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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?

#331

Post by vasilakisfil »

vasilakisfil wrote: post #329

A global VOIP service that is based on open standards. Or an open social network, also based on open standards. Both should be extensible.

It's unbelievable that we are moving to 100% Internet area, regular phones are deprecated, yet we are full of Silos. Skype user can't call Google hangouts user, Facebook user can't talk to Twitter user.

Imagine what would happen if we had the same issues with our phone lines. The last real open service we created as a humanity is email. At least SMTP still works.

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

#332

Post by amelius »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #187
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…

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…

> 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.

That sounds like an extreme form of a ketogenic diet [1], or Atkins diet [2]. Very effective, but with only bacon you'll miss some important micronutrients.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkins_diet

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

#333

Post by technopath »

erpellan wrote: post #323
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…

You might find this helpful: https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/rubberbag.html A human body is a mechanical system. Fuel + air in --> Work done + waste out. That's it. Any other argument is literally disputing the laws of thermodynamics.

The percentage of the fuel used relates to the kind of fuel and the amount of work done.

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

#334

Post by ValentineC »

vasilakisfil wrote: post #329

A global VOIP service that is based on open standards. Or an open social network, also based on open standards. Both should be extensible.

> A global VOIP service that is based on open standards.

Is SIP [1] not open?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol

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

#335

Post by logicallee »

By far (as in, by a mutiple of approximately 10,000) the biggest untapped opportunity is disrupting the geography of worldwide startups, meaning venture capital and so forth. Startups and ideas wither on the vine and shutter (close) due to lack of access to the startup ecosystem on equal terms: these startups often could produce billions in value in their respective markets and then worldwide. Further, this can be bootstrapped as many startups would agree to pay back to the community (through investment at high valuations) in exchange for investment today. You do not need access to billions today to solve this problem tomorrow. This isn't a billion, ten billion, or one hundred billion dollar problem. If you clock back from 2060 to 2017 using a discounted net present value analysis (if you do it correctly) you will find that this is a 10 trillion dollar (today's dollars) segment or in other words the equivalent of not one, ten, or one hundred Airbnb's: but, one thousand of them. (For comparison or as a sanity check on my number, worldwide economic GDP in 2016 was 75 trillion[1] so the number I quote is 14.2% of a single year's GDP - or the total value the world produces in just over 7 weeks. So these 7 weeks of economic output are what I quote as a discounted value from a total market extending over the next 50 years, worldwide, discounted to today. It is a conservative number.)

We live in the dark ages of startup capital investment, and it's as hard to get investment as it was to get an education in the 1400s: you had to be rich, privileged, then go to a center of University learning. Geographically speaking, it is as bad today. Today, you have to go to silicon valley (as in, physically drag your body there) or one of a few other major startup centers (which give much poorer results), then somehow network your way into getting introductions. it is like being a scientist in the fifteenth century. enormous privilege and very difficult to achieve, with no clear path. Disrupting these geographic facts of capital investment and access to the startup and equity culture and markets is massive - when this starts to change, it will completely change the face of the planet in every way, for everyone.

If you want to make the most massive disruption you can make in your lifetime, disrupt the geography of startup ecosystems.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

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

#336

Post by betageek »

ctrl_freak wrote: post #213
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…

To add on to this, my understanding is that technically "calories in, calories out" is correct in the sense that weight gain/loss depends on the net caloric intake for your body. But your base metabolic rate, and as a result your daily energy expenditure, is affected by many different things, including the composition of the calories and the timing of the consumption. Insulin plays a major role in weight gain/loss, a…

Exactly, no breakdown of thermodynamics needed, any calories not efficiently processed into usable energy will be emitted as waste.

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

#337

Post by vasilakisfil »

ValentineC wrote: post #334
vasilakisfil wrote: post #329

A global VOIP service that is based on open standards. Or an open social network, also based on open standards. Both should be extensible.

> A global VOIP service that is based on open standards. Is SIP [1] not open? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol

SIP is open, but none uses it :/ That's why I feel pushing for open standards is the key: it will allow you to install any voip app as long as it is compatible (follows the open standards).

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

#338

Post by clishem »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #187
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…

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…

Perhaps "calories in calories out" is still the golden rule for startups that want to make money instead of helping people to lose weight in the long term. I can't see any startup going against this deeply entrenched popular belief.

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

#340

Post by ValentineC »

joering2 wrote: post #61
tyingq wrote: post #3

The old shared hosting market is still pretty large. But it is stuck with ancient stuff like cpanel and mostly dominated by stagnant players like EIG, GoDaddy, and the like. Seems like there's room for a move something like what DigitalOcean did in the VPS space.

How about online storage that you will charge me only when I pull data? I have 20TB of data that I would like to access about 1MB statistically per year (!!) only I don't know which of that 20TB its located. Sure there is AWS and then Glaciar but with my limited knowledge with AWS you need to spin a computer and then set the rules how those files are accessible and it already goes into tens or hundreds of bucks per m…

> only I don't know which of that 20TB its located

What do you mean by this?

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