'Lets put qr codes on "welcome to $town" signs than when someone scans them with their phone, its loads a website advertising various things you can do/buy/participate in around town.'
Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
31–40 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#32Apparently mine, based on the number of upvotes my Show HN is getting right now ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6374377
Agreed.
Edit: Maybe that came off as rude, but I really don't get the idea. You pay somebody for something you want to see done? What?
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#33The stupidest idea I have heard was Twitter. After that, I changed the way I thought.
Same here.
It never occured to me that celebrities would start using the platform. I still don't think that Twitter would be anywhere near where it is now if not for the endorsement by many celebrities.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#34Mine: Rate your barista
You would be able to snap a picture of your barista, put in where they work and rate them on things like: Skill Speed Attractiveness Friendliness
It all started to feel kind of creepy, because I knew the "attractiveness" would become the most important thing, then you'd have guys using it as an excuse to be creepy. Anyhow, there are barista competitions so it seemed like something worth measuring. Also, a lot of times the quality of the coffee in many places is on an even playing field and the person making it starts to become more important. Never went through with it though.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#35[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#36My gf wants to make a mobile app that helps homeless/impoverished people share good dumpster eating locations.
I actually feel like there could be significant value in something like this.
Imagine a platform where restaurants, bakeries, anyone with excess food that would otherwise go to waste, could get "points" for availing that excess inventory to those in need. It might be similar to the model used by Shelter Partnership (http://www.shelterpartnership.org/).
In a nutshell, they solicit donations from major manufacturers (think Johnson & Johnson, et. al.) for totally-usable products that can't be sold on store shelves for whatever reason - i.e. a typo on the packaging. They provide some receipt giving J&J the opportunity to seek some tax benefit for the donation at a discount of the retail-price, and needy people get the products for free.
I don't see a compelling reason why something like this couldn't work in major metro areas. Bakeries could get some off-set for donating bread; grocery stores could get some off-set for donating otherwise-spoiling fruits and veggies, etc.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#37That guy on Dragons Den that wanted to save his cucumber ends from drying out... WTF
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#38App that you use to report empty parking spaces. That earns you karma points. You can then spend the karma points to get reports of nearby parking spots when you need them.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#39Since I advise people that want to make new game companies, I hear A LOT of those, ordered by stupidity level (all of them are fairly common, although seemly the most stupid ideas are more popular too).
First place: Make the next World of Warcraft, with only 3 people and no money.
Second place: Make the next Unreal/Quake/Half-Life with 1 programmer, one artist and no money, for console, in 6 months. (yes, this idea is more common than you think).
Third place: Make iOS game and get rich quick, without no idea of how, and hating games in general actually.
Fourth place: Be the idea guy, and makes games only having the idea, and being so awesome with your ideas that programmers and artists will work to you for free and accept only 2% of equity in the end.
Fifth place: The same as above, but when said that he would be just a useless guy, he proposes to be the writer instead, the guy that make the rules (I still do not understood what being the writer has to do with game design... but it is fairly common! Even when the person want to make a soccer game, that has no writing).
Sixth place: the same as the two above, but knowing people won't work for free, want to sell his idea to Activision for 10 million USD, those are usually paranoid with NDAs too, and insist me to sign their NDAs before asking whatever questions they want to ask me.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#40Crowdsourcing vigilantism (or random violent assault) - whoneedsabeating.com - snap a photo with your phone, location is tagged and timestamped, optional tweet with why the subject needs a beating. For free subscriber's beat-down requests are published only with city, photo and reason. Paid subscribers get street address published with beat-down request.
Why not allow beating requesters the ability to offer a reward to be split by all those who accept the assignment?
or you could have beaters bid on the job...
this could be bigger than eBay!