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Requests for Startups Refreshed

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#71

Post by danieltillett »

bpchaps wrote: post #46
danieltillett wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ideas are a bit too long for a post here on HN, but if people are serious about wanting to pursue a startup in this area then get in contact with me [1]. I know there are lots of people wanting to start a startup who feel they don’t have any good ideas so if this is an area you are passionate about then I am happy to talk. I am in the lucky position of having the financial resources to fund a new startup, but bec…

I'd be very interested! This is a field that I recently became extremely interested in and even met up with my lawyer earlier today to discuss a bulk FOIA research project. I left a comment on your blog with contact info if you're interested in talking. :)

I just sent you an email :)

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#72

Post by hueving »

pcmaffey wrote: post #41
vrdabomb5717 wrote: post #5

I think funding mass media is less interesting than finding a way to have sustainable investigative journalism, both at the local and national levels. Investigative journalism, especially at the local level, has been hit hard by local newspapers getting shut down and the media forced to either pull out of unprofitable areas or focus on money-making ventures. Most media outlets are not the New York Times or Washington…

So long as journalists are paid with ad dollars, content will always trend towards the lowest common denominator. This applies to all media in general; but there really needs to be a better metric for quantifying impact than clicks. If writers, etc. are rewarded for advancing knowledge, then many many more people would be enabled to do so. Hell, perhaps we don't even need a new metic, and instead just subsidize every…

>Those who provide long-term value will outweigh those who only consume.

Is there any evidence supporting this?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#74

Post by yc2cult »

Lordarminius wrote: post #39
yummyfajitas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the agriculture you bring up, the real issue here is contracts. Suppose you lend a bunch of Kerala palm oil orchards $1M, hoping to make $5M over a decade. Do you really trust the Communist government of Kerala to enforce your contracts and transfer wealth from poor local farmers back to the rich (likely foreign) capitalists who made them loans? That's the problem to solve. If you can solve it I don't see a…

I would argue that solving the problem of contract enforcement is beyond the scope of any entrepreneur. However I do see your point and appreciate its merit. By the same token, if YC was unduly worried about that, they would never be able to fund (tech) companies that operate principally outside the west because the problem you allude to has never really been solved satisfactorily. But here's my point: as YC becomes…

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its a duck.

HN-YC is a VC ( vulture capitalist ), an 'angle' is off-hands give's unconditional early-money to boot, but certainly doesn't micro-manage and change diapers.

YC seems to be building a 'cult' and now that the high-tech 'go ipo' exit is closed, and the only cash-slush is microsoft/google/apple, and when that money goes south, ... well there will not be any exits. Thus heatlh-care may be a target, just follow the money. The notion of attracting 100's of bright young lemming's and leading them to SV, and isolating them from the real-world and feeding them with bullshit, is brilliant to say the least. L Ron Hubbard was CIA, iQtel ( YC SV ) is CIA, all this stuff is nothing new. My guess is their breeding 1,000's of high-tech manchurian canndidates to be little Snowden's working in salt-mines at Fort-Meade, or Utah,

If U want to be an entrepreneur "Just Do It", take a salary cut, live lean & mean, get to work, figure out how to sell a product, and let the cash flow build your business, and all along the way buy apartments and farmland, as much real-estate as you can. Then your exit will be soft&easy after ten years.

A good plan is to school 15-20, work corp ( learn what they do ) 20-25, then do your own biz 25-35, and then retire at 35 and run away from biz and live.

Being a wage slave even for $150k/year is BS, and when you get post 40+ your stuck in a rut. YC-HN can paint roses on feces all day long, but feces is feces

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#75

Post by vc4u »

Lordarminius wrote: post #39
yummyfajitas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the agriculture you bring up, the real issue here is contracts. Suppose you lend a bunch of Kerala palm oil orchards $1M, hoping to make $5M over a decade. Do you really trust the Communist government of Kerala to enforce your contracts and transfer wealth from poor local farmers back to the rich (likely foreign) capitalists who made them loans? That's the problem to solve. If you can solve it I don't see a…

I would argue that solving the problem of contract enforcement is beyond the scope of any entrepreneur. However I do see your point and appreciate its merit. By the same token, if YC was unduly worried about that, they would never be able to fund (tech) companies that operate principally outside the west because the problem you allude to has never really been solved satisfactorily. But here's my point: as YC becomes…

VC's ( vulture capitalists ) is money backed by rich old people, or in general young rich guys that just can't walk away from high-tech, but most of the time VC's are lawyers, as its the lawyers that have to package the deal, so that the entrepreneur gets 10%, and the house gets 90%.

