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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?

#591

Post by throwaway_374 »

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…

A while back I looked at a (HN formed?) startup www.paperspace.io which offered something similar. Ended up not using it due to security requirements as I wanted to host a proprietary process on it but I loved the concept.

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

#592

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#593

Post by nradov »

mrfusion wrote: post #403
nradov wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cargo ships don't have enough free surface area to mount the number of solar panels that would be needed for propulsion. Sails are already being used on a few ships but they only save a small percentage of fuel.

Why not have solar modules in a shipping container form factor. (Maybe shorter in height though) and stack those at the top layer when loading the ship. You could probably even find some ingenious way to run the current through the containers stacked umderneath to route the power. They are made of metal.

Shipping companies don't own the containers. Solar panels would get broken when they were transferred to shore. Panels and cabling would add more weight to the highest level of the cargo stacks: the worst place for ship stability. And even if you covered the entire top level with solar panels it still wouldn't provide enough propulsion power to be worth the expense.

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

#594

Post by overcast »

sotojuan wrote: post #579
overcast wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying it now, apps are on their way out, web only is the future. Everyone is completely sick of installing a stupid app for everything the want to use. Compound that with a billion notifications for all of those apps. With that said Steam does a pretty good. The discovery queues have led me to some great finds, as well as all of the curator lists.

The web has a long time to catch up in terms of technology (iOS has poor support for APIs that would make web apps compete with native) and culture (most businesses don't care that their app is slow and bloated and defer resources to the app).

What do the majority of web apps need, to compete with native apps? 99% of them definitely DO NOT need to be native.

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

#595

Post by CaptainSwing »

ccvannorman wrote: post #542
hexhex wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's a problem that is solvable with technology. It's a social problem. Less social inequality and better education, taxes on unhealthy food, less working hours. That would be necessary to tackle the problem. Obesity is just a symptom. I love the SV mindset: Let's not get to the reasons of something, let's just build an app and everything will be good.

My gears are turning.. an app that tells you the viability of solving a given problem using an app. It would be powered by AWS array on the back end using google's latest AI, TensorFlow, and it would also be community driven like Yelp. We'd make our profits by taking advantage of platform network advantage to connect cofounders, investors, and customers for the startups who use us and move forwards.

10/10 would back this

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

#596

Post by Sholmesy »

DanBC wrote: post #307
Sholmesy wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's more complicated than this, but in terms of a general rule calories in/out is pretty darn accurate. Saying it is 'dangerously wrong', is dangerously wrong.

It's true, but in an unhelpful way. We've been telling fat people to eat fewer calories for many years, and we're not seeing fewer fat people. It reduces a complex problem into a simplistic slogan that's then used by many people to hate and judge fat people. "You're fat, just eat less stupid fatty". It ignores gut microbiome. Here's a story about a bug that makes it harder to gain weight: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/he…

You're right, it does seem unhelpful (just eat/smoke/ less!).

What is the proposed alternative though? Most people need a general rule they can follow to help them (read: can't afford a nutritionist/doctor). If it's a willpower issue, then we need to solve that, but just saying "Oh eating less won't help me" is just as bad.

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

#597

Post by jdietrich »

traviswingo wrote: post #586
ccvannorman wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gears are turning.. an app that tells you the viability of solving a given problem using an app. It would be powered by AWS array on the back end using google's latest AI, TensorFlow, and it would also be community driven like Yelp. We'd make our profits by taking advantage of platform network advantage to connect cofounders, investors, and customers for the startups who use us and move forwards.

Guys, I'm not sure downvoting this was the appropriate response. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this sarcasm?

Poe's law in action.

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

#598

Post by nradov »

baddox wrote: post #582
nradov wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human crew isn't much of a factor in cargo ship speed. Ship owners would be happy to leave their crews out at sea a week longer if it was profitable. Drone ships won't be practical any time soon because of maintenance problems. Crews spend much of their time at sea performing preventative maintenance, painting, and fixing broken equipment. With a drone ship all of that work would have to be done at the pier which…

Then why don't they go slower? I would expect many cargoes aren't incredibly time sensitive.

They are already slow steaming on many routes. Ship owners aren't idiots; they have software to perform constrained optimization calculations to figure out the steaming speed which will maximize profit on each leg. This is based on fuel price, crew wages, asset depreciation, delivery contracts, etc.

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

#599

Post by michael_bluth »

kozak wrote: post #319
Findeton wrote: post #237

I'm going to say the obvious: VR. Really, there will be an explosion in VR sells and when it happens it will be too late to be there. I don't think it's going to be a fluff this time, we just need the right killer application and I know what's going to be.

The big question is where is money in VR (except for entertainment).

Training

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

#600

Post by marmshallow »

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.

WeWork [1] has done this pretty well and is already open around the country.

https://www.wework.com/

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