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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?

#491

Post by paulojreis »

aaronchall wrote: post #425
paulojreis wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

Sure, you're right. I just meant that the real challenge is how to skew (and keep) the balance in the direction you want, in a sustainable, significant and achievable fashion.

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

#492

Post by rsfern »

kj01a wrote: post #473
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…

>Calories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. No. If the laws of thermodynamics had been proven false, we would have heard of it.

The issue with the simplifying "calories in == calories out" is that conservation of energy is being applied over the wrong system. Our bodies are not 100% efficient at extracting energy from food, and to GP's point respond differently to different types of foods.

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

#493

Post by wenc »

kj01a wrote: post #473
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…

>Calories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. No. If the laws of thermodynamics had been proven false, we would have heard of it.

The only problem is that calories in = calories out assumes a steady-state where there is no change in internal energy (dU/dt), which is not a good assumption.

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

#494

Post by tootie »

amelius wrote: post #460
whitepoplar wrote: post #457

Physical space for lounging, socializing, and working. I live in NYC and there's still a striking lack of space that facilitates people getting out of their apartments and doing "whatever." Starbucks popularized the concept of the "third space" (the first two being housing + workplace) and I think there's so much room to improve upon this.

What is a reasonable price to pay for this kind of service, including the coffee if the place requires you to consume it?

There's a cafe near me in Brooklyn that has a nice interior space and free wifi. It's always packed and everyone brings a laptop. Coffee prices are normal if not a bit low for high-end coffee (their coffee is really good). They serve snacks, but not much else. I have no idea how they turn a profit with all the people lounging for hours with a little espresso or cup of tea. There's a morning rush, but it's really small compared to places nearer the subway.

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

#495

Post by matthewmacleod »

csl wrote: post #394
narag wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the opportunity could be creating a company that solves these problems for other companies.

So, a consultancy company then? Which we all know only scales with the number of employees. Most people in Europe use Gmail, right? So they must already have figured out this stuff.

No, I don't think that's necessary. It immediately seems like a platform specifically designed to support things like EU-wide compliance, marketing, payments and other business functions could potentially be beneficial to a wide variety of businesses.

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

#496

Post by kj01a »

Draiken wrote: post #249
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…

This "calories in, calories out" idea is dangerously wrong. I have problems with my weight and my wife is anorexic. We live day-to-day with the fight against obesity (for years) and that's hardly a rule, much less golden. The only constant I see on this whole food/nutrition industry is how little information is accurate. Millions of diets and nutrition "experts" saying whatever they hear works without testing anythin…

Either thermodynamics is wrong, or you are undisciplined. Which do you think is more likely?

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

#497

Post by bjacobel »

whitepoplar wrote: post #457

Physical space for lounging, socializing, and working. I live in NYC and there's still a striking lack of space that facilitates people getting out of their apartments and doing "whatever." Starbucks popularized the concept of the "third space" (the first two being housing + workplace) and I think there's so much room to improve upon this.

Boston's space like this (The Lawn on D) is extremely popular. It's even a running joke that most young people on a dating site/app in Boston have a picture of them at the Lawn on D somewhere in their profile.

I believe it's owned by a local bank, but I don't know if it makes money (or if it's intended to). Entry is free normally, sometimes there are non-free ticketed concerts and a cash bar.

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

#498

Post by coriny »

kj01a wrote: post #473
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…

>Calories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. No. If the laws of thermodynamics had been proven false, we would have heard of it.

> "A calorie is a calorie" violates the second law of thermodynamics

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC506782/

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

#500

Post by GreyGhost »

adventured wrote: post #369

This won't be popular on HN: start aggressively patenting anything and everything you can around CRISPR. It's dirt cheap to work with both Cas9 and Cpf1. Figure out how to use CRISPR to insert or edit genes that we already know help to make some people practically bullet proof when it comes to cholesterol and common cardiovascular problems. Patent everything you can around using CRISPR to fight high cholesterol (the…

Sure you can do this. You can also set back the development work on these genes by a long time with someone patenting something they know nothing about just to get rich from it.
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