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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?

#551

Post by sotojuan »

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.

These are common in immigrant neighborhoods (especially Chinese)—plenty of "clubs" (not dancing clubs) with activities but also just places to hang out.

Bakeries also fit this description in those neighborhoods.

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

#552

Post by ti32x »

TamDenholm wrote: post #536
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.

So perhaps a sort of gentleman's club (not that sort) for the younger generation?

I'd love to have an accessible chill out place I could go to just to get some work done, preferably with a good view of something. No music playing, just quiet and the ability to get a coffee and simple food if necessary.

Google Campus in London does this, but isn't that comfortable for long periods (plus it's absolutely packed).

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

#553

Post by yeukhon »

bostik wrote: post #57
yeukhon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's exactly what 99% of the Google customers are trying to avoid to do. They don't want to handle the management. They don't want to host the ad management platform. They just want a paycheck after the cut (and after all the legal contracts). They just want a tool that works and everyone is familiar with.

Congratulations, you have just identified the core of the problem. Everybody wants to get paid, but not do any of the work required. I would think this is the main contributor to why we have shitty ads. Everywhere.

Yes, it's a shitty problem, but it's because the industry is shit. There must have been extensive studies on ad UX but I see little improvements because so many companies just wanted to sell ads to make $$. Take Forbes and similar new sites - freakin' annoying. But NYT ads are good, at least not as distracting as other news sites seen to be.

Since no one wants to host the ad platform on their own, how do you think you will get your idea across? I think what you really meant is build a better ad platform, not self-hosting ad platform.

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

#554

Post by lackbeard »

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…

Calories-in, calories-out is the golden rule, but what a lot of people forget (like you have here) is that what kind of calories you put in affects calories-out (along with lots of other things.)

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

#555

Post by Xunxi »

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…

I read this obesity ascription to carbs a lot and it beats me. I am from an African country where carbohydrate dominant meals are the staple. It is not uncommon to see a families eat 3 square carb laden meals yet obesity is extremely low!

So my question is why isnt obesity prevalent in this part of the world?

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

#556

Post by amalag »

sureshn wrote: post #364

I see an opportunity for a continuous delivery platform , if you notice on stackshare people use Jira(trello) , github , gitter(slack) and travis/jenkins for their work , so much of context switching happens navigating(working) the tools. The idea here is to build one platform which will have all of this in Tabs and available to the teams in a hosted manner. So when one delivers code , the next tab he should be able…

I totally see the value in this, but the tools that do each individual component are very sophisticated. Either you rebuild all that functionality, or you strip them down, or you just have them work together. We are all in the third phase because the needs around each tool are so complex that people need the complicated software in each piece and they want to mix and match.

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

#557

Post by jklinger410 »

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…

I'm the Director of Online Marketing for KingFit Preventive Health & Wellness and I would be remiss if I didn't at least drop a line in on this thread.

We're currently developing a mobile app + clinician dashboard combo working towards a preventive health solution. Our main focus is diabetes right now but cardiovascular disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes are all in our sights here early on.

Many of the apps functions revolve around simple dietary and exercise solutions to combat these illnesses. We also plan on using IBM's Watson to improve suggestions for the patient and the doctor.

We're still early, but check us out at https://kingfit.org

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

#558

Post by maxsilver »

whitepoplar wrote: post #482

"Kickstarter" for cities. Housing is unaffordable in desirable cities, but nobody wants to move to less desirable cities, where housing is affordable. Take a city that is desperate for development, like Detroit, and figure out a way for a couple thousand people to "pledge" moving to a dense-ish urban area at a preferential rate.

I think you have cause/effect mixed up a bit. Those cities are only "affordable" because people aren't there.

If a couple thousand people all simultaneously buy into an "affordable dense-ish urban area", that action would make that area un-affordable, and subsequently create all the same displacement/gentrification/nimby problems that follow. Your Detroit example is a good one, the dense-ish urban area now costs around $300-400k, because people already did what you've suggested. Unless your moving into lower-density mostly-suburban-ish areas in Detroit, your not really saving any money anymore.

--

If your going to "Kickstarter" a city, let's make a brand new one. Find a bunch of empty land (greenfield or brownfield), and build a whole new dense city from scratch on it. This is easy/cheap to do compared to actual urban development (it's how all affordable suburban housing already starts), but just skip the suburb part and go straight from land to tall density, so there's no existing population to harm, no existing zoning issues to fight, no existing infrastructure problems to deal with. Go from nothing to 100% modern on day 1.

You could buy a bunch of land near say (picking a place at random) Hazelwood, Minnesota. Build your city with dense urban environment to start (enforce your own density rules, straight to 5+ story buildings). Fund an expension of light rail, and your just 30 minutes away from MSP airport by train, with direct flights daily to NYC, SFO, and SEA. And your already on I-35 freeway for freight.

There's such a shortage for affordable dense urban housing, that if you could provide affordable density with fast reliable transportation to existing cities (light rail to the closest major airport), your new city would likely fill up quickly, and help make these existing cities more affordable too.

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

#560

Post by yeukhon »

kevin2r wrote: post #56
yeukhon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant geek squad at best buy. I still remember the old mouse squad learning program (but not entirely dead it's just launched with a different initiative). Thanks for correcting.

Do you see the name "Best buy", how can I work for geeksquad? I mean something more like Uber, where everybody that knows how to drive can become a taxi driver in an hour.

I am not sure where you live, but "become a taxi driver in an hour" is not even remotely possible.

You need a TLC license, at least in NY. Insurance, exams and getting a car. Uber in NY requires TLC. Some other states in US are more relaxed.

BestBuy could extend their GeekSquad service by incorporating other vendors into the service line. Half of computer problems require physical touch of the computer. I guess what you wanted to do is to turn SuperUser on stackexchange into a paid subscription, allowing people to pay a few $$ to do remote help, and a platform for people to sell their computer help service.

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