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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?

#531

Post by Helmet »

LeanderK wrote: post #445

Easy, personal access to cloud computing. I have a macbook and am pretty satisfied with it. But a problem is, that in order to learn data-science/deep learning i need a beefy GPU/CPU and everything else. I could buy a desktop, but i am a student and not much at home, also in the age of cloud computing this seems silly. Also the upfront investment for a student is not negligible. I want really easy, flexible instances…

Doesn't Google Cloud Compute do exactly this? Go to gcc website, log in, click new instance, pick machine/specs, ssh into it.

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

#533

Post by UweSchmidt »

DanBC wrote: post #516
kj01a wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Imagine we study you for a year. We put you in a box, we control your food intake; we strictly monitor the amount of exercise you get. The first six months you stay the weight you are now. We then introduce a single change: we put you on antipsychotic medication. Nothing else changes: you're eating the same type of food and in the same quantities. You will gain weight. Is that because thermodynamics is broken? No. Is…

Don't worry about carbohydrate pathways, if you gain weight, then adapt your food intake (or excercise).

Bodybuilders and martial artists do this all the time.

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

#534

Post by overcast »

koopuluri wrote: post #405

Fresh air. It's tough to breathe in many cities across the world, especially in Asia. I'd pay a lot (probably more than I would for my laptop / car) for a tool that would help me breathe fresh air in the midst of a polluted environment. Of course, a long term solution would involve actually reducing pollution, but there are enough of us suffering from a lack of fresh air, that a short-term solution would be greatly v…

You can pay a lot less, and go live in the "country" somewhere. Tons of fresh air out here.

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

#535

Post by at-fates-hands »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #187
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…

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…

>> 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.

I had a soccer teammate in college do something similar. He was a central mid and was constantly getting beat by guys faster than him. He felt he was too fat and needed to drop a few pounds so he could compete better.

He went on what he called a "beer" diet. He would wake up and drink a beer to curb his appetite in the AM. Then at lunch, he would have a 12" subway sandwich, chips and pop. Once he got hungry again, he would drink another beer to curb his appetite until practice. After practice, he would have another beer. He would still drink water throughout the day to stay hydrated.

He dropped some 25lbs in like 45 days.

After he lost the weight, he realized that while he did lose the weight, he also suffered a ton of muscle loss. Before he was getting beat because he was slow, now he was getting beat because he was too weak to either fend off other players, or not strong enough to slow other players down, even though now he could keep up with them.

Afterwards he said he wouldn't do again, and started doing more weight training and interval cardio to maintain a healthier weight. After another six months, he said he finally found a happy median between being fast and being strong and stable on his feet.

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

#536

Post by TamDenholm »

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.

I'd like to see the likes of Airport lounges that are not in the airport. Especially if it could use my priority pass to access them too.

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

#538

Post by jpindar »

icebraining wrote: post #326
infinite8s wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is tasty is a conditioning effect. The reason healthy food is not as tasty as junk food is that it has a lot less of the substances that used to be much rarer, like fats, salt, sugar. It makes sense that those are so tasty because they used to be rare. To be able to eat healthier requires weaning yourself off high salt/sugar foods to get reacclimitized to food that has those substances in proportions that…

While I don't disagree, at least around here (I live in a Western European country) the problem is deeper: there simply aren't healthier alternatives easily available at reasonable prices. For example, most nuts you find at groceries are loaded with salt. Finding unsalted versions requires a trip to a megastore or specialised shop.

It's the same with dried fruit. You can't find any that isn't soaked in sugar.

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

#539

Post by zurn »

mypalmike wrote: post #277
Animats wrote: post #143

Figure out some way to reliably get an IP connection between two any devices without help from a central server or service. Kill Skype, etc.

It is impossible to set up a peer-to-peer connection between two devices on symmetric NAT, often used by mobile carriers (or at least it was last time I looked into doing so a few years ago). A STUN server can be used to initiate between other forms of NAT, and TURN can act as a passive full-time intermediary, but there's no way to avoid some sort of central server in many cases.

Since then mobile carriers have started doing IPv6 in a big way.

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

#540

Post by ccvannorman »

Early in my startup career an investor told me, "There's money everywhere. Where you go, how you get there, and how fast, is dependent on your skills, drive, network, and luck. But there's money everywhere. Never forget that."

For me, the biggest untapped market potential is educational video games (which is why I work on supermathworld.com). The market literally doesn't exist. There are but a handful of educational products that could rightfully be called "games".

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