Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#41

Post by brucephillips » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 12:51 AM UTC

vemv wrote: post #40

brucephillips wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are no blatant problems awaiting for a solution anymore (it's 2018!). This is unlikely to be true. It's at least as untrue as it was in any previous year. Good ideas are only blatantly obvious in hindsight.

I disagree. Airbnb, Uber, Amazon and many others are extremely basic ideas that some person or another would have come up with sooner or later. Basically it was a matter of being in the right place, right time, right knowledge (and execution, of course) Winners took it all.

basic != blatantly obvious. An idea can be easy to see, but difficult to value.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#42

Post by techcode » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 12:56 AM UTC

I was something like 10 when I had my first business idea - "I'll do library/rentals for comic-books \o/"!!!

My room window was just above neon sign for video/movies rental shop (VHS stuff - where I'm from it was called "Video Klub"). And naturally I used paper, scissors & glue to make my own sign to hang from my window as of course I wanted to "tap into" people looking at VHS-shop neon sign...

And let me tell you - business was doing awesome ... Until one day an older neighbor (like a grandpa) asked my parents what's up with sign hanging from one of our windows saying "Strip Klub"?!? (context: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip)

And in the ~25 years since then - I've had plenty of those "not the brightest idea". However over time, most of them these days are good, though almost all are either a bit too late or too early, so I didn't quite yet come up with million bucks idea...

I still keep trying - and it's the combination of knowing two things:

1) The only reason everyone can walk (that is able to physically) is because they kept trying until they did it!

2) On your death bed - only things you'll regret, are the things you wish you tried but didn't ...

Keep trying!

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#43

Post by icebraining » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 1:00 AM UTC

brucephillips wrote: post #35

f_allwein wrote: post #32

One thing I would find really useful is a web tool that can scrape/ filter/ list events. E.g. in most cities, it is impossible to get a simple listing of all screenings of films in cinemas, let alone filter them by location/time/... or mash them up with tools tracking your own taste. Same for concerts, theatre, art exhibitions, ...

The hard thing about this is fragmentation. Building a web scraper for events means extracting information from a wide variety of non-standard websites. Even Eventbrite aggregates events manually, I think.

Yeah. I want to get a daily email with the day's screenings from a single place (my local cinema museum) and I ended up having to extract data from their monthly PDFs.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#44

Post by nikcub » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 1:10 AM UTC

Go and do some contracting work at a small business or startup - even if its short term. You'll bump into all sorts of pain points that should be addressed by someone taking the time to develop and market a good product.

It's no coincidence that there have been many successful products that have started as internal tools written to solve internal problems.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#45

Post by Buttons840 » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 1:10 AM UTC

zitterbewegung wrote: post #11

Copy a startup that got acquired last year. Try using https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ Or searching HN.

Companies that went under are a source of good ideas too. Many of them failed because they accepted too much funding and thus lost the option of being a modest success, but for a small team of one or two people, you can possibly make the idea work and be profitable.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#46

Post by peterburkimsher » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 1:13 AM UTC

If you have an idea, try putting it on Halfbakery.

The ideas I've had that I don't feel like pursuing are on my profile: Age of Empires Theme Park, Removing wires, fences with two cameras, Translated Search, Vibrating Wristbands for GPS, Web TV Channel. If you need ideas, read around there to get some inspiration.

http://www.halfbakery.com/user/peterburk

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#47

Post by DrNuke » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 1:15 AM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #15

Is there any industry or history where you can draw from personal experience? What inefficiencies have you noticed? What problems have you noticed from the consumer end of your relationships with businesses? Could you make something obsolete with automation, or make something else more efficient and profitable? You don't need to be the first one to come up with an idea for a startup. Most startups fail, even if they…

>- Crypto currency: This is becoming more and more mainstream.

I second this for 2018 but the quicker you ship your project the better: becoming mainstream means the sector going to cap saturation / projects flooding / big boys regulation pretty soon.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#48

Post by gooro » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 2:32 AM UTC

Semoga tahun ini tahun yang baik.

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#49

Post by zitterbewegung » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 3:42 AM UTC

Buttons840 wrote: post #45

zitterbewegung wrote: post #11

Copy a startup that got acquired last year. Try using https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ Or searching HN.

Companies that went under are a source of good ideas too. Many of them failed because they accepted too much funding and thus lost the option of being a modest success, but for a small team of one or two people, you can possibly make the idea work and be profitable.

Why waste your time on failures when you have successes that already have customers waiting for you to get your money .

Re: Ask HN: It’s 2018, what to build now?

#50

Post by thisisit » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 3:59 AM UTC

You know people say - never be afraid of discussing your ideas? I believe one of the reasons for that is everyone's vision is different. So, even if I gave you an idea, I might see things differently than you do.

That said, here's my advice on finding a good idea - sell shovels during a gold rush. Now what it means find places where you can provide value by connecting two different parts of society.

One of the ways you do this is by building a robust "Customer Acquisition Strategy" for X business.

People had spare bed/couch at home but no way to find customers. Answer - Airbnb. The platform is so robust now that even full time B&B are using it for their customer acquisition.

People wanted to earn some money using their cars, especially in cities. But they had no way to connect with people wanting a ride. Answer - Uber.

Restaurants were spending tons on advertising but not getting steady stream of customers. If they wanted to provide "home delivery" it was an additional burden of maintaining a delivery fleet. Answer - Uber Eats, Grubhub, Postmates etc. Even review sites like Yelp etc are part of customer acquisition strategy as not only helps in great advertising when people see 4-4.5/5 rating but also assuage concerns on food quality.

So find a niche where people still have this pain and you might have a unicorn on your hands.