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Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#291

Post by exceptione »

rpedela wrote: post #275
tmsam wrote: post #235

A family member is a lawyer in the Worker's Comp, SS, and Family Law space. THE software for lawyers in this space is called A1 Law. It solves a lot of real problems lawyers in that space have (form letter generation, calendar integration, case management)... but it's so slow to use new technologies. They advertise PalmOS integration. My family member has to have their own server in a closet running the server versio…

I investigated doing a SaaS product in the legal space. One of the things I heard multiple times from lawyers is that they are more likely to buy a product if they can bill their clients directly. What you are talking about would not fall into that category. That doesn't mean you couldn't build a successful business, but I think it is important to understand that the market has different rules.

(...) if they can bill their clients directly.

Can you explain what you mean? Letter generation etc is still usefull, I don't see what billing has to do with it. They can still charge what they want to.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#292

Post by mosseater »

seancoleman wrote: post #41

In real estate, developing with MLS data. - There are over 900 regional MLS providers each with different schemas. - You use RETS, a complicated, non web standards interface for downloading data. - MLS data is plagued with errors and denormalized data making queries difficult.

Good luck. I used to work at a Startup that tried wrangling MLS data. There is the not-so-trivial problem of gathering all of the data together into one schema. But to offer services on MLS data (like a forward facing website) you need to have a physical office in the MLS region your providing. This problem seems to be more legal than anything.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#293

Post by takinola »

rmrm wrote: post #130

My wife is a corporate attorney. They pass drafts of contracts around by email using MS word with change tracking enabled. Some sort of attorney targeted simple revision tracking front end using git would be a mighty step forward.

Be very careful trying to solve this "problem". While MS Word change tracking may seem abhorrent to you, most lawyers are well trained in its use and are very comfortable using it. Also, switching costs are huge. A lawyer would not only need to see the benefit of an alternative but also convince all other lawyers they work with to put aside the solution they are already comfortable using and try something new.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#294

Post by teej »

tommynicholas wrote: post #233

BI for developers. Developers run many organizations and teams now, but most Business Intelligence-ish tools are either built for business people (Tableau, Domo) or for marketing (all analytics products, specifically GA). I feel like there's a big opportunity for a tool/tools that are installed in apps as a package and then customized from there. Many teams build a version of this in house (Instacart open-sources the…

Newrelic is converging on this. Also you should take a look at Looker.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#295

Post by amenghra »

tmsam wrote: post #235

A family member is a lawyer in the Worker's Comp, SS, and Family Law space. THE software for lawyers in this space is called A1 Law. It solves a lot of real problems lawyers in that space have (form letter generation, calendar integration, case management)... but it's so slow to use new technologies. They advertise PalmOS integration. My family member has to have their own server in a closet running the server versio…

A lawyer friend of mine told me his firm doesn't use software to check all the "hereafter referred to" are bound to their template and vice-versa. They instead have to print the document and go through it with a highlighter.

The firm charges their clients on an hourly basis, so they don't really have an incentive to be more efficient.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#296

Post by agf »

starik36 wrote: post #269
tmsam wrote: post #235

A family member is a lawyer in the Worker's Comp, SS, and Family Law space. THE software for lawyers in this space is called A1 Law. It solves a lot of real problems lawyers in that space have (form letter generation, calendar integration, case management)... but it's so slow to use new technologies. They advertise PalmOS integration. My family member has to have their own server in a closet running the server versio…

Last time I had a consultation with my lawyer, she fired up WordPerfect. There is a blast from the past.

I still get virus / malware emails from the AOL account of an IP lawyer I worked with in 2011 / 2012. Also a blast from the past every time.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#297

Post by throwaway98764 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #238
ForrestN wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately any assumptions built into an immigration business are likely to be upended soon. I'd wait at least a year before trying to solve this problem because the regulatory environment could break your resulting startup.

> I'd wait at least a year I'd say closer to four to be safe.

HAHAHA

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#298

Post by Axsuul »

Avshalom wrote: post #282

It's not really start up material but Sage/MAS is basically crap for companies that need custom work. The door warehouse I worked at basically needed 2-3 parallel system (1-2 of them being us scribbling on paper) because we custom fabricated doors and MAS was basically useless for passing that kind of thing around. P.S. If any of you are in Austin I recommend Hull Supply, they're good people.

Can we get in touch? Currently building something in this space and would like to understand your problem better. My email is in my profile!

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#299

Post by rsp1984 »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #85

Rapid generation of high quality 3D models of existing objects. Process should be independent of object size eg. a coke can should use the same process as a car and process time should scale with object size. Think somewhere on the order of 10,000 models per day throughput. There's $BNs waiting for you. It's ridiculously hard.

There's $BNs waiting for you.

Who would be the primary customers? The entire 3D capturing market is currently several $B per year, including services. Where would be the customers that aren't getting served today that would double this market?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#300

Post by mnguyenngo »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #105
ggcdn wrote: post #37

As a structural engineer, I see a good opportunity to make reinforced concrete design software available in a SaaS format. The competition is outdated, clunky, requires local installation and messing about with licenses. Design firms are paying $1000-$3000/year per user/seat for what amounts to a pretty basic app. Unfortunately, there are very few people that understand both computer science and structural engineerin…

My brother in law would agree with this, he is building an open source project for collecting all of the analysis that civil and structural engineers have to do on every project into a single repository where people can share and augment the calculations. (think if it as github for civil and structural engineers)

Can you post the link to the github repo?
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