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Startups I Want to Fund

startupandrew.com

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Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#31

Post by lifeisstillgood »

zackmorris wrote: post #20

I just want to second Andrew's list. I'm a developer with probably 1/100 as much money as he has, but this is the first list I've seen in a long time that mentions specific low-hanging fruit that has the potential to actually improve lives (vs the mostly vacuous or profit-oriented areas I've seen in other lists). I look at problems in the world as a series of solutions built from first principles. So if you want a di…

Start with the routers. Build a better home router. Sort of like Ubiquiti kind of is doing. Build one that does

- local caching and P2P sharing of media / photos etc

this gives ISPs a genuine incentive to use it - if routers can build a mesh network (or at least not push back to ISP core) for 20/30 % traffic will that be savings?

- Router acts as first responder to bot nets / malware from within the house

Another good isp feature but great for the rest of us. IOT devices are only going to get worse and more vulnerable- but an intelligent router would be able to stop it sending ACK packets at cloudflare or whatever at source. And let you know that your fridge has been hacked and what to do about it.

- Actually get updated with new firmware ... ever

I think the household router / household hub is an important leverage that is under looked a lot.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#32

Post by julsonl »

atomical wrote: post #18
Jun8 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but scope could be larger: If you like chatting with someone you can add them to your contacts. Another take on this would be voice-based reddit, e.g. voice chat rooms organized around topics, similar to subreddits. Everybody takes turns to talk with voice activated microphone on their phone while commuting.

I don't believe one can build lasting relationships like that. A lot of communication is non-verbal.

True. A lot of my closest friendships came about from me just being in their repeated general proximity for a long-enough period of time.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#33

Post by cjbenedikt »

exabrial wrote: post #26
exabrial wrote: post #23

Startups I'd want to fund if I had the $: * Flow batteries * Hydrogen research (production, distribution, home & automotive fuel cells) * Stronger permanent magnets * Cost effective superconductors (rather than room temperature semi-conductors)

I think hydrogen should get a huge push because it completes a zero impact ecosystem. If the hydrogen is powered from solar/wind, then fuel cells process that into heat for homes, electricity for lights, and purified water for drinking.

Working on it already - from seawater & renewables

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#34

Post by lifeisstillgood »

radicalbyte wrote: post #22

AI is already being used in waste management; specifically image recognition to help sort plastics. This is similar to techniques used in fruit/veg production to grade/bucket produce.

One of the biggest problems in waste management (from dimly remembered podcast) is that the contracts handed out are on hugely long timescales. A Norwegian company has great sorting capabilities - just have organic and non-organic sorted at house holder and they can take recycle anything.

It's great, eco friendly and cheap. But local governments are locked into 10-15 year contracts to take day cardboard and only cardboard to a specific factory, which factory has no incentive to upgrade facilities as they do fine

So waste management change is likely to be slow

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#35

Post by Fomite »

atomical wrote: post #4

It's hard to get excited about these potential startups. Most of these ideas are not going to make my life any better in a major way and yet the author claims he's excited by "big, scary problems."

I was interested when he mentioned infectious diseases (I'm an infectious disease epidemiologist, there there are lots of stories I can tell about what I find interesting, but I was curious from a funder's perspective), but the list was...somewhat less light-the-world-on-fire.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#36

Post by palakchokshi »

jarsin wrote: post #5

> An open app runtime - Proprietary app stores are winning too – and in the process, they are distorting markets and censoring apps. > Could a browser be built that provides an actually better app experience and performance than native apps? And how exactly do you get that browser past apples review process?

Not technically a new browser but check out Get@ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/get/id960699421?mt=8

It is a curated web experience.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#37

Post by eldavido »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #34
radicalbyte wrote: post #22

AI is already being used in waste management; specifically image recognition to help sort plastics. This is similar to techniques used in fruit/veg production to grade/bucket produce.

One of the biggest problems in waste management (from dimly remembered podcast) is that the contracts handed out are on hugely long timescales. A Norwegian company has great sorting capabilities - just have organic and non-organic sorted at house holder and they can take recycle anything. It's great, eco friendly and cheap. But local governments are locked into 10-15 year contracts to take day cardboard and only card…

Yeah, anyone trying to disrupt waste pickup, construction, concrete, pretty much any local services had better be ready to fight well-entrenched incumbents.

Not that it can't be done but it's important to acknowledge local governments have many competing objectives beyond "providing the best service possible at the lowest cost", including promotion of diversity, creation of jobs, supporting local businesses, the perception of fairness, etc.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#38

Post by gwbas1c »

> An open app runtime

The .Net / Mono / Xamarain toolchain try to do this.

WebAssembly also tries to do this, but it's so premature it's almost impossible to do anything with it.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#39

Post by eldavido »

carapace wrote: post #30

I haven't been able to find a lot of information on him, does anyone have any good links to background info? This is going to sound both arch and snarky, and I apologize in advance for that, but I have a point to make and I think it's topical. I'll stay civil. Has he purchased a beachfront property and then denied his neighbors their accustomed access? Has he used any of my childhood heroes as a legal blind to secret…

I lived with Andrew in a shared apartment for several years. He is one of the kindest people I've ever known, as well as a little quirky in an old-school Silicon Valley sort of way. He grew up in Minnesota, is really into gymnastics, and is one of the hardest-working people I've known.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#40

Post by amdelamar »

desireco42 wrote: post #2

Ha. Package manager, I was thinking how we should have a single package manager that would just do it's think no matter the language, and you can just plug in new languages and it would know how to handle them (resolve dependecies etc). I think it would be worthwhile project.

If its a cross-platform CLI it would be fantastic. Combine brew, chocolatey, yum, apt-get, snap, docker, git... you name it. Surely there is someone on this already?
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