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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

#401

Post by epynonymous »

kelnos wrote: post #200
hguhghuff wrote: post #166

I've gotta say this seems to be putting the cart before the horse. This means that you want to be in business for the sake of it. I've always wanted to be in business but it's always on the back of a driving sense of something that I want to do / make happen. Just seems strange to have assembled all the ingredients without a recipe.

Eh, don't entirely agree with this. Part of the allure of starting a startup is having no boss and being the master of your own destiny. (In reality, of course, you'll have investors and a board to answer to, but it's still very different and more appealing for some people than being a 'regular' employee.) I think it's understandable and reasonable to be a proto-company in search of ideas.

i also don't agree, they have found a group that likes to work together, likes to solve problems together. i think that's a primary motivator. sometimes i see my colleagues more than i see my family so it better be people that i enjoy working with.

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

#402

Post by fapjacks »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #256
azernik wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though note that in that case the problems will mostly be techie problems - a useful way to find less crowded spaces is to ask people from different walks of life what their pain points are.

This is solid advice. Find people who aren't technically inclined but 'forced' to use the Internet to do something vital. They often have many things they would like automated.

Yeah these are the people I like to talk to. I've built some great apps based on things I've been told by these folks.

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

#403

Post by shardinator »

I wouldn't try to build A startup.

Instead I'd focus on being a 'special forces team' for people who have a good idea and some product &/or traction but need more people with your skill sets and access to capital.

You would then be essentially super hands-on investors, who could add significant value (although that really depends on you - you could also be super disruptive).

Over time you'd pick up a portfolio of companies that you've worked in and on, then exited and allow the initial team and new members you brought in to flourish.

While you rinse and repeat and slowly build network effects and improved learnings along the way.

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

#404

Post by blakdawg »

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 :)

No, Parsons is at least a 2-trick pony; from Wikipedia:

"In 1984, he founded Parsons Technology in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and began selling MoneyCounts, a home accounting program. In late 1987, Parsons was able to quit his job and focus completely on selling and overseeing growth of MoneyCounts. Eventually, Parsons Technology grew to be a 1,000-employee, privately held company. On September 27, 1994, Parsons completed the sale of Parsons Technology to Intuit, Inc. for $64 million."

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

#405

Post by blakdawg »

damosneeze wrote: post #158
sauwan wrote: post #107

Here's my idea. All I ask for is a free one if you use it. A drone fence. Hear me out. Problem: Fencing is FUCKING expensive. For many people who want to keep animals out (garden, animals pooping in the sandbox) buying a fence is really cost prohibitive. Plus they don't always work anyways. Solution: Self driving drones with IR cameras in specific locations. Place a camera or two in strategic locations, and have a dr…

Pretty good, but also quite niche. I think many people who build fences are not doing it just to keep things out, but also to keep things in, mark territory, provide security against more than just deer, aesthetics, etc. However, on the fence industry, I could see a shake-up of fence estimation software. Perhaps one that uses ML to take the data necessary for an estimation (geographic data based on asker's location +…

I knew a guy who made a shitload of money with a software program he wrote for carpet stores/installers to optimize cutting different carpet pieces to minimize waste.

It sounds simple and boring, but if you can save people a lot of money, they don't mind sharing it with you.

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

#406

Post by 0xbear »

Frondo wrote: post #321
Qwertious wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. I concur, and add that HN could really help OP by complaining about random stuff here. Just complain about the first thing that comes to mind that's been bugging you, OP will really appreciate it!

Here's mine: fix income inequality and the staggering inequality in the distribution of wealth worldwide. How is that a startup? I dunno, maybe there's a small part of that big problem that you can start tackling. Maybe it has to do with some facet of the economy you're improving/making more efficient, maybe it has to do with influencing policy. That's for you to figure out. Find a big, big problem, and then look for…

People who start companies are typically looking to increase “wealth inequality”.

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

#407

Post by 0xbear »

wmeredith wrote: post #332
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem as described is actually a team problem. You don't have a good team without a vision leader who is articulating the ideas and steering the company. Like a boat with no captain, labor and capital resources are important but ultimately useless without a captain who has a vague idea of the endpoint and a sense for the roadmap. Try to dig into your collective social networks and see if you know anyone…

Yep. You need the product guy.

Or gal

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

#409

Post by richard___ »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #170

My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. Look for the pain, and to do that talk to people. The challenge will be that most people accommodate the pain in order to get something done, but they don't like it. A recent pain point I came across was that 501.c(3) organizations are good at organizing but often poor at "the Internet". That suggested that if you talked to a half dozen…

Sounds good on paper, but a lot of people's pains are things that are Features, not products. So discern between those.

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

#410

Post by nradov »

gajomi wrote: post #60

I'm sure it must be out there already in some form, but you might want to give a shot at "uber for day laborers". It seems to me like there are opportunities on both the supply and demand side. On the supply side there its lots of room for improving gig hunting and payment assurance for laborers. Staffing agencies are of course in this space, but are pretty inefficient and catch only a small fraction of potential gig…

In the Bay Area the Day Worker Center of Mountain View does that to an extent. For people who aren't comfortable hiring day laborers out of the Home Depot parking lot it give some measure of quality and safety.

http://www.dayworkercentermv.org/

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