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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?

#291

Post by personlurking »

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…

This would be great for non-tech too. That is, a marketplace for micro-consultations where I can look up industry-specific consultants. It would have saved me lots of time (months) on several projects I've played with launching over the last few years.

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

#292

Post by Gustomaximus »

dirtyaura wrote: post #113
Gustomaximus wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 shi…

I love that you posted an 'in the wild' solution. So many people saying this is not possible. And then someone has found a creative way to offer one alternate. Such a good example of dont listen to the nay-sayers if you want to mentally explore something. There are almost always solutions and I'm sure there are more for this one.

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

#293

Post by LouisSayers »

This is a bit broad, but essentially there are issues that we have in society that end up costing tax payers, and individuals a lot of money, or are simply really inefficient. Education is one such thing, but you could also branch out into other issues such as theft, health care, environmental issues.

You can see that there are certain companies that are helping to tackle these issues in various roundabout ways, but I believe that there is big opportunity here, and it's kind of easy to quantify these issues, which makes it easy to sell solutions.

Sorry if this sounds very broad and generic, but I promise if you sit on this idea, and take just a single societal issue, once you start to dig a bit deeper you'll see opportunities jump out.

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

#294

Post by therealmarv »

Note taking done right. Android, iOS, Desktop, Markdown & HTML, easy flat file format, Web clipper, offline and do this all without wasting whitespace (no doc editor like Evernote) and good sync and instant search results. <- NO ONE is doing this! Closest is maybe Google Keep (seriously it's good at some points I'm mentioning).

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

#295

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

jonwinstanley wrote: post #278
hmate9 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To everyone saying "calories in vs calories out" is not the golden rule: it simply is. Your body obeys the laws of physics. If you consume less energy than you use then your body will be forced to use up its stored energy.

Totally disagree with that being the golden rule, firstly not all calories are the same. Plus calories from protein, carbs and fat are all treated differently by your body and that is further affected by your activity levels and stress.

It's not just not the golden rule, it's actively misleading.

"Fats make you fat" is a flat-out lie.

The effects of carbs - especially carbs with plenty of refined sugar - are the developed world's number one health care expense. They don't just cause obesity and diabetes, they also create inflammation which leads to heart conditions, strokes, and other life-changing disorders.

Unfortunately the food labelling industry has been promoting falsehoods for most of its existence. Labelling carbs more clearly, licensing sodas and diet sodas to limit access, and starting health programs to educate the population about carb abuse would do more to improve public health than anything else.

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

#296

Post by rimantas »

cromulent wrote: post #290
Draiken wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "calories in, calories out" idea is dangerously wrong. I have problems with my weight and my wife is anorexic. We live day-to-day with the fight against obesity (for years) and that's hardly a rule, much less golden. The only constant I see on this whole food/nutrition industry is how little information is accurate. Millions of diets and nutrition "experts" saying whatever they hear works without testing anythin…

I'm surprised no-one (including OP) is talking about the gut microbiome and how the variations in that can affect the absorption of calories. Twins can have very different results with the same "calories in / calories out" due to differences in the microbiome. This seems like a ripe opportunity.

It just changes the multiplier, the rule stays the same.

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

#297

Post by rimantas »

Draiken wrote: post #249
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 "calories in, calories out" idea is dangerously wrong. I have problems with my weight and my wife is anorexic. We live day-to-day with the fight against obesity (for years) and that's hardly a rule, much less golden. The only constant I see on this whole food/nutrition industry is how little information is accurate. Millions of diets and nutrition "experts" saying whatever they hear works without testing anythin…

Alternative physics.

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

#298

Post by Gustomaximus »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #63
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…

The problem with using sails is speed. On average, cargo ships travel approximately three to four times faster than sailing ships (20 to 24 knots vs. 5 to 8 knots).

I came across this article that said they are often slower, the larger cargo ships at least.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/25/slow-shi...

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

#299

Post by iUsedToCode »

sytelus wrote: post #207

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 re…

I'm doing exactly this, spreading the opportunity to legally own a firearm in Poland (https://braterstwo.eu). It's a Wordpress plugin, php scripts and a bit of legal stuff (creating a NGO, bank account with automatic payment identifications, etc).

It allows lots of people (thousands now) to obtain a permit. Poland has the lowest quantity of firearms in the whole Europe (and one of the lowest in the world). Taking the current mood around us now (terror attacks, war in Ukraine and possibly -- god I hope not -- other eastern countries) and the obvious coolness of legally owning a firearm i think it's a good initiative. Legal owners tend to be more law abiding and more self sufficient. We need role models like that, IMO.

I encourage more programmers to automate stuff that the state messes up. It's a lot of things!

PS. My NGO only helps lawful, sane adults. No felon, no person with mental illness and no kids can obtain a gun permit in Poland.

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

#300

Post by rimantas »

taurath wrote: post #227
xorcist wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Energy in, energy out sounds pretty basic to me. I would be interested to know where you think your energy intake comes from, unless it is from food? Or is it just the caloric measurement you think is irrelevant for human energy intake? While obviously imperfect, I'm skeptical it could be an order of magnitude off for example.

How much your body absorbs is a huge variable which seems insane to have to say but people just want to say calories all day.

How does that change the fact that if you consume less there be less to absorb from?
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