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

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

#51

Post by kirubakaran »

phaus wrote: post #41
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 - Agree…

> "By definition, something that's better than an existing product that's wildly popular isn't stupid", "This is an obviously useful concept, we just needed to wait for the technology to arrive."

In retrospect, yes, absolutely. But when you first hear it, having seen many other attempts, it seems bound to fail or at least don't seem like a billion dollar idea. Hence the "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

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

#52

Post by telephonetemp »

gametheoretic wrote: post #14
_blaise_ wrote: post #6

The Socialist Network. Everyone has the same number of comrades.

Would you be explaining the joke if you were to note that no non-trivial solutions exist for n?

For any fixed odd number of friends k you could keep the network consistent by only allowing people to join in groups (call them "cells") of m, where m is even and greater than k.

(Explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_graph)

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

#53

Post by xauronx »

maxgaudin wrote: post #30

Square for homeless people. You can never again say "No, I don't have any change."

Somewhat relevant... I had an idea to set up accounts for street performers. If you were near one it would send you a notification, you could easily drop them a tip through the app. They aggregated in an account somewhere until they were able to make it to a computer (hell, anyone can go into a library right?). You can rate people, find where they play, etc. Why not?

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

#54

Post by jasonlotito »

namenotrequired wrote: post #20
jasonlotito wrote: post #4

The stupidest idea I have heard was Twitter. After that, I changed the way I thought.

How do you think now?

It's hard to explain. I try to understand why the person thinks the idea is good rather than try to figure out why the idea is bad. The realization that most ideas evolve over time also means that the initial idea you dismiss will most likely change.

It's really just about taking the time to better understand an idea, and trying hard not to dismiss it.

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

#57

Post by TimHuntley »

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.

FlashFood, a student startup from Phoenix, is doing this. They have a network of vendors and volunteers who connect perishable food with existing infrastructure like food banks and soup kitchens.

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

#59

Post by johnmacintyre »

I've forgotten my 'stupidest' ideas, but my 'worst' idea was basically to do what PRISM is doing now. I realized you can infer a hell of a lot from the bits of information people post publicly and you could aggregate them into a comprehensive profile. There's obviously a market for this as we all now know, but I realized how evil it was and that even if it was highly successful, how shitty would I feel about selling out humanity. ... however, it does still strike me as a fascinating technical challenge.

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

#60

Post by benjamincburns »

xauronx wrote: post #25
plaban123 wrote: post #3

Mine: replacing business cards

At some point I had the idea for an RFID bracelet. Ideally, it would be targeted to trade shows. I went to one previously the best tech they had was these cards that you had to go and manually scan at each booth. Anyhow, the idea was that each bracelet would have an RFID card, and an RFID reader. When you shook hands with someone, it would read their ID #. So, you're not only physically meeting someone, but logging t…

Hmm, sounds like an iteration of Bump, but for NFC-enabled smart watches...
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