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Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

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Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#361

Post by imron »

mindcrime wrote: post #283
chiefalchemist wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mark Cuban once said (something like) "If you're looking where everyone else is looking then you're looking in the wrong place." I think that trumps Parsons. That said, looking at ideas that "didn't work" can be a solid approach. That is, sometimes (for example) the idea was solid but the team failed. The market also changes and some ideas can be ahead of their time (and poorly executed).

I think that trumps Parsons. I have a tremendous degree of regard for mcuban, and I think his advice has merit. But I wouldn't say either "trumps" the other. These pithy sayings are handy, but there's a lot of nuance to both of them (IMO) and the devil is in the details. Should Google have decided not to pursue search because of Altavista, Dogpile, Magellan, Northern Light, Yahoo, and DMOZ? Should Facebook have esche…

And should Apple have decided not to build a phone... That market was once pretty crowded too.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#362

Post by heroprotagonist »

hawski wrote: post #138
gajomi wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment made me lol. But also made me think :) Indeed its not hard to imagine how "uber for day laborers" could increase worker exploitation. In particular the possibility of somehow skirting around worker's comp insurance by arguing that it only facilitates transactions is an obvious starting point. However, I think such a technology could also be used to mitigate exploitation. The one thing that I already ment…

It could mitigate, but VC money will not ROI itself.

20% off the top for basically running a directory service would, though.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#365

Post by enry_straker »

As chuck McM said, start looking for a problem, rather than an idea but i would like to add this caveat:

1) Look at the background of you 3 guys, and list out problems which were being worked around in the areas of your business development or private equity or the domain of your phd friend.

There is a much higher probability of you guys having domain expertise in the areas you have been exposed to in the past, and a lot of business contacts as well - and solving a problem in those areas means that you will be able to address problems you have personally faced before - through a combination of software and services.

Note that there is no dearth of problems to be solved, but problems you have faced before personally can be a much more fruitful area for automated solutions.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#366

Post by rajacombinator »

Just stay in your jobs and don't force it. Without a burning desire to do something and/or domain knowledge, you're looking at years of frustration with likely no results, just to chase the trendiness of doing a startup. The fact that three people with supposed experience are not aware of any problems that need solving is not a good sign. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. You could draw on your investor contacts, likely strike out, maybe manage an aquihire, but why bother. Much easier to stay in a secure job until you're ready.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#367

Post by iguana »

Lots of advice here is to go after pain points, or enter competitive markets, or to question your team dynamics. I have a different perspective:

Set up a studio, where the team builds a new "thing" every 2 weeks. Then, 2 months later you have 4 things, and you can pick the one that inspired the team the most.

Given your cash position, you should be able to easily float 2 months while building a bunch of different things.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#368

Post by breakyerself »

breakyerself wrote: post #360
breakyerself wrote: post #271

Ideas are easy. Doing stuff is hard. Low cost stickers that can be activated then placed on items in the refrigerator to indicate how much time has passed. Should be feasible to develop for a qualified team and would save People a lot of food. Maybe the design exists and just needs proper marketing. Easy, cheap, hassle free batch scanning of photographs. How many people have boxes and boxes of family photos that they…

Ooh. How about a stock market for making movies? You can invest 500 dollars in a 10,000,000 dollar movie and get 1/19,000th of the actual profits. Anyone can become a movie producer. It makes secret plot twist impossible, but could be good for many kinds of movies.

At home anaerobic digesters that turn food, yard, and bodily waste into fuel to heat water/furnace/make electricity, etc

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#369

Post by lokendrachauhan »

Considering you guys can start with a blank check and work on IP heavy ideas (CMU PhD), it is safe to assume that you guys don’t want to go in something which isn’t less than a billion dollar thing in 5-7 years.

So look for pilot projects in such industries where entry barriers are high, defence, insurance, banking, health, oil &gas, etc. Wall Street connections will come in handy to find the right folks to call. As of now the plan should be to convert pilots into products. If need be do two or more pilots at the same time and then take a call later based on what is most beneficial, the amount and type of risk, comfort factor of the team, etc.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#370

Post by aggie »

colordrops wrote: post #285
Qwertious wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. I concur, and add that HN could really help OP by complaining about random stuff here. Just complain about the first thing that comes to mind that's been bugging you, OP will really appreciate it!

Humanity is on a sure collision course with ecological disaster and potentially billions of deaths. Do something about climate change. Anything. Every new startup should be addressing the fact that we are on the Titanic and the iceberg is getting closer.

Do you have a source for the 'disaster' and 'billions'?
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