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Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
81–90 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 sen…
Yes, those are the broad strokes. For that prize amount, you would probably have multiple teams applying for the prize and providing proof of their accomplishments, and the donors would then vote on whose project best accomplishes the prize's goals.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#83Years and years ago, I wanted to make an auction site like Ebay, but only for "haunted" items. So, yeah.
Also, services where you pay someone to digitize your mail. And Lockitron... I just... these seem like bad ideas waiting to happen.
But then I was sure Twitter was a terrible idea, and I loved the original format of formspring so what do I know?
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#84Apparently mine, based on the number of upvotes my Show HN is getting right now ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6374377
I think it is a great idea. I understand it in an instance. If you want to see a bad Show HN check mine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6353500
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#85Mine: It's based on a Seinfeld episode where George makes up a fake charity and gives cards to people "A donation has been made in your name to Human Fund". Say you want to gift someone but you don't know what they want / don't want to buy more stuff / etc. So you buy a card that has a message ("Happy Birthday!" or whatever) and a number of credits associated with it and you give it to someone. The person, then, can…
That's not really a terrible idea. Well, except I'm too selfish and would be pissed if I had to give my birthday gift to someone else. I bet corporations would love that though. It LOOKS like they're giving the employee a birthday present but it's actually a tax deductible donation. Win-win.
Yeah, except it already exists and it's called cash.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not really a terrible idea. Well, except I'm too selfish and would be pissed if I had to give my birthday gift to someone else. I bet corporations would love that though. It LOOKS like they're giving the employee a birthday present but it's actually a tax deductible donation. Win-win.
Yeah, except it already exists and it's called cash.
What? How is cash relevant to a service that let's you make a donation but have a recipient choose where it goes?
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#87One man started a movement to have peace all over the world and wanted to solve problems without bloodshed in the path of Ahimsa.
This was the stupidest! idea in the whole history of mankind.
I think everyone guessed who it is.
Humans don't need aliens or space creatures to get killed. they will kill themselves.
Long live war! Long live humans!
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#88Heard: for
I'm going to give this a serious response even though I know you're referring to a well-known cliche for startup ideas. I was talking to a fairly smart VC recently and he made a good point -- while everyone likes to use "Facebook for Cats" as a joke about bad startup ideas, it's not actually a bad idea. A lot of people REALLY like their pets. And they spend a lot of money on them. And they like to share pictures of t…
Er, but doesn't regular Facebook fill this need for those interested?
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you think now?
It's hard to explain. I try to understand why the person thinks the idea is good rather than try to figure out why the idea is bad. The realization that most ideas evolve over time also means that the initial idea you dismiss will most likely change. It's really just about taking the time to better understand an idea, and trying hard not to dismiss it.
> try to understand why the person thinks the idea is good rather than try to figure out why the idea is bad
That should be on the HN faq regarding "Show HN" posts.
Re: Ask HN: What is the stupidest startup idea you ever had/heard?
#90The stupidest idea I have heard was Twitter. After that, I changed the way I thought.
Considering the amount of stupidity on Twitter, I'd say you weren't too far off the mark.
What people do with X, has nothing to say about X.
People use knife to cook food, but also use to same to commit murder.