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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?

#421

Post by pawadu »

klausjensen wrote: post #400
adventured wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is, it's Amazon. They're closing in on $20 billion in European sales, growing at double digits, with something like 50,000 employees. If you look at what they're doing in Europe, Amazon is getting more aggressive by the year in terms of expanding and investing there.

I use Amazon in Europa a LOT, but funny enough it is not ONE amazon in EU, it is many - and I have to search for products on all of them, because what is available in amazon.de might not be available in amazon.co.uk. And there are obviously language barriers - and having to do math to convert currencies etc. It is anything but smooth right now - unless you are in one of the countries, that have their own amazon.tld,…

I think most people buy their stuff from amazon.co.uk or if they happen to be in Germany then maybe also amazon.de

The store segmentation is created by amazon themselves and doesn't really make sense.

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

#422

Post by sah2ed »

vegabook wrote: post #381

taking on the Bloomberg terminal. They've got over 300 000 subscribers each paying circa 2000 USD every month. That's 600 million dollars of revenue per month. They're running a labyrinthine functionality on a 1970s System/360-style interface (command line at top of screen). He hires an absolute army of "reps" who's sole job is to try to help subscribers to find functionality, through an interface that is best descri…

Surely, Money.Net [0] is a first step? It was founded by a former top executive at Bloomberg: Morgan Downey.

[0] https://www.money.net/

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

#423

Post by sAbakumoff »

mosuk wrote: post #350
sAbakumoff wrote: post #91

I can't resist "By wearing this standard ear-bud headphone, modified with a small piezoelectric sensor, the user can control their phone solely with their neural impulses. Point, click, drag, even type...all using only brainwaves.Think it...and it happens."

Silicon Valley?

Sure :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE

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

#424

Post by ricardonunez »

ddoran wrote: post #409
adventured wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is, it's Amazon. They're closing in on $20 billion in European sales, growing at double digits, with something like 50,000 employees. If you look at what they're doing in Europe, Amazon is getting more aggressive by the year in terms of expanding and investing there.

And a small European country like Ireland doesn't get its own Amazon store so they have to rely on Amazon.co.uk, where everything is priced in Sterling (not Euro). Irish customers can't avail of Amazon Prime, shipping times take longer etc. A federated Amazon.eu with a continent-wide distribution network may help. Goods priced in Euro certainly would.

Did you try Amazon.de and switch language to English? I'm just wondering.

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

#425

Post by aaronchall »

paulojreis wrote: post #261
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…

"1. Calories in, calories out is the golden rule." Yes, but I'd argue it's not a very helpful rule. As it has been said before, it's pretty much like saying that the golden rule to get rich is "money in vs. money out". Correct, but not very helpful.

How is it unhelpful to be told what you need to do?

Are you saying you need more specifics?

If you want to improve your financial position, either earn more money (get a side job, take a higher paying job with more responsibility), or spend less money (buy beans and rice in bulk, prepare your own meals, sell your luxury car to get rid of the payments and drive a paid-for beater, take public transit and read a book on your commute instead of driving a car).

Similarly, to lose unhealthy weight, either reduce calories in (stop drinking sweet sodas and eating candy bars, order 500-800 calorie items from appetizer menus instead of 2000 calorie entrees) or increase calories out (exercise, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk instead of ride, lift weights to improve resting calorie burning.)

But it's hard to come up with specifics that apply to everyone, since everyone is different. That's why we just say the general rule, instead of assuming people have an expensive car to sell or go through a 2 liter of Coke a day.

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

#426

Post by mdemare »

fpig wrote: post #242
weavie wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But does anecdotally disprove the pure calories in, calories out rule.

The meaning of that rule is generally "if you consume less calories than you use, it is physically impossible not to lose weight". Which is definitely true. You can eat more than you use and not gain weight if you are not metabolising the food efficiently, but you can't eat less than you use and not lose weight. The former is limited by how badly you are able to mess up your body, the latter is limited by the fundame…

Nothing in the Second Law of Thermodynamics prevents your body from turning some of your heart muscle into fuel, as bad of a plan as that may be.

