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New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

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Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#71

Post by dzlobin »

DaniFong wrote: post #66
dzlobin wrote: post #37

I don't mean to be pessimistic here, but a 50MM plant to recover phosphorous from water or breeding hypo-allergenic dust mites?

What's pessimistic about them? They're hundred billion dollar scale problems, surely one could recover some of that. Currently desalination plants are even more expensive, and they don't do anything with the waste product. And breeding isn't very expensive at all, though with dust mites it's tricky because they're quite small and transparent to visible light.

The ideas aren't pessimistic; you're just preaching to the wrong choir. Those aren't startup ideas, those are huge problems that need research and huge amounts of capital. People also need cars that don't use gasoline and a hundred other things we don't have yet.

But breeding dustmites? Sigh. Do you then on releasing them into the wild or selling them door to door?

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#72

Post by lincolnq »

jpwagner wrote: post #68
lincolnq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. I think your comment sets a bad tone for the discussion, especially as the top-rated comment. While I wouldn't want to back many of these startups as they're written, I think some of them have potential to be grown into a viable business idea, and dismissing them all in one shot just biases the whole thread negatively. I guess I'd just rather read constructive posts first.

Best way to get easy karma: say hey-thats-not-fair to the cynical posts (regardless of hilarity.)

I don't think karma is deserved for either of our posts. They both add to the noise. But I'm trying to reduce the overall noise (in a way which has more impact than downvoting) and you're increasing it. (voters: all the posts in this thread should be at 0 or 1 and at the bottom -- please make it so)

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#74

Post by DaniFong »

dzlobin wrote: post #69
DaniFong wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pandora for chat roulette is a bad idea? How can a recommendation engine for people possibly be worse than random?

Its not worse, it's just a silly idea that isn't worth the time needed to make it

You'll live to be embarrassed by that; this is actually going to be built. I've heard from six people who've started working on something like it already.

It's not even that hard: Facebook for the platform, directed edge for the recommendation engine, something like camarades.com / ww.com for the webcam plugin.

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#75

Post by 9oliYQjP »

dnsworks wrote: post #53
JayNeely wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Wordpress.com 20 years more advanced, for video blogging" is one of mine. I'd love to hear critiques of it. I realize the "pitch" is bad, but did you read any of the other sections?; I'm trying to convey that it's not just a hosted platform for video blogging, but that there's some technological innovation involved as well.

The problem with video blogging is that it doesn't have the same mass appeal as text blogging. As uncomfortable as people are with their grammatical abilities, they still blog, constantly, no matter how much we hope they wouldn't. As for video blogging, the barrier to entry is a lot higher, and self-consciousness about "public" speaking and appearance severely stifle the potential "market".

I generally agree with you but I wonder if this is a generational issue. I personally would never leave a video comment to somebody's YouTube video. But I see a lot of younger people (e.g., under 23) who are absolutely comfortable doing so.

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#76

Post by DaniFong »

dzlobin wrote: post #71
DaniFong wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's pessimistic about them? They're hundred billion dollar scale problems, surely one could recover some of that. Currently desalination plants are even more expensive, and they don't do anything with the waste product. And breeding isn't very expensive at all, though with dust mites it's tricky because they're quite small and transparent to visible light.

The ideas aren't pessimistic; you're just preaching to the wrong choir. Those aren't startup ideas, those are huge problems that need research and huge amounts of capital. People also need cars that don't use gasoline and a hundred other things we don't have yet. But breeding dustmites? Sigh. Do you then on releasing them into the wild or selling them door to door?

We already breed dustmites; just by accident. The incubators are homes, the climate controlled by the choice of laundry detergent and thermostat. This wouldn't be much different. A starting point is just measuring the allergen content of the particulates.

In any of these projects the dominant cost is salaries, which are not so high if you hire great young people who care about it. It only seems impossible to those with a lack of imagination.

As for selling them, here a market for you: ecologists with asthma. These probably number in the low ten thousands, they probably spend close to a thousand dollars a year in medication, and four years in lifetime. That's hundreds of millions in that market category alone.

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#78

Post by rafd »

nc wrote: post #3

Crowdsourced startups anyone? ;)

I've been toying with the idea for a while, but there are still many obstacles to overcome: a) Efficiency (communication, administration) There's a reason most startups have 2-4 founders, and why certain open source projects eventually collapse under their own weight b) Dividing the profits. How do you measure User1233s? contribution vs. User252s? c) More minds =/= better product An enlightened leader (say, Jobs) is sometimes better than a democratic process. Also, massive collaboration tends to result in lowest-common-denominator results (ex. Digg, Reddit)

..but then again, a lot of these problems could be solved with some sort of (online web app?) system: a) Basecamp tweaked for massive collaboration. b) StackOverflow-esque reputation system + karma + uservoice demand identification? c) No suggestions here yet, but HN seems to be doing a pretty good job at engineering away the Digg-problem.

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#79

Post by jey »

Blasa wrote: post #43
imp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw that item on the list and thought that it resembled the website I recently launched: http://www.crunchcourse.com/ Is that similar to what you were thinking? I'd be interested to get your feedback on it.

Oh and MathML would be nice.

LaTeX would be much more practical for a human to write -- e.g. Wikipedia uses a subset of LaTeX.

Re: New Startup Ideas Spreadsheet

#80

Post by dkokelley »

jpwagner wrote: post #32

makes me feel bad for PG and and YC team: reading just those 20 or so responses is painful.

I would like to think of this document as more of a brainstorming session than polished startup pitches. Throw everything out there and see what sticks. Some people might find a gem from part of an idea, and tweak it to make it viable, even though the rest of the idea is garbage.
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