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Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

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Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#371

Post by syedkarim »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #355
adventured wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to Parsons, he built a dramatically more successful and larger business than Cuban ever has. Parsons is also a billionaire and worth nearly as much as Cuban. In terms of sales, GoDaddy is six times the size of the Dallas Mavericks business, and ~20 times the size Broadcast.com was before the dotcom bust.

True. But my sense is Cuban could do it again. Parsons benefitted from timing and is likely more of a one trick pony. Yes, a great and lucrative trick. But still one trick :)

If Cuban could do it again, why hasn't he?

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#372

Post by disordinary »

hoodoof wrote: post #7

The one thing I am never short of is ideas. I used to think they'd stop coming but always new ideas come and I write them down in a list now. Too many to execute. Some good, some probably not so great. The accepted wisdom is that ideas are worth nothing but I strongly disagree. I think most ideas are worth nothing, but some ideas are incredibly valuable so I don't give my ideas away in case I want to make use of them…

Ideas have no value, the value is entirely in the execution.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#373

Post by riku_iki »

aurelianito wrote: post #281

Things I would love to make but I cannot find time to: * Syntax-tree aware version control system. Do merges taking into account the syntax tree of the code being managed. * Real time stats of the judicial system by real-time analisis of the sentences. My standard ideas license is: the first $100 millons you make, are yours. I want 1% of the rest. If you make less than $100 millons, you owe me nothing. Good luck!

> Real time stats of the judicial system by real-time analisis of the sentences.

I think the main problem with this idea is where to get data for analysis.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#374

Post by germinalphrase »

throwawayjava wrote: post #343
germinalphrase wrote: post #254

Disrupt Standardized Testing We spend ~2 billion on standardized testing in the U.S.; however, perceived drawbacks in how these tests are structured and administered prevent more widespread adoption (though expansion would provide valuable data that is currently unavailable to front line educational staff). The need for standardized testing is largely predicated on a lack of trust in the assessments that classroom in…

This is a bit like saying "disrupt the federal contracting business, so much money for such crap software!" Standardized tests are a highly political product, and in most states the creation of a standardized test has very little to do with creating an optimal (or even good) assessment. The idea of using teachers as part of the vetting process for questions is a nice one, but your actual customer sit in state capitol…

I don't think you're entirely wrong, there is political pressure behind standardized testing; however, this is largely because the alternative was no trustable testing. Making teachers' assesments trustable is politically palatable to teachers while also fulfilling the administrative goals that standardized testing has been asked (and largely failed) to resolve.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#377

Post by colordrops »

aggie wrote: post #370
colordrops wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanity is on a sure collision course with ecological disaster and potentially billions of deaths. Do something about climate change. Anything. Every new startup should be addressing the fact that we are on the Titanic and the iceberg is getting closer.

Do you have a source for the 'disaster' and 'billions'?

There are mountains of evidence that we are on track for several degrees Celsius change by the end of the century. It's enough to make some large metropolitan coastal areas uninhabitable and huge swaths of farmland unusable. It will destroy the economy to uproot half the human population and move, and thus cause mass migration and starvation.

I hate to use labels but to believe anything else is to be a climate change denier.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#378

Post by blrgeek »

Check out effectuation.org - built networks of people who trust you/you trust, and solve problems for them. Keep solving problems, and you'll find, in 6-12m one or more problems that are worth solving at scale, because they are massive problems for large numbers of people. In this process, don't take funding, keep your runway as long as possible. This is the method used by expert entrepreneurs, when they take an idea and convert it into a business.

Re: Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea

#379

Post by vcool07 »

If you are really short of ideas, just check one of the existing popular services which you use and see if you can offer the same at a cheaper rate. For ex: if a 'package delivery service' is charging $1 for delivering a package, see if you can provide the same service 50 cents cheaper, while maintaining the quality of service.

You don't necessarily need to burn cash / offer insane discounts to achieve it. Cost reduction can also be achieved by improving the supply chain to make it more efficient, thereby reducing cost. For ex: replacing paid software with free/open source alternatives, automating some of the mundane tasks etc.

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