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Startup Ideas

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Startup Ideas

#331

Post by vasilipupkin »

arkades wrote: post #330
vasilipupkin wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those data sets are not public, hipaa and other issues make it difficult to build any sort of AI for this.

That is technically correct, the best kind of correct! Except any department in any hospital or insurer that welcomes you to do research can make that de-identified data available to you with a simple contract. How do you think college freshmen get in the door to work on research with physicians? No, it’s not public, but it’s trivially accessible.

It's not trivially accessible. It's not impossible, but far from trivial. Startups like Tempus are doing it but I doubt it's trivial for just any startup to get that data

Re: Startup Ideas

#332

Post by eli »

vadimberman wrote: post #299
ahussain wrote: post #233

I honestly cannot tell if some of these ideas are real or just parodies of silicon valley, "avocado toast" tech culture: - AI for Communicating with Dogs - Baby Bidet - AR Debt Collector - Buyer’s Remorse Insurance Are these really the most pressing problems start-ups could be solving right now? What about issues like cost of housing in cities, urban transport, infrastructure in the developing world, fixing 'fake new…

> AR Debt Collector Have you ever tried to get an invoice paid by an a*hole customer? It's not exactly that. The post names it "Accounts Receivables as a Service". The idea is to make sure the invoice does not become a bad debt. The willingness to pay small vendors and contractors varies across countries, industries, and cultures. Often, it involves a ridiculous amount of haggling and bickering. For a small business,…

But... Is this not already a service offered by the financial industry for an extremely long time? What makes this a start-up?

Re: Startup Ideas

#333

Post by perpetualcrayon »

re: the "Modern Firefighting" idea. I wonder if anyone has ever analyzed the cost / benefit of preventative fire fighting. ie. deploying moisture to dry areas. You wouldn't need to dump buckets at a time. Instead more like a mist you get at those water parks in Orlando FL.

Something like this, but attached to a helicopter / airplane flying over dry areas:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpSMRVngiQI
In a lot of cases you probably could source the water from wells you would dig on an ad-hoc basis on those dry lands instead of from nearby water sources.

Re: Startup Ideas

#334

Post by Gargoyle »

ukulele wrote: 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.

This is something people want. With the right approach you could actually improve the happiness of hundreds of millions of people. The existing market is tremendously huge.

Re: Startup Ideas

#335

Post by SRasch »

ahussain wrote: post #233

I honestly cannot tell if some of these ideas are real or just parodies of silicon valley, "avocado toast" tech culture: - AI for Communicating with Dogs - Baby Bidet - AR Debt Collector - Buyer’s Remorse Insurance Are these really the most pressing problems start-ups could be solving right now? What about issues like cost of housing in cities, urban transport, infrastructure in the developing world, fixing 'fake new…

I am surprised that you honestly can't tell. I find this sincere. There are a few such things on the list, like modern firefighting and renewable energy from engineering microbes. So if we aren't cherry-picking, it's a varied list.

Moreover, it isn't always as easy to say what is the biggest idea. If we truly learned to communicate with animals, I can see that having the potential to radically decrease suffering in the world for example.

Instead of complaining some people's ideas aren't good enough enough, see it as a challenge to publish some of your own, you got some good problems there.

I actually loved this list and article, and what I like the most about it was the unpretentiousness of actually proposing real ideas, versus saying something that would sound admirable, but actually not really be an idea.

Re: Startup Ideas

#336

Post by Nition »

elechi wrote: post #77
indescions_2017 wrote: post #19

>>> The Baby Bidet Just wanted to say that I love this space. Smart products targeting ages 0-5. As well as smart business models to reduce waste. And promote recycling of baby products. One example: Owlet smart sock monitor https://owletcare.com/

Wouldn't a hand-held faucet inside a farmer's sink basically be the same thing?

There are bidet-like sprayers for spraying poop off of cloth nappies into the toilet[1]. There are also similar actual bidet attachments for toilets for adults[2]. I was thinking you could almost do the same thing as those and just make it smaller and low pressure.

[1] e.g. https://www.amazon.com/SmarterFresh-Diaper-Sprayer-Premium-S...

[2] e.g. https://www.amazon.com/RinseWorks-Certified-Warranty-Pressur...

Re: Startup Ideas

#337

Post by gerdesj »

arkades wrote: post #326
outworlder wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s a rule in medicine: don’t order a test whose outcome doesn’t change your decision. That’s not about cost-savings, it’s about avoiding false positives that make no sense in clinical context but raise flags that must be chased down. There is also a rule in (system) operations: don't page unless immediate action (from humans) is required. This doesn't stop us from collecting data. If there is an anomaly, then…

There’s a legal context here. Once the data is available, physicians are obligated to chasenit down even if they think it’s unimportsnt. Ignoring data loses malpractice suits; unnecessary and ultimately harmful diagnostics prompted by data does not.

Not all medicine is practised within the legal framework that you labour under. If you are a doctor then you should be able to publish your real opinions here, within reason (prefaced with a short disclaimer if you deem it necessary, I would, along the lines of "I'm a MD, practising in and this my personal opinion") and I, for one, would love to hear them.

Re: Startup Ideas

#338

Post by arkades »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #331
arkades wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is technically correct, the best kind of correct! Except any department in any hospital or insurer that welcomes you to do research can make that de-identified data available to you with a simple contract. How do you think college freshmen get in the door to work on research with physicians? No, it’s not public, but it’s trivially accessible.

It's not trivially accessible. It's not impossible, but far from trivial. Startups like Tempus are doing it but I doubt it's trivial for just any startup to get that data

If I hadn’t worked in precisely that field and seen how easily we gave out data sharing agreements to partners, ...

But I did. No, I use the word “trivial” knowingly.

Re: Startup Ideas

#339

Post by panamaniac »

eli wrote: post #332
vadimberman wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AR Debt Collector Have you ever tried to get an invoice paid by an a*hole customer? It's not exactly that. The post names it "Accounts Receivables as a Service". The idea is to make sure the invoice does not become a bad debt. The willingness to pay small vendors and contractors varies across countries, industries, and cultures. Often, it involves a ridiculous amount of haggling and bickering. For a small business,…

But... Is this not already a service offered by the financial industry for an extremely long time? What makes this a start-up?

You're probably referring to factoring, you're right... age-old product. The opportunity here is to bring sales & customer success automation to the unsexy accounting world.

Re: Startup Ideas

#340

Post by panamaniac »

dboreham wrote: post #318
vadimberman wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AR Debt Collector Have you ever tried to get an invoice paid by an a*hole customer? It's not exactly that. The post names it "Accounts Receivables as a Service". The idea is to make sure the invoice does not become a bad debt. The willingness to pay small vendors and contractors varies across countries, industries, and cultures. Often, it involves a ridiculous amount of haggling and bickering. For a small business,…

I suspect the parent thought "AR" was Augmented Reality whereas it actually means "Accounts Receivables". I am wondering however about using AR to simulate the discovery of that horse's head in the bed...might work quite well to get quick payment.

and add to it simulated knee breaking... might have a product idea here.
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