Startup Ideas

A social network for kids has such high risk and such a low reward. For one, children need to be interacting in person and having real friendships in the real world.

By the time it makes sense for kids to be using social networks at all they may as well be using the real thing. Once it makes sense for them to use social networks they definitely aren't going to use the one Mom or Dad can peer into (and everyone else's mom or dad in the group).

If you are worried about the implications of social networks for your child then don't let them use them at all, because it is next to impossible to create a safe space online. Being safe online is more of a learned skill, than an environment you can create, and by the time you should be let to wander the web at all you should probably be old enough to be taught those skills anyway.

On the topic of "Social Network for Children":

I worked for a while on something like this, although it was more of "Linkedin for Children". It's stempremier.com. Our big idea was that there are tons of kids being recruited (sometimes for somewhat early ages) for college and professional sports. However, there aren't a huge number of kids being recruited who aren't talented athletes. An example is a kid who doesn't necessarily have stellar grades, but loves the outdoor and possibly has an interest in electronics. These students are very sought after by telecom companies as linemen, but it is exceptionally difficult to make the connection.

One of the big obstacles we ran into was how to monetize. While I was there, our approach was to have schools pay for per user licenses for students. It was a hard sell.

I think there is potential if an app like this aims to help kids pursue a quality education and find what they are passionate about. I however, am skeptical about a kind of facebook just for kids that would likely seek to exploit the kids to sell their data to advertisers and would be at best a detractor from a child's education.

TechShop was addressing that issue about needing to learn how to use a tool that you don't own. Then you would use it on-premise, which seems like a better idea than borrowing it to use at home (for those projects that are portable anyway). Great concept, but turns out there wasn't a real business model there since they recently shut down.

Yes, just like there were taxis before Uber.

The existing options are horrible. They charge a lot, spend an effort of maybe 5 minutes per customer, and will not handle complicated cases. The debt collection is even worse.

As far as what a more resourceful and powerful startup can do: they can consolidate a database of uncooperative customers or maybe even the debts of different vendors which would make legal action more viable, handle cross-border issues, provide payment ratings (different from credit rating - pretty sure many AAA companies would think twice before delaying payments!), and generally will be taken more seriously than a small business.

Just a handful of ideas.

Design on Demand has been attempted. West Elm will match a Pinterest board to products. Something more general purpose should be very achievable.

https://pinterest-style-finder.westelm.com