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Startup Ideas

blog.ycombinator.com

161–170 of 470 posts

Re: Startup Ideas

#161

"Accounts Receivables as a Service" Interesting one since I a) worked at a startup in this area long ago (they ran out of money..for reasons see below) and b) I now run a company and have found customers dislike for paying on time to be a significant irritation. However, unless this proposed "AR Service" has a way to get a horse's head into the bed of the late payer's CFO, how are they going to achieve anything? In m…

Yeah this is not a new idea. I worked for a company that did exactly this and couldn't find a single CFO who wanted to alienate all of his clients.

Re: Startup Ideas

#162
post #149

I will commit to doing the “Social Network for Children” if YC puts me in the next batch; this is not a random offer, I have thought about this before and have a solid idea of how to merge the parent’s role in oversight and the child’s right to privacy. If YC has a baseline to reach before considering an app for this topic, please let me know. Thanks!

I was a senior engineer at a startup that evolved into this space – basically, we started as a browser for kids and slowly started adding more "social" features. I thought I'd add a few notes in case you (or someone else) goes down this road: - Monetization is hard. As much as parents vocally _desire_ a safe space for their kids online, it doesn't translate to their wallet. If you end up going for more indirect reven…

Completely agree with all of your points, thanks for sharing!

Guess for starters, based on what little I know about browser-based startups is that they’re problematic.

Good example of a company that had success [1] in social networks for children would be the app: https://musical.ly/

Though they have some potientally very serious moderation & privacy issues in my opinion.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15669727

Re: Startup Ideas

#163
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a multi billion dollar idea where everyone in the world gives me a dollar for no reason. Want to invest?

No, cause: - The concept fails. People is not giving you money for no service. - Your answer lacks the creativity required for a person with good ideas.

whoosh

Re: Startup Ideas

#164
post #34

> Social Network for Children Counterpoint-- this should not be built. Kids already have a social network, it's called the playground at school. Having children engage with their friends outside of school time is a fine goal, but there are plenty of existing after-school activities that encourage this interaction. These activities also don't put the undue stress of having to decipher typed language, nuance, and other…

It's ironic: Most of you desperately want to unseat Facebook, and this is a strategy toward that end. What do you think will happen when those children grow into teens? If Facebook seems draconian, this would be an opportunity to build something better from first principles. It's a positive plan, not malicious. I'm not sure Facebook has the ability to pursue this even if they tried. They have too much political inert…

> for people to trust them with a kids-focused Facebook.

Most non-techie people I ask have no idea that Instagram and WhatsApp are Facebook properties. Even Messenger is being disassociated from the Facebook brand. I don't know if it's a deliberate strattegy to keep the bad reputation contained but I don't see a reason they couldn't attempt that if they were to ever build a kids network.

Re: Startup Ideas

#165
post #34

> Social Network for Children Counterpoint-- this should not be built. Kids already have a social network, it's called the playground at school. Having children engage with their friends outside of school time is a fine goal, but there are plenty of existing after-school activities that encourage this interaction. These activities also don't put the undue stress of having to decipher typed language, nuance, and other…

It's ironic: Most of you desperately want to unseat Facebook, and this is a strategy toward that end. What do you think will happen when those children grow into teens? If Facebook seems draconian, this would be an opportunity to build something better from first principles. It's a positive plan, not malicious. I'm not sure Facebook has the ability to pursue this even if they tried. They have too much political inert…

[deleted]

Re: Startup Ideas

#166
post #34

> Social Network for Children Counterpoint-- this should not be built. Kids already have a social network, it's called the playground at school. Having children engage with their friends outside of school time is a fine goal, but there are plenty of existing after-school activities that encourage this interaction. These activities also don't put the undue stress of having to decipher typed language, nuance, and other…

It's ironic: Most of you desperately want to unseat Facebook, and this is a strategy toward that end. What do you think will happen when those children grow into teens? If Facebook seems draconian, this would be an opportunity to build something better from first principles. It's a positive plan, not malicious. I'm not sure Facebook has the ability to pursue this even if they tried. They have too much political inert…

[deleted]

Re: Startup Ideas

#167

`Accounts Receivables as a Service` Does invoice factoring not exist in the US? It's a fairly run of the mill concept in the UK, and it's nothing like debt collection.

Invoice factoring is lending . . . this is the actual process of collection. Two different approaches, I think.

Re: Startup Ideas

#168
post #2

Hey HN! I'm a software developer at YC and the author of this post. This post is actually a bit of an experiment. We're trying to find better ways to get prospective startup founders (which includes many of us in the HN community) in contact with problems that really ought to be solved. We have lots of different ideas for ways to do that, but a list of ideas seemed like an easy one to try out first. Please let me kno…

Kyle,

I applaud the concept of sharing ideas for entrepreneurs to tackle.

However, this list of ideas is dangerously bad, with nearly all of them suffering from either monetization challenges or huge execution issues. Anyone that sets out to solve these as-is will end up wasting a great deal of time, effort, and resources.

It's generally bad form to approach a startup idea from the perspective of "wouldn't it be great if XYZ existed?" Startup ideas aren't simply about identifying a problem to be solved - they are about identifying problems with achievable solutions that will make money. That's a lot harder to identify.

Having founders or investors speculate about "what would be cool" in a problem domain that they don't have much experience in is inevitably going to result in ideas that underestimate transactional costs or the shape of the problem itself.

A better approach might be to create a product similar to HN (or extension thereof), where users can post problems identified and/or solutions proposed, and discuss the issues thoroughly, as well as vote up problem/solution pairs that seem like good ideas.

This communal discussion should, with a broad enough user base, quickly sieve the problem/solution pairs that are feasible from the ones that are not.

Re: Startup Ideas

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "use blockchain" people are missing it. This is for dealing with companies that handle purchases through the very traditional Quote -> Purchase Order -> Delivery -> Invoice -> Payment system.

EDIT: re-read the parent and I think I grok now. So why can't the "traditional" quote to cash be embodied on ethereum?

What does that get you?

Re: Startup Ideas

#170
post #81

> AI for communicating with dogs This is borderline satire. You don't need some crazy new idea to do a startup. You need to execute well on something people want, and if you're out looking for ideas, your best bet is probably to enter an existing market and cater to a subset of it better than others are doing.

Most animals are way more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand and pet tech would easily be a billion dollar market. EDIT: I would also be happy to do this startup if YC adds me to the next batch; already offered to do one for the “Social Network for Children”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15715865

> more expressive that the average person is able to easily understand

The average person can understand way more than you are giving credit.

And anyway, if the average person can't understand some communication, than it's something completely out the league of current AIs. It's the one thing we are good at.

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