else for a month... ended up cutting it off a little early because I was losing weight too quickly. Your second and third points however are scientifically supported, but do not confuse this with "obesity is complicated." It is not ho…

That sounds more like a malnutrition issue no? If all you were eating is bacon and nothing else.

A delicious kind of malnutrition though.

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

#204

Post by fruktstav »

burgalon wrote: post #166

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 interfac…

I also have a project trying to solve problem number 3. It's called Democritique, and as of now it only fetches data from the swedeish parliament - Riksdagen. You can find it on App Store if you wanna try it!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/democritique/id1145464920?l=... (It's only in swedish at the moment)

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

#205

Post by awjr »

aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

This has been solved and it's not so much a technology thing as a built environment thing. By 2030, the Netherlands will have an obesity rate of 8.5% DOWN from 10% http://www.ukhealthforum.org.uk/who-we-are/our-work/ukhf-wha...

The problem is very much political with a move away from highways design focusing on strategic mobility, the movement of people and goods over long distances, to sustainable mobility, the movement of people over short distances (0-5 miles) and the provision of systematically safe infrastructure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aNtsWvNYKE

It's a really really hard political problem to solve as the impacts are measured in decades but the returns are huge.

From a technology point of view, the solution is the bicycle.

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

#206

Post by anonnyj »

aabajian wrote: post #151

The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. >90% of these cases can be attributed to an overweight population. It's not an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a way to fix it. Lots of calorie counting apps, activity trackers, motivational reminder apps, etc. Obesity is very complicated, but there are three basic facts: 1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule. 2. The vast majority of calories…

Attitudes like Health at Every Size don't help matters.

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

#207

Post by sytelus »

Hackers rarely think of politics as playing field for startups, so in my mind this one of the biggest untapped opportunity right now. People from both sides are going nuts over Trump politics. That means tons of eyeballs and attention that would be available for the right startups for next 4 years. Things like BuzzFeed and DailyXYZ are going to make a massive killing in terms of ad revenue. At this stage still the real disruptive startup are few and far between. Nice thing is that you might actually end up doing something good and impactful. If Zuck runs for president, may be even big exit ;).

I can think of few ideas right away:

- website that gives stories from other side

- activist website that uses better tactic than "getting signatures"

- know how your congressman votes on each of the vote

- automatic ratings generator for congressman

- news article that only comes from international press

- software for politicians: campaign management, voter management, political ad management etc

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

#208

Post by Cthulhu_ »

nailer wrote: post #188
WA wrote: post #165

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.

This pill won't because depression and inability to maintain an erection are side effects. But one in future may.

> implying the pill for women doesn't have equally bad side-effects. But they're more likely to take them, because they're the ones that end up pregnant.

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

#209

Post by weavie »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #194
DiabloD3 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. Also, hilarious adventure I went on once: I ate 4000 calories of bacon a day and nothing else for a month... ended up cutting it off a little early because I was losing weight too quickly. Your second and third points however are scientifically supported, but do not confuse this with "obesity is complicated." It is not ho…

That sounds more like a malnutrition issue no? If all you were eating is bacon and nothing else.

But does anecdotally disprove the pure calories in, calories out rule.

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

#210

Post by asenna »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #176
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…

I had the same thoughts for the Contract Economy for quite a while. I'm on a "Startup break", and started a Service Firm. While working with clients, we realized the need to serve a rather underserved section of projects, which are high enough for individual freelancers or even a small team but too low for established agencies - the $100,000 to $1M projects. We're experimenting with some of our clients and their conn…

Could you elaborate a bit on this. Looking at the site, I'm not sure how this is different from a traditional Consulting firm.
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