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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#351

Post by AznHisoka »

saosebastiao wrote: post #56

These questions pop up every now and then, and while I get the intent, you're not gonna get anything useful out of it. The idea that someone who knows how to code can disrupt an industry that they are not a part of is disingenuous, and the examples that you can find are exceptions, not the rule. It's also extremely naive and presumptuous...what makes you think people in the industry haven't already tried? People who…

before reading the comments i would have agreed but man.. there really are a lot of juicy suggestions.. not just trivial ideas like another travel app.

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

#352

Post by krisroadruck »

6stringmerc wrote: post #134

A monthly subscription service for a fee of $5 - $10 where every month I get a new kind of quirky instrument (shaker, wind, wood block and stick, whistle, triangle, or other noise maker) as a surprise by mail. The point of the service in the music industry is to inspire new sounds and the device can either be kept or given away to somebody without a lot of second thought. Getting stuck is a big problem. Also in music…

This would actually be fairly straight forward to launch yourself using something like http://cratejoy.com

Subscription boxes are a thing :-)

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

#353

Post by geuis »

6stringmerc wrote: post #134

A monthly subscription service for a fee of $5 - $10 where every month I get a new kind of quirky instrument (shaker, wind, wood block and stick, whistle, triangle, or other noise maker) as a surprise by mail. The point of the service in the music industry is to inspire new sounds and the device can either be kept or given away to somebody without a lot of second thought. Getting stuck is a big problem. Also in music…

Good use of 3D printers to get started for small batches.

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

#354

Post by thomasdub »

tacostakohashi wrote: post #246
scardine wrote: post #144

A ticketing system that doesn't sux (I like RequestTracker, but it shows its age). Top players are ridiculously overpriced. My management style is like this: every task/request is numbered, placed in a queue and assigned to a professional. What I expect from my ticketing system: - every manager should be able to assign tasks to someone and set the order they must be executed. He needs know what his team is doing and…

The problem here seems to be that users/customers insist on customizing any such app to death. Personally, I think the optimal ticket system would have this data for each ticket: * A unique, prefixed ticket # (JIRA gets this right) * An assignee (like an email To:) * A reporter (like an email From:) * A one-line summary (like an email Subject:) * A multi-line body (like an email body, but ideally with markdown) * Att…

This sounds very like Redmine [0]. It's ostensibly for project "issues" however it's extremely customizable and all of the above are included in the default config and not much more. It sounds like if you removed about 2 default fields it'd be perfect for the ticketing system you describe above. Plus RSS + Notifications + a solid API.

[0] http://www.redmine.org/

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

#355

Post by pj_mukh »

ThomPete wrote: post #88

I posted a similar question last year great discussion there too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007 I would suggest we make a monthly of these as they provide important insight into industries.

Seconded. Might even help us get out of the mindset of building things for other 20-somethings to replace their moms.

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

#356

Post by Avshalom »

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.

A patch centered VCS like Darcs might be a better fit for legal documents.

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

#357

Post by conductr »

xiaoma wrote: post #175

Everyone is ignoring the low-end of the market.

Without being P.C., I have to assume you mean poor people. And TBH, I've had the thought that there must be some big opportunity out there to address for that segment. But I have no idea what it might be.

I feel they live very differently and would spread ideas among their network when some app/service helped their live (cheaper, easier). I have some friends and family that fit into this mold and it's obvious they have a different thought process when making financial choices, even simple ones like shopping for groceries, and they depend on things that >=average earners don't.

And, it seems most of them have smart phones these days. So it's probably only a matter of time before something hits big with this group.

Most apps are for what many would say are "rich people." You pay someone to drive you? You pay someone to run your errands? You pay extra for grocery delivery? Eating out is expensive enough, you paid extra to have it delivered? It's for people who can afford convenience. Opportunity cost is not a real thing for poor people because they lack opportunity.

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

#358

Post by scrollaway »

fasterthanlime wrote: post #159
scrollaway wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's really impressive. I'll investigate, thank you for the link.

Hey, amos here, main developer of wharf/butler, here's a quick technical summary so you don't have to do the digging yourself: - File formats are streams of protobuf messages - efficient serialization, easy to parse from a bunch of programming languages. Most files (patches, signatures) are composed of an uncompressed header, and a brotli-compressed stream (in the reference implementation, compression format are plug…

That's quite incredibly thorough. How familiar are you with Blizzard's NGDP protocol / CASC file format?
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