Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#91

Post by jkhtaria » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 3:50 PM UTC

AznHisoka wrote: post #77

jkhtaria wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other Calorie Counters - Set your diet targets once based on a generic formula. Poundaweek - Uses Artificial Intelligence to update your nutrition targets EVERY week. Other Calorie Counters - Don't provide any coaching. If you get stuck before reaching your weight goal you are on your own. Poundaweek - Learns from you and provides personalized weekly reports, so you continue making progress towards your weight goal.

FYI, you will probably hear from 1000+ more people asking the same question: Why not use MyFitnessPal? My advice? Don't compete against them. Everyone, from moms to entrepreneurs to wall street folks use them, know them, and recommends them. They're too big, and you need to be 10X better to go up against them, and even then it might not be enough.

I feel like that is there biggest weakness, they are too big. There is lots of room for advancement in this area and they are far too comfortable. There calorie counter is also critically flawed, when a user plateaus and stops losing weight they are left in the dark, also they may not lose any weight at all based on there estimate and carry on eating the incorrect number of calories for far longer than they should, this happened to me personally before I built Poundaweek. Also the amount of calories the other apps recommend is static, and only adds calories based off of very flawed estimates of calories burned from exercises. Poundaweek learns and adjusts dynamically and specifically for each individual user as well as letting you know why and what you can do to keep on track towards your goal.

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#92

Post by ParameterOne » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 3:50 PM UTC

ParameterOne/Drop#

We are going to send out a "one time use" Sim Card sticker to registered voters that you can stick on your regular sim card and Vote in the next election from your phone. Great for absentee ballots, disabled community, lazy people :-)

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#93

Post by pfraze » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

necrodome wrote: post #80

pfraze wrote: post #44

https://beakerbrowser.com/ A peer-to-peer Web browser. We let users create and host unlimited sites from their own devices. We think the technology can support thick hostless applications, which eliminates data silos and makes every application forkable from the browser. No blockchains, just an improved variant of BitTorrent called Dat [1]. We've been quiet the last 2 months but our 0.7 release is coming up, and we'r…

Opera tried that in 2009: http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/unite.html Also, there is zeronet these days. https://zeronet.io/ How are you differentiating yourself?

I loved the premise of Unite; it was a home HTTP server with dynamic DNS via an opera-run service. Very cool idea, but it wasn't that good of a product experience. (Maybe somebody should try it again using Electron; "node in your browser" isn't that bad of a pitch.)

But, one of the big problems with a bunch of home HTTP servers is availability. The crypto-p2p network lets you push to a public peer and solve availability and improve transfer speed, without having to change the URL. That's a pretty big deal when you consider how unreliable the edge network is.

The other really key difference is that P2P removes the service dependency; sites/apps sync to your device, and then use device APIs to get work done. It's a different view of the applications model, and it means recipients can modify the application after download. This is a really big part of our focus; all sites and apps are user-modifiable.

Zeronet made decisions with their technology stack that I disagreed with, but it's in spirit very near to us, and I've always loved the polish of their applications and demos. P2P is pretty competitive right now. Some projects involve blockchains, some involve BitTorrent, some involve IPFS. We use Dat, and there are technical reasons behind why we chose Dat, but in the end this space will differentiate by the end-user experience.

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#94

Post by ParameterOne » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

fudged71 wrote: post #35

zach417 wrote: post #19

Corinthian Robotics - robots that do housework I'm building an inexpensive, autonomous robot that take cares of your laundry. While you're at work, it will wash your clothes, fold them, and put them away.

I'm throwing money at the screen but nothing is happening

hahahaha!

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#95

Post by blizkreeg » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 5:11 PM UTC

jkhtaria wrote: post #91

AznHisoka wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, you will probably hear from 1000+ more people asking the same question: Why not use MyFitnessPal? My advice? Don't compete against them. Everyone, from moms to entrepreneurs to wall street folks use them, know them, and recommends them. They're too big, and you need to be 10X better to go up against them, and even then it might not be enough.

I feel like that is there biggest weakness, they are too big. There is lots of room for advancement in this area and they are far too comfortable. There calorie counter is also critically flawed, when a user plateaus and stops losing weight they are left in the dark, also they may not lose any weight at all based on there estimate and carry on eating the incorrect number of calories for far longer than they should, t…

I feel like you're up against an app that's synonymous with tracking food/calories. However, if your app does indeed do what you say well, you have something. However, in my opinion, initially you would be better off going after users who don't use MFP or any app than convincing them to convert. Though I'm only a two-week user of MFP, there's too much switching cost I feel. And I'd really have to hear good things about it from others/in the news to convince me to switch at this point.

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#96

Post by jkhtaria » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 6:01 PM UTC

blizkreeg wrote: post #95

jkhtaria wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like that is there biggest weakness, they are too big. There is lots of room for advancement in this area and they are far too comfortable. There calorie counter is also critically flawed, when a user plateaus and stops losing weight they are left in the dark, also they may not lose any weight at all based on there estimate and carry on eating the incorrect number of calories for far longer than they should, t…

I feel like you're up against an app that's synonymous with tracking food/calories. However, if your app does indeed do what you say well, you have something. However, in my opinion, initially you would be better off going after users who don't use MFP or any app than convincing them to convert. Though I'm only a two-week user of MFP, there's too much switching cost I feel. And I'd really have to hear good things abo…

I'm going after anybody that wants to lose weight safely and consistently, the people that don't know how much of what to eat every week and the people that get stuck after using other calorie counters. Simply put Poundaweek works and continues to work - It was built out my own frustrations with the other calorie counters that stop working or never worked at all.

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#97

Post by brunock222 » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 6:20 PM UTC

Cool thread, very inspiring! No one else? :-)

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#98

Post by blizkreeg » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 6:25 PM UTC

jkhtaria wrote: post #96

blizkreeg wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like you're up against an app that's synonymous with tracking food/calories. However, if your app does indeed do what you say well, you have something. However, in my opinion, initially you would be better off going after users who don't use MFP or any app than convincing them to convert. Though I'm only a two-week user of MFP, there's too much switching cost I feel. And I'd really have to hear good things abo…

I'm going after anybody that wants to lose weight safely and consistently, the people that don't know how much of what to eat every week and the people that get stuck after using other calorie counters. Simply put Poundaweek works and continues to work - It was built out my own frustrations with the other calorie counters that stop working or never worked at all.

I'm going to download and try it out. Saw some great reviews on the play store. When is the iOS version coming out?

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#99

Post by ParameterOne » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 7:57 PM UTC

brunock222 wrote: post #97

Cool thread, very inspiring! No one else? :-)

Mine ended up in the middle instead of at the end of the thread....why does it do that?

Re: Ask HN: Tell us about your S2017 startup

#100

Post by jkhtaria » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 8:55 PM UTC

blizkreeg wrote: post #98

jkhtaria wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going after anybody that wants to lose weight safely and consistently, the people that don't know how much of what to eat every week and the people that get stuck after using other calorie counters. Simply put Poundaweek works and continues to work - It was built out my own frustrations with the other calorie counters that stop working or never worked at all.

I'm going to download and try it out. Saw some great reviews on the play store. When is the iOS version coming out?

Thanks! If I get selected by YC - sooner rather than later. It's a one man show presently, would love to get the iOS version out this year.