Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#41

Post by phaus »

kirubakaran wrote: post #11

All ideas that were the seeds for multi-billion dollar companies. They sounded stupid^W bound to fail at first, especially before seeing the implementation / impact: Better search engine with no sponsored listings, seamless sync and backups, short status updates blasted to your followers, better social network, animated movies that target adults, online book store (without a book store experience), $4 lattes ... Some…

Better Search Engine / Better Social Network - By definition, something that's better than an existing product that's wildly popular isn't stupid. I personally think that social networks are stupid, but by the time Facebook came out, it was obvious that most people didn't.

Seamless Sync and Backups - This is an obviously useful concept, we just needed to wait for the technology to arrive.

Short Status Updates - Agreed.

Animated Movies that Target Adults - Animated movies originally targeted adults. Also, in Japan they have targeted adults for decades. The small group of anime fans in America gradually grew into a billion dollar empire. American companies waited for the business to be lucrative before they started making their own. How is that stupid?

Online Book Store - Might as well say the entire eCommerce industry is stupid. Selling stuff on-line is about as obvious and sensible as it gets.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#43

Post by potatolicious »

pkfrank wrote: post #36
damon_c wrote: post #27

My 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…

I like the idea, physical distribution will be the problem though. Most stores don't mind donating things to the needy that would go to waste otherwise - but no one wants to have the homeless congregate around their store chasing away business.

There would be substantial value for this to exist in addition, or in cooperation, with food banks.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#44

Post by sim0n »

workhere-io wrote: post #8

Color ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Labs ). The idea behind the app was flawed (as in "why would anyone need this?"), and they made no attempt to hide the fact that the underlying idea was datamining/advertisement.

I don't think Color is a terrible idea. The concept of group photo collaboration, where many people who don't know each other can contribute to the same photo album (i.e. during an event/etc) isn't that bad. Their execution for the ludicrous amount of money they raised was most definitely embarrassing though.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#45

Post by nlh »

telephonetemp wrote: post #15

Heard: for

I'm going to give this a serious response even though I know you're referring to a well-known cliche for startup ideas.

I was talking to a fairly smart VC recently and he made a good point -- while everyone likes to use "Facebook for Cats" as a joke about bad startup ideas, it's not actually a bad idea.

A lot of people REALLY like their pets. And they spend a lot of money on them. And they like to share pictures of them with their pet-owning friends (go see /r/aww if you don't believe me.)

It basically hasn't been done right (yet), but I wouldn't be surprised if something that looks like Facebook for Pets does actually become a thing at some point.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#48

Post by xauronx »

speeder wrote: post #39

Since 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 i…

>Third place: Make iOS game and get rich quick, without no idea of how, and hating games in general actually.

I like this one. I've gotten that before. "Hey man, you write iPhone apps right? Let's make a game!" "Haha, alright, what kind of game do you want to make?" "I don't know, I don't play games on my android. What kinds of games are making a ton of money on iPhone right now?" "..."

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#50

Post by pkfrank »

potatolicious wrote: post #43
pkfrank wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I like the idea, physical distribution will be the problem though. Most stores don't mind donating things to the needy that would go to waste otherwise - but no one wants to have the homeless congregate around their store chasing away business. There would be substantial value for this to exist in addition, or in cooperation, with food banks.

Definitely would need cooperation with food banks / other charities in order to handle distribution. It's important that i) the homeless folks aren't chasing away business, and ii) that you aren't supplying a population of potential customers turned dumpster-divers (i.e. physical separation from the location).

I could see this being a valuable tool for food banks to build relationships with willing-entities that otherwise wouldn't want to bother with setting up the relationship and keeping track of items donated.

If it were very simple:

- Bakery downloads App "Free Food"

- Plug in estimated donation

- Get matched with a willing food bank

- Pictures to confirm donation from both parties

- Some agreed-upon "value" (points) for said donation

- Food bank takes and re-distributes

Win-Win-Win

Bakery does good and maybe gets some benefit; Food bank gets more food (as long as the collection ROI makes sense); and hungry people eat food that would otherwise end up in the trash.

FYI, I wrote about this idea very briefly way back when: http://peterkimfrank.com/2013/01/21/doing-well-by-doing-good...

Post reply on HN