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Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

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71–80 of 91 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#71
post #18

Crowdsourcing vigilantism (or random violent assault) - whoneedsabeating.com - snap a photo with your phone, location is tagged and timestamped, optional tweet with why the subject needs a beating. For free subscriber's beat-down requests are published only with city, photo and reason. Paid subscribers get street address published with beat-down request.

How would you know who delivered the beating? Was there supposed to be a reward for that person?

On a related note, has anyone actually tried building a cypherpunk-style assassination market?

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#72
post #18

Crowdsourcing vigilantism (or random violent assault) - whoneedsabeating.com - snap a photo with your phone, location is tagged and timestamped, optional tweet with why the subject needs a beating. For free subscriber's beat-down requests are published only with city, photo and reason. Paid subscribers get street address published with beat-down request.

How would you know who delivered the beating? Was there supposed to be a reward for that person? On a related note, has anyone actually tried building a cypherpunk-style assassination market?

"Happy slap" style video clips with some kind of cryptographic signing?

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#73

I've forgotten my 'stupidest' ideas, but my 'worst' idea was basically to do what PRISM is doing now. I realized you can infer a hell of a lot from the bits of information people post publicly and you could aggregate them into a comprehensive profile. There's obviously a market for this as we all now know, but I realized how evil it was and that even if it was highly successful, how shitty would I feel about selling…

People went ahead with it anyway. See, for example, PHORM in the UK.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm)

> The company's proposed advertising system, called Webwise, is a behavioral targeting service (similar to NebuAd) that uses deep packet inspection to examine traffic. Phorm says the data collected will be anonymous and will not be used to identify users, and that their service would even include protection against phishing (fraudulent collection of users' personal information). Nonetheless, World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and others have spoken out against Phorm for tracking users' browsing habits, and the ISP BT Group has been criticised for running secret trials of the service.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#74
post #18

Crowdsourcing vigilantism (or random violent assault) - whoneedsabeating.com - snap a photo with your phone, location is tagged and timestamped, optional tweet with why the subject needs a beating. For free subscriber's beat-down requests are published only with city, photo and reason. Paid subscribers get street address published with beat-down request.

I had an idea for single mothers to post info about deadbeat dads for others to avoid. However, after thinking about it for a bit, I realized it would turn into what you were proposing and decided against it.

hehe, I actually did build that... it was called exes4all...

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#77
1. Automatic goose-plucking machine. I was walking out of work one evening around Christmas and had to cross through a flock of Canada geese on the office park lawn. I thought, "I could just snatch one of these guys, wring his neck, and have him for dinner, if only I had a way to pluck him." It would look like a salad spinner, where you add the goose, attach a lid, then turn a crank. Out comes your plucked goose. Also solves goose overpopulation, so it's good for the environment.

2. Rubber trees. Sell them to commercial real estate developers/contractors. Cheaper than real trees, and less maintenance cost. Just pop them into the ground! We'd also sell accessories, like attachable bird nests or battery-powered hooting owls. Premium customers could buy four "styles" of the same tree, one for each season, and with a support contract we'd swap them out at appropriate times of year.

3. Renewable energy. What is the largest source of untapped energy in the universe? Little children! We'd sell shoes with an integrated battery that recharges as your kids play. The sole of the shoe contains a standard power outlet so you can plug in your TV and watch your shows after the kids are in bed.

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#78
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Edit: Maybe that came off as rude, but I really don't get the idea. You pay somebody for something you want to see done? What?

No worries, it's a slightly confusing concept. You can basically crowdfund cash prizes for anything you want to see get done in the world. Teams then apply for the prize with proof that they've accomplished the prize's goals. You basically can crowdfund your own X-Prizes.

Assuming I want, say somebody to build a new kind of genetically altered flower, I can ask all my friends and people around the world who would also like to have this kind of flower to pledge a certain amount of money.

A group of genetic engineers someplace in the world notice that me and my troop have collectively pledged, say $500k, and the genetic engineers actually spend some time and make such a flower. They send us a video, and we trust they've built it. We get flowers, and they get the money.

Am I right?

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#79

1. Automatic goose-plucking machine. I was walking out of work one evening around Christmas and had to cross through a flock of Canada geese on the office park lawn. I thought, "I could just snatch one of these guys, wring his neck, and have him for dinner, if only I had a way to pluck him." It would look like a salad spinner, where you add the goose, attach a lid, then turn a crank. Out comes your plucked goose. Als…

1. Whizbang - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGZMoENjcU

Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?

#80
post #27

My gf wants to make a mobile app that helps homeless/impoverished people share good dumpster eating locations.

I have an idea, instead of a 2-year data plan, buy food...

Ooops, forgot the topic -- that is indeed a truly idiotic idea.

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