Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thought leaders, ugh.
What about rock stars?
Ninjas!
I run away screaming when I see this in somebody's profile.
Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
881–890 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#882Not necessarily a killer app idea, but: I think there's an opportunity to redefine the idea of an employee-owned company. A company with an employee stock pool of 100%-- not 10%-- with no opportunities for dilution, non-voting shares, takeovers, or other financial tricks. Early employees would get more stock, but it would curve gently according with the growth the of the company, so that later employees would also en…
I think this is a thing. Registered as cooperatives. Even more liberal as customer owned like REI? Of course it could be they are just really good at selling that 10% stake.
I do agree that is a potentially exciting organization. I think there are some market analysis companies that have significant employee ownership and most profits are returned as dividends to make for a very cooperative atmosphere.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#883Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd like to see the likes of Airport lounges that are not in the airport. Especially if it could use my priority pass to access them too.
So perhaps a sort of gentleman's club (not that sort) for the younger generation? I'd love to have an accessible chill out place I could go to just to get some work done, preferably with a good view of something. No music playing, just quiet and the ability to get a coffee and simple food if necessary. Google Campus in London does this, but isn't that comfortable for long periods (plus it's absolutely packed).
Consider a fraternal order like the elks, Mason's or odd fellows. They'd love to have more members and often, despite the name, welcome both sexes.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#884Earlier quoted context omitted.
> know how your congressman votes on each of the vote Actually, the opposite may be a better way. Our representatives votes should be secret for the same reason that the people votes is secret: prevents the voter from being intimidated and from selling his/her vote.
Interesting thought. You know, you could also just make it illegal to "sell" votes in the way the United States currently allows? Most other Western/Democratic countries figured this out a long, long time ago.
No need to make it illegal. Votes can't be sold because they can't be confirmed (it's anonymous). That's not what they are talking about here. They are talking about representative votes and yes, it is illegal to buy/sell congressional votes. It is also not private, just like every other Western/Democratic representative government.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#885Anti-gravity and permanent batteries.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#886Hundreds of restaurants in the same geographic area will be purchasing ingredients from a variety of different suppliers, based on their need. If they clubbed together with other local businesses to source common ingredients they could benefit from economies of scale; i.e. instead of 100 restaurants each buying 200 onions, there'd be a bulk order for 20,000 onions; meaning 1 lorry to deliver direct from the supplier(…
Check out http://chefhero.com
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#887Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look at the millions of complaints filed about HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. There is huge room for improvement in the way we write native and web applications - the fact that we still make a distinction signals its own problem. We can do better, and there will always be room for more innovation and improvement.
'From the ground up' doesn't always equate better. In this case, why not just innovate and improve on the tools that are already in use?
I agree. Similarly, keeping around tech with several decades of built-up cruft can also hurt your cause when you are trying to build an elegant, concise, and predictable system. :) You can keep putting a new coat of paint on 1950 Ferrari, even regularly changing out its parts, but it will never match something designed from the ground up with modern tech. The web browser, by nature of its spontaneous birth, ill-thought-out design, and insistence on backwards compatibility places many bent nails in the foundation. Adding on new layers to an old thing almost inevitably results in leaky abstraction.
I have projects that are 10 years old. The code isn't unusable, but I know I can do better. Sometimes adapting the old code just makes it ugly, hard to maintain, and error prone. So when it makes sense, I usually start fresh.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#888A marketplace for specialized micro-consulting(30 minutes to an hour). I've seen plenty of projects that are rife with anti-patterns because a team was unfamiliar with a problem or technology and made a bunch of bad decisions while they were still coming up to speed. The use-case I envision would fix this. Because it's really a travesty that when we're the least familiar with technologies is when we make some of the…
I think you mean software consulting but Expert360 is a good example for other types of consulting.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#889A marketplace for specialized micro-consulting(30 minutes to an hour). I've seen plenty of projects that are rife with anti-patterns because a team was unfamiliar with a problem or technology and made a bunch of bad decisions while they were still coming up to speed. The use-case I envision would fix this. Because it's really a travesty that when we're the least familiar with technologies is when we make some of the…
I think you mean software consulting but Expert360 is a good example for other types of consulting.
Re: Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?
#890Transportation.
Half of the energy used every day, worldwide, is used on transportation (cars, trains etc.). But is this energy well spent? I have seen first-hand, and so have you, that people spend their mornings unhappily commuting to work, school etc.
This needs to be changed, and given how fast technology has been advancing in recent years - change is coming sooner rather than later when it comes to transportation.
Great question by the way, have a look through YC's RFC list. https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/#vrar