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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?

#721

Post by Kalium »

ikeboy wrote: post #546

I think retail can be improved, and even small improvements can have large impacts because of the sheer size of the market: US retail sales are in the $5 trillion range yearly, mostly in brick and mortar. Specific problems: 1. Why is brick and mortar still so popular, and can any pain points with e-commerce be fixed? 2. E-commerce doesn't work well on cheap items where shipping cost is prohibitive. Different companie…

> 1. Why is brick and mortar still so popular, and can any pain points with e-commerce be fixed?

One thing I much prefer B&M shopping for is clothing. Sizing is so wildly variable across brands, and clothing such a tactile thing, that I cannot completely get away from physical storefronts.

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

#722

Post by dang »

hexhex wrote: post #520
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 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.

> 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.

Please don't post uncharitable generalizations about entire groups here. It's just a rhetorical device and reliably degrades discussion.

Your comment would be just fine if you'd omitted that swipe.

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

#723

Post by [deleted] »

cr0sh wrote: post #656
WA wrote: post #165

Contraception. Almost everybody needs it. The current solution of flooding the body with hormones works, but causes side effects. The pill for men won't make it. My prediction is that we'll have some other non-hormonal contraception within the next 20-30 years, probably invented by a startup that wants to disrupt this billion dollar market.

> The pill for men won't make it. From what I understand, "they" have already developed this, and trialed it. It worked great, but for many men it had certain undesirable side-effects, and for a very few the side-effects weren't good at all. But for most, it worked well. The interesting thing? Almost all of the side-effects that were experienced by the men in the study all sounded exactly like the side-effects women…

[deleted]

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

#724

Post by david927 »

marmshallow wrote: post #600
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/

That's really marketed as a co-working space -- and while there's nothing wrong with that, I can't imagine using it as a "third-space". I can't imagine telling my friends to meet up there to play a board game or talk philosophy.

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

#725

Post by freehunter »

nradov wrote: post #614
yellowapple wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect nuclear (be it fission or - someday - fusion) would be much more viable for powering something at that scale in a "post-petroleum" scenario. There already are a couple fission-powered cargo ships out there, IIRC. The problem is that safe disposal of nuclear fuel is nontrivial.

There are bigger problems with nuclear powered cargo ships than just waste disposal. They would need larger crews of highly trained (more expensive) experts to operate the reactor. Look at how much the US Navy spends to train competent technicians and engineers. Every nuclear powered ship becomes a prime terrorist target, either to hijack it or destroy it in place and cause a radiological incident. So you also need c…

On the subject of highly trained nuclear operators from the Navy, what's the job market look like for those guys after they leave the service? Where else are you going to find a nuclear-powered ship where you can put your experience to work?

Seems like a natural fit. For almost everything in the military, IMO there should be some market in the private space that could use those skills.

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

#726

Post by dang »

whyileft wrote: post #417
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…

Oh god. You just turned a thread about startup opportunities into one about diet fad wackos. You even got the ball rolling with your silly carbohydrates comment. Ugh

Yes, it went seriously off-topic (and we've marked it as such, which sends it to the bottom of the page). But you made the thread even worse by posting this. Your interest in high-quality discussion and startup opportunities are quite positive motivations. Please express them in a way that makes HN better, or at least doesn't harm it.

One thing people can do in a case like this is email us at hn@ycombinator.com to let us know that the top subthread has veered off-topic. We intervene when we see that but we need your help to see everything.

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

#727

Post by cdvonstinkpot »

Kalium wrote: post #719
cdvonstinkpot wrote: post #680

Political Science & Democracy Management AFAIK there's little to no innovation in this field aside from the occasional electronic voting machine, whose security may or may not be totally un-hackable. In a day & age where the internet reaches every home, & there's a web browser in nearly everyone's pocket, it shouldn't be that difficult to effectively discern the will of the people. But we're still depending on manual…

You're absolutely right! Democracy is critically important, and discerning the will of the governed shouldn't be this hard. It boggles the mind! Yet, computer security is hard . Like, holy shit, all the problems of physical security combined with all the problems of network security. Decentralized paper balloting limits things to just the relatively-well-understood physical side while limiting the scope for the damag…

I disagree that empty promises isn't addressable with technology. Thinking of smart contracts as a potential solution here.

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

#728

Post by joeax »

danieka wrote: post #523
amelius wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it support a web-interface? It's not clear from the website.

Not yet, but it is something that we are thinking of adding. Would a web interface be useful to you?

I like the idea too, but also got lost at no web interface. There are instances where you'd want to screen share and look at code. Slack integration would be kinda cool too.

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

#729

Post by nojvek »

GreyGhost wrote: post #500
adventured wrote: post #369

This won't be popular on HN: start aggressively patenting anything and everything you can around CRISPR. It's dirt cheap to work with both Cas9 and Cpf1. Figure out how to use CRISPR to insert or edit genes that we already know help to make some people practically bullet proof when it comes to cholesterol and common cardiovascular problems. Patent everything you can around using CRISPR to fight high cholesterol (the…

Sure you can do this. You can also set back the development work on these genes by a long time with someone patenting something they know nothing about just to get rich from it.

Or probably innovation just doesn't happen in the name of fear. Worse because of the patent trolls someone ends up releasing targeted crispr viruses unleashing another black plague

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

#730

Post by rco8786 »

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.

Basically Breather?
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