The idea that the only road to WEALTH is VC, is insane, almost all the great fortunes were made by boot-strap, all a VC does is ensure that when you done that the FOUNDER, who actually did the work, walks away with 10% of the pie, or 1%. The deal is to walk with 100%. This is why BILL GATES is the richest man in the world.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#76

Post by ThomPete »

vrdabomb5717 wrote: post #5

I think funding mass media is less interesting than finding a way to have sustainable investigative journalism, both at the local and national levels. Investigative journalism, especially at the local level, has been hit hard by local newspapers getting shut down and the media forced to either pull out of unprofitable areas or focus on money-making ventures. Most media outlets are not the New York Times or Washington…

Sustainable investigative journalism is most likely going to solve itself by technologies and access to information and so it makes little sense to want to focus on that as a business category IMO. Making it sustainable is a byproduct of the technologies, tools and legislative work we develop.

In fact one of the best tools is already here we are using it right now. It's never been as cheap to do as it is right now.

A good example:

https://medium.com/@danmunro/why-i-believe-my-theranos-blood...

People in general don't pay for investigative journalism and so it's never going to be a business category in itself and never have been.

The closest thing we have is something like WikiLeaks or what Snowden did.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#77

Post by prawn »

pcmaffey wrote: post #41
vrdabomb5717 wrote: post #5

I think funding mass media is less interesting than finding a way to have sustainable investigative journalism, both at the local and national levels. Investigative journalism, especially at the local level, has been hit hard by local newspapers getting shut down and the media forced to either pull out of unprofitable areas or focus on money-making ventures. Most media outlets are not the New York Times or Washington…

So long as journalists are paid with ad dollars, content will always trend towards the lowest common denominator. This applies to all media in general; but there really needs to be a better metric for quantifying impact than clicks. If writers, etc. are rewarded for advancing knowledge, then many many more people would be enabled to do so. Hell, perhaps we don't even need a new metic, and instead just subsidize every…

UBI plus more open information for the hobbyists to look through.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#78

Post by splitrocket »

GFischer wrote: post #33
acconrad wrote: post #3

I've constantly racked my brain on the Underserved Communities and Social Services: my dad is a Vietnam vet and my mom (while we were growing up) fit that single mother middle-class type...how does technology help them? Part of the problem is they aren't tech savvy the way the HN community is - so what works for our community doesn't exactly work for theirs, or that they even use technology to the extent that we do (…

I agree that it's harder to solve a problem that you're not experiencing, but, by the same token, underserved communities will tolerate an even lower threshold of quality as long as you're helping them :) For the approach on how to solve their problems, the main goal is empathy. Look at the Design Thinking theory: first step is to emphatize. When I was taking a marketing course, they told us to shadow a consumer. You…

Amen.

We try to do this at Blue Ridge Labs. Our incubator just closed it's applications for 2017. We'll be opening applications for the fellowship, meant for individual engineers, designers, product managers and experts to do the research, interviews, focus groups, prototyping and testing to develop new tech products that fight poverty.

https://labs.robinhood.org/

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#79

Post by ryanSrich »

klinskyc wrote: post #8
the_watcher wrote: post #4

I'll be fascinated to see what Mass Media ideas come through YC. It's pretty obviously a problem, but I've honestly got no ideas at all about how to solve it (although, to be fair, there's a non-zero chance that the media has always been a problem of this magnitude, but the internet/echo chamber culture has simply exposed what was lurking all along).

It's not going through YC, but Purple ( https://getpurple.io ) has done a good job, IMO, of having good coverage in a novel way (through facebook messages)

TechCrunch does this. I wonder if they're using purple.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#80

Post by prawn »

acconrad wrote: post #3

I've constantly racked my brain on the Underserved Communities and Social Services: my dad is a Vietnam vet and my mom (while we were growing up) fit that single mother middle-class type...how does technology help them? Part of the problem is they aren't tech savvy the way the HN community is - so what works for our community doesn't exactly work for theirs, or that they even use technology to the extent that we do (…

My first thought on that entry was a way of distributing earnings more frequently than weekly or fortnightly. Are people more inclined to blow their paycheque on entertainment if it's a bigger lump sum? And maybe a way of automating a certain type of withholding to build an emergency fund, or pay for bills.

We grant concessions for retirement savings. Maybe the same for certain types of saving for essential bills? Water, gas, etc.

I don't really trust many services not to fleece their customers though.

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