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

#427

Post by pawadu »

adventured wrote: post #365
mslot wrote: post #352

I always think there are huge opportunities for growth in intra-EU trade. It's a market with over 500M people and a $17 trillion GDP. While the EU has taken away a lot of trade barriers, language and unfamiliar regulations remain a huge barrier, but also a huge potential for growth. If a company in California has ample opportunities to sell in Florida (>2000 miles away), why then is it significantly more difficult fo…

To what extent does the EU need to substantially consolidate language further to become more effective? There are two dozen major languages spoken in the EU. Nearly half of the EU can't communicate well with the other half because they share no common language. How do you get the EU to pursue a standardization of language, such that ~95% of people in the EU are fluent in at least one EU-wide common language (whether…

Beside the old generation from the former eastern block (who studied Russian instead of English) pretty much everyone speaks enough English to communicate.

I've traveled to EU a lot and even in a country like France I had zero problems getting by.

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

#428

Post by johnlbevan2 »

Hundreds of restaurants in the same geographic area will be purchasing ingredients from a variety of different suppliers, based on their need.

If they clubbed together with other local businesses to source common ingredients they could benefit from economies of scale; i.e. instead of 100 restaurants each buying 200 onions, there'd be a bulk order for 20,000 onions; meaning 1 lorry to deliver direct from the supplier(s) rather than multiple vans to cover each supplier/buyer combo.

i.e. Create a platform that would allow suppliers to list what they're selling, buyers to list their needs, and match these up with one another.

  - Group similar suppliers or buyers together geographically to help improve the efficiency of individual orders by making them part of a larger collective order.
  - Add filter options so that when buying people can specify certain criteria (e.g. "I only want potatoes from soil-association approved suppliers").
  - Now people don't buy from suppliers, but rather buy from a service/pool.
  - ...and people don't sell to buyers, but rather sell to the service/pool.
  - This same model works regardless of supplier or buyer size; i.e. benefits both big and small (though the benefits to smaller companies are more significant as they start to get the benefits of scale that the larger ones have anyway).
Though I'd start with restaurants (i.e. to keep the platform focussed / avoid being too broad too soon), this same platform could over time expand for any purchasing interactions.

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

#429

Post by yoshyosh »

jkaljundi wrote: post #99

Wonder what could change in the areas of online recruitment and candidate sourcing? It's a nice business because the business demand is always there - just provide the candidates. Still after Indeed/Simplyhired and Glassdoor, no major innovation besides some niche engineer scraping/sourcing tech. WHat could be done there?

I think there are some pretty cool things that can be done here. A lot of organizations follow similar structures. Engineer -> Lead Engineer -> Director of Engineering -> Senior Director, etc. Since they follow similar patterns / needs, humans also follow patterns as well, engineers looking to move up into management or deeper into engineering as 1-2 years pass. Matching these two up can be done by scraping / ML.

At the end of the day recruiting is all about matching the right candidate with the right job. Right candidate = one who has the skills and motivation (wanting to move up, work for specific types of companies). Right job = organization that is heading into that phase / requesting it.

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

#430

Post by dpatru »

bambax wrote: post #271
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…

> 2. The vast majority of calories come from carbohydrates. Yes. Sugar is the enemy. It's ironic that so many substances are regulated or flat-out prohibited and not sugar or sodas. HFCS should be outlawed, and sodas regulated like alcohol (no sales to minors, bulk sales limited, etc.) Also, the obsession with fats and the whole industry of low-fat food needs to be dealt with, as, obviously, when the proportion of fa…

Regarding sugar, read about the "white rice diet" used for many years at Duke University to cure diabetes. The diet consists of white rice, table sugar, and fruit. https://www.drmcdougall.com/2013/12/31/walter-kempner-md-fou...
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