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Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#71
A personalized learning program.

I really think education is a very inefficient process currently. Not that it doesn't allow growth of other traits which it doesn't value but also the virtues which it does see fit remain undeveloped.

For starters, I will begin with a program like 'Computer science/ concepts for developers' which will go far further than Networking, OS, DB...

The most important part of it would be that it will specifically crafted for the individual- it will start with the level of expertise the learner is at and incrementally go up.

Secondly, it will be focusing on virtues which imo makes learning efficient and enjoyable- like pressure free learning but getting sense of accomplishment by doing stuff. The best reason one would be learning for would be for themselves.

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#72

In the US, I will start a company that would partner with Doctors/Clinics/Hospitals where they would agree to transparent pricing for simple and routine services (like wellness checkup, simple procedure etc.). In return, the consumers will purchase a service from us (sort of insurance but I hate that word) for a much lower premium/fee per year (say something like 500 a year) where they pay the routine services out of…

How about instead a software system to manage all billing for a hospital owned/ran insurance scheme.

People signup for their favorite hospital. The hospital gets MRR. You set your primary care physician and other providers. They get MRR too per patient who's picked them.

Patient pays 4-6% of their monthly income for insurance.

When patient travels, their local hospital foots the bills. Hopefully this goes national and it lowers costs -- hospitals would negotiate with each other for lower costs instead of insurance companies. They would also have a centralized uniform billing (the biz) that joins everything together and is the glue. As a result each hospital no longer needs medical billers.

Hospitals could join forces to also negotiate in bulk the price of prescription drugs and keep those costs down as well. Since it's income based everyone could afford it, so it's basically privatized universal healthcare.

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#74
A not-for-profit company that builds an AI based identification and reputation (drivers license meets credit score meets ebay ratings) system on the block chain (perhaps using voice + location + image to imprint a person as being who they say they are.

Then use this identification system to create a crypto-currency that has guaranteed basic income built in, and the person would need to re-verify every 6 months to keep their account.

The not-for-profit company would also start it's own businesses that provide products/services to consumers and use only local fiat + the ubi-coin for payment with maybe benefits for using crypto over fiat (to increase adoption).

Execs for all businesses would be capped at 125x average worker salary. All left over money at end of fiscal year would be divided up evenly and 30% would go to workers as a bonus, 70% would be dispersed to ubi coin holders evenly. Businesses the co-op could start could be grocers, mail-order pharmacy, insurance companies, cell phone providers, the goal being --be self-sufficient but not make a profit except enough to pay all workers, and reward the community as a whole and also make services people use everyday cheaper and more affordable.

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#75

Collaboration/Project software designed with distributed teams in mind first.

We find ourselves gravitating more and more toward https://realtimeboard.com/ for distributed planning and brainstorming. It's replaced whiteboards for some in-person planning meetings as well. In almost every case where I've said "I wonder if...", it's worked exactly how I wanted. ("I wonder if I can resize a group of sticky notes," "I wonder if I can add a comment and indicate reinforcement/critique," "I wonder if there's a timer plugin," etc.)

It can get a little slow for larger boards – we did multiple weeks of branding iteration in a single board with hundreds of images and sticky notes – but overall I'd highly recommend it.

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#76

Collaboration/Project software designed with distributed teams in mind first.

I'm actually exploring this idea right now. It's been an issue I've been facing in my day job and think it is only going to become more pervasive as more teams start to work remotely. If anyone is currently experiencing this issue, I would absolutely love to talk to you! I only have a really rudimentary site up right now at http://hallwayapp.com if anyone is even remotely curious (no pun intended).

I've been working remote for 2 years now, and your articles and experiences are definitely accurate. Subscribed!

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#78

Teacher collaboration tool to open source lesson plans. Create a platform like facebook or github for teachers to collaborate on planning an entire unit. At the moment each teacher does it alone or maybe a department may get together and create some content. But there are thousands of schools tens of thousands of teachers, all of them building lessons and delivering them. Build in testing. assignments. progress. etc.

I've actually thought that something like this could be a fairly useful product. May I ask what your inspiration for such an idea was? Perhaps personal or anecdotal experience? Genuinely curious.

I am a cover teacher, I travel to schools when teachers are sick.

Re: Ask HN: What business would you start in 2018?

#79

Teacher collaboration tool to open source lesson plans. Create a platform like facebook or github for teachers to collaborate on planning an entire unit. At the moment each teacher does it alone or maybe a department may get together and create some content. But there are thousands of schools tens of thousands of teachers, all of them building lessons and delivering them. Build in testing. assignments. progress. etc.

I'm curious to know if you are the US. The scenario you describe was very much that of the past here, but since "No child left behind" and "Core Curriculum," the lessons and content has become homogenous. Leaving out my opinion of this, just noting that was the goal from Congress, and my own observations across my three kids and within my pool of parent friends in other states indicates the same.
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