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Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#71

Post by callmeed »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #3

Not in my industry but I'm part of an HOA and I swear 2/3 of what the people paid to administer it do seems streamlinable/automatable with lots of opportunity for making money along the way. Every time I deal with them I proclaim to myself, STARTUP! Then I forget about it..

2 of our 3 rental properties have an HOA and its quite annoying getting postal mail about things then having to relay messages to tenants. Or you get some action to vote on but have no clue if its a good thing or not because you're not involved in the politics part of it.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#72

Post by api_or_ipa »

contingencies wrote: post #23
no_protocol wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find using wood toaster tongs to be quite sufficient. Mine are nothing so fancy as this image I could find online, but you get the idea. A pair of popsicle sticks secured together at one end would be fine. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81HzpTQ93XL.jpg

Sure. In China we would use chopsticks. But my point was not that there is no viable workaround, more that the mechanical issue should be solved. Perhaps it is playing too much Shenzhen I/O , but I feel like a basic IC and sensors could solve this by detecting the width/height of toast pieces and continuing to release until the toast was substantially ejected from the toaster.

I think most toasters pop up using a coiled spring. Replacing it with a linear actuator seems like the way to do this. Perhaps some high end toasters already use an actuator with a laser to detect if the toast is 'up' enough. Fancy stuff

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#73

Post by danielvinson »

chollida1 wrote: post #27

Data management. 1) Cleaning the data as it comes in rather than in batches so we can use it sooner, invalid data is discarded, outlier detection, normalizing inputs etc.... 2) Warehousing of the data with proper indexes so you can perform some advanced queries on unstructured data 3) Some data is sent in bulk at the end of day, some of the data is streamed in fire hose style. How can we preprocess the fire hose data…

There are good open source options for each step here - is the solution you are looking for just a UI and easy install process? Or would your ideal solution make all of the decisions for you - data structure and format, which data is/isn't valid, what output options are possible, managing server resources, etc.?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#74

Post by tomtheelder »

saosebastiao wrote: post #56

These questions pop up every now and then, and while I get the intent, you're not gonna get anything useful out of it. The idea that someone who knows how to code can disrupt an industry that they are not a part of is disingenuous, and the examples that you can find are exceptions, not the rule. It's also extremely naive and presumptuous...what makes you think people in the industry haven't already tried? People who…

I'm sorry, but this is rude, discouraging, and flat out wrong. This sort of stuff happens all the time. I personally work for a company whose founders implanted them in an incredibly calcified industry despite no industry experience, and I can rattle off dozens of successful examples of this.

In fact, this very attitude is the exact reason why there have been industries that are primed for "disruption." If only those within the industry, burdened with preconceived notions and patterns of thought, try to improve an industry, you are very rarely going to see revolutionary change.

You don't need to "disrupt" anything to be a very good business, but I really resent this "leave it to the pros" attitude.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#75

Post by david927 »

kolbe wrote: post #45

Not my industry, but a friend of mine in law was discussing how incredible her in-house software is for managing billable hours relative to all her past companies. I poked around, and most law firms, even very deep pocketed ones, use somewhere between a bad tech system and no tech system to manage and track their work. A small team could easily collaborate with some law firm (maybe take an investment from a few law f…

Most law firms, even small ones, use 'Time Matters'; it's actually quite sophisticated and is now a De Facto standard for the industry.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#76

Post by robinhowlett »

chollida1 wrote: post #27

Data management. 1) Cleaning the data as it comes in rather than in batches so we can use it sooner, invalid data is discarded, outlier detection, normalizing inputs etc.... 2) Warehousing of the data with proper indexes so you can perform some advanced queries on unstructured data 3) Some data is sent in bulk at the end of day, some of the data is streamed in fire hose style. How can we preprocess the fire hose data…

Integration platform as a service (iPaas) that can work with streaming, batch, and Big Data using a drag-n-drop UI e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfEuG7Dg_O8

Check out my company, SnapLogic: https://www.snaplogic.com/

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#77

Post by mabbo »

ggcdn wrote: post #37

As a structural engineer, I see a good opportunity to make reinforced concrete design software available in a SaaS format. The competition is outdated, clunky, requires local installation and messing about with licenses. Design firms are paying $1000-$3000/year per user/seat for what amounts to a pretty basic app. Unfortunately, there are very few people that understand both computer science and structural engineerin…

I suspect much engineering software is ripe for innovation. My wife is a Water Resources Engineer- a specialized form of Civil that focuses on "when it rains, where the hell is all this water going to go?".

The software for that kind of modeling is apparently pretty basic, pretty expensive, buggy, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#78

Post by headcanon »

seancoleman wrote: post #41

In real estate, developing with MLS data. - There are over 900 regional MLS providers each with different schemas. - You use RETS, a complicated, non web standards interface for downloading data. - MLS data is plagued with errors and denormalized data making queries difficult.

A lot of them are so legacy that they "require" IE via a byzantine browser check that prevents modern browsers from using them.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#79

Post by mabbo »

shinamee wrote: post #48

Tech industry: I want to be able to go to Mars for the weekend... leaving on Friday and coming back early Monday morning. This is still a big problem in tech industry.

You're being facetious but maybe you should actually consider the history behind that sort of thing.

Yesterday my friend in LA invited a few of us in Toronto to come to his BBQ this weekend. The group chat became us discussing the logistics and price of how we might do that. 150 years ago, that would have been an insane concept.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#80

Post by joshuamcginnis »

seancoleman wrote: post #41

In real estate, developing with MLS data. - There are over 900 regional MLS providers each with different schemas. - You use RETS, a complicated, non web standards interface for downloading data. - MLS data is plagued with errors and denormalized data making queries difficult.

Have you seen https://simplyrets.com/? I haven't used it but it looks like a great start.

This problem is hard to solve at the root because each MLS is independently owned and heavily influenced by the National Association of Realtors and local governments. As an active RE investor myself, I'd love to work on a problem in this space.

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