41–50 of 74 posts
I want a personal assistant for 5-10 hours a week. Not a virtual one because most of the things I want done are in meat space. Stuff like filling out forms, doing my laundry, waiting in line for me at the DMV, and dropping off my netflix returns in the mail. It sounds petty, but I really hate running errands and filling out forms. I'm considering hiring someone off craigslist.
Right question, wrong place. Ask teachers, dentists, gardeners, councillors, vets (both the animal-doctor and the ex-military kind), fish owners, fish eaters, mechanics, little old ladies who don't know whether to trust their mechanic, landlords, concierges... You're more likely to get responses you would never even have considered. Look at it this way. It is often said that the best teams / startups are formed of pe…
I half-agree. Clearly the people you describe often have problems for which they would appreciate solutions for which they would be willing to exchange money. On the other hand, news.yc users ALSO tend to have both money and problems, and the best tools are generally ones where the creator had the problems themselves. I guess my point is we could possibly have an interesting conversation about which market is most pr…
But it is a bit of a problem when your market (say, HNers / web/tech types) are the obvious market for anyone in that market seeking to start a business. Hence the incredible variety of programming text editors, for example.
My point is that the intersection of sets of problems had by HNers could be a set of problems that has already been explored, or is at least targeted, by huge numbers of people, simply because it is their first imagined market (i.e. themselves). And in quite a few cases you will be going up against incredibly talented people (or teams) willing to give away their work for free because they believe in free/open source software. Which is a great thing, obviously, but it makes it hard to compete.
So yes, you are right. But sometimes it can be good to look outside.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I half-agree. Clearly the people you describe often have problems for which they would appreciate solutions for which they would be willing to exchange money. On the other hand, news.yc users ALSO tend to have both money and problems, and the best tools are generally ones where the creator had the problems themselves. I guess my point is we could possibly have an interesting conversation about which market is most pr…
Yes, you're absolutely right. It's good if you have some experience of your market. But it is a bit of a problem when your market (say, HNers / web/tech types) are the obvious market for anyone in that market seeking to start a business. Hence the incredible variety of programming text editors, for example. My point is that the intersection of sets of problems had by HNers could be a set of problems that has already…
I mainly react to the way that people seem to suggest not that targeting tech types is perhaps unwise due to it being a fairly saturated market, but that it's almost morally wrong in some way.
Personally my area of focus is on areas where I think my personal interests overlap with a significant potential userbase, and I'm slowly trying to convince myself I can do mySekritProject better than google, or at least, find a niche they're not going for.
Another problem I'd be very tempted to pay money to solve right now: I'm taking lessons in French. It's pretty cool. I'd like to find ways to improve my French at home. I'd love a site that would make it easy to find someone to video chat with eg skype with some (possibly minimal) teaching skills so I could practice conversation.
Right question, wrong place. Ask teachers, dentists, gardeners, councillors, vets (both the animal-doctor and the ex-military kind), fish owners, fish eaters, mechanics, little old ladies who don't know whether to trust their mechanic, landlords, concierges... You're more likely to get responses you would never even have considered. Look at it this way. It is often said that the best teams / startups are formed of pe…
Indeed if you solve one of our problems then you have two big advantages:
a) a huge pool of tech-savvy seed users
b) A much higher likelihood of useful feedback
c) I would suggest, also, much better chance of revenue generation
Another problem I'd be very tempted to pay money to solve right now: I'm taking lessons in French. It's pretty cool. I'd like to find ways to improve my French at home. I'd love a site that would make it easy to find someone to video chat with eg skype with some (possibly minimal) teaching skills so I could practice conversation.
You can try to use http://www.language-exchanges.org/ This is what you're talking about.
This would aid with the understanding of the law and clients/individuals would be more knowledgeable and prepared for the options available.
My preference would be in the area of IP law such as copyright, patents, trademarks etc since we can model these areas of law more easily with yes/know answers.
I place this need on my blog recently: http://1place.com.au/wptest.php
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've often wanted the same. The main problem seems to be that it is probably hard to make a living as a personal assistant at the prices you and I are willing to pay. There is also the trust issue: would you really trust a stranger enough to do sensitive things?
It didn't occur to me that I could hire someone until I saw this: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bipan/i_used_to_have_a... It just so happened that the previous day when my girlfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I gave her a list of errands to run, people to call, and forms to fill out. She says I should just pay her instead of hiring someone, since she admittedly does do a lot of this crap for me…
A reasonably priced non-awful option therefore sounds good.
Right question, wrong place. Ask teachers, dentists, gardeners, councillors, vets (both the animal-doctor and the ex-military kind), fish owners, fish eaters, mechanics, little old ladies who don't know whether to trust their mechanic, landlords, concierges... You're more likely to get responses you would never even have considered. Look at it this way. It is often said that the best teams / startups are formed of pe…
Maybe. But don't forget that Hacker News types have problems that need solving too. Indeed if you solve one of our problems then you have two big advantages: a) a huge pool of tech-savvy seed users b) A much higher likelihood of useful feedback c) I would suggest, also, much better chance of revenue generation
But to respond to your 'advantages':
a) I probably agree with this, although people can be evangelists offline too you know. It's just called word of mouth.
b) This is almost certainly wrong. You think people who aren't tech-savvy are unqualified to define what they consider to be useful?
c) Back this up, taking into consideration the fact that you might be competing with open source / a pool of equally or more talented developers who could undercut you or do your product better.