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Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

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Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#71

Post by tontoa4 »

josefresco wrote: post #24
geuis wrote: post #22

Job search. There are a ton of competitors in this space, established and startup, but so far its all crap. I've been looking for a new job recently and I'm completely dissatisfied with everything that's out there. Craigslist is still probably the best resource for finding tech jobs, at least in San Francisco but there has to be a better way. A couple of ideas have popped into my head recently about ways to really sh…

Take the Markus Frind route. Go free and kick ass.

With adblock and ad sales down the paid model seems more palatable.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#72

Post by mixmax »

iamwil wrote: post #56
mixmax wrote: post #7

Look at a lot of big traditional B2B businesses. They haven't gotten much coverage because they aren't sexy and visible to the normal consumer. - ERP ssystems are impossible to understand for the people that work with them, and require an army of highly paid consultants just to get it up and running. - financial software for large companies doesn't allow managers to see numbers in real-time, is difficult to get numbe…

Right you are, but you'll find that even though you've got the technical and design chops to blow the current systems out of the water, the sales cycle for these large corporations are pretty long. Part of the problem is that when things cost beyond a certain amount they need approval. With approval comes delays and red tape. You'll have to have some sort of pricing and buy-in strategy for you to be able to get the l…

Never said it was easy ;-)

But you're absolutely right - the sales cycle is very different. Not only do you have looong lead-times, but you also have to understand all the corporate bullshit, and weird decisions that get made based on the sometimes irrational behaviour of big corporations.

But if you do it right you can make big-corp pay for your development. If you sell it well some companies will give you the opportunity to sell them something you have yet to make, and that they full-well know will make your company very profitable. Nix the VC, go straight to the customer, and make them pay up front.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#74

Post by tokenadult »

robfitz wrote: post #49

visas / immigration. you're looking at $400-900 an hour for lawyers to point you to the right webpage and tell you whether or not your particular situation fits through a loophole. corporate setup & startup paperwork of all sorts. also housing rental contracts, contractor... contracts. etc. patent applications. it's so hard to find good examples and templates. i'd pay to have something that said "type your overview h…

visas / immigration.

The perceived value of immigrating is high enough that the price is not objectionable to many clients. They just want to make sure it is done right. In a market I used to work, by far the most successful immigration lawyer was regarded as a sleazy guy by most of the other immigration lawyers. But he projected WEALTH, and that was perceived by clients as the ability to succeed with a case. So he had plenty of income to maintain the trappings of wealth, and the cycle continued. Most immigration lawyers have enough technique to do most cases, yes, and many clients (if they are good at reading English, which is not a given) could look up laws and forms on the Web and do their own cases themselves, but immigration lawyers trade partly in peace of mind.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#75

Post by callmeed »

Insurance industry: I have a close friend in the industry and he says there are tons of ways to improve the application, binder, and other processes.

Online learning: Large edu and enterprise players like Blackboard and Saba are due for a disruption IMO (I think the ball is already rolling on this). Schools and enterprises don't want to keep paying huge licensing and infrastructure fees, and students should be able earn an online degree from a combination of online courses (from multiple schools).

Online classifieds: I know this has been discussed here before, but I'm of the opinion that craigslist is due for a disruption of some sort.

Car buying and financing: I just bought a car for my wife. Even though you can apply for financing online, the entire process was a total pain. There needs to be a "TicketStumbler for cars" that includes a financing and insurance option. I should be able to apply for traditional financing as well as peer-to-peer (ala prosper.com) financing all in one swoop. It should pull listings from classifieds, dealer inventories, auto trader, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#76

Post by tokenadult »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #54

Blackboard and other proprietary software that colleges use. Blackboard sucks and could be easily replaced by hacking together open source solutions and presenting it in a slick package (like 37 signals) but tailored for college instead of business.

Blackboard and other proprietary software that colleges use.

Absolutely. My son is a student in an online high school and has taken online classes from other providers. All the competitors in that space are abominably user-unfriendly.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#77

Post by njharman »

chris11 wrote: post #40

Real estate listings. Only limited information on a MLS is viewable without a broker. And getting your house information on one can cost 200 to 500, or up to 6% of the price. There are already free internet listings, but those can lack listings and information on houses.

There's already many competitors and real estate isn't exactly an awesome market segment to be in right now. Zillow, Redfin is actually doing something different (replacing one of the agents and returning savings to customer).

Methinks boat left the dock on this one.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#78

Post by netcan »

mixmax wrote: post #7

Look at a lot of big traditional B2B businesses. They haven't gotten much coverage because they aren't sexy and visible to the normal consumer. - ERP ssystems are impossible to understand for the people that work with them, and require an army of highly paid consultants just to get it up and running. - financial software for large companies doesn't allow managers to see numbers in real-time, is difficult to get numbe…

Well lets try to answer the question then. The classic disruption model requires cases of 'non-consumption' to start consuming the alternative product.

Who just can't afford/manage ERP but could use it? I think there are a bunch in this sphere.

Re: Ask HN: Industries Ripe For Disruption?

#80

Post by DaniFong »

DaniFong wrote: post #39
yellowbkpk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about layering some features on top of Craigslist that are mind-numblingly idiotic to leave out? I'm thinking better meta-data for apartment listings, for example.

I don't know about 'they,' but if you build it I will come.

Incidentally, have you seen http://www.housingmaps.com/ ?
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