Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Startups I Want to Fund

startupandrew.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 167 posts

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#41

Post by amdelamar »

amdelamar wrote: post #40
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?

Once saw someone build a CLI tool and distribute on npmjs. Their install went something like `npm install -g mycli`. So in a way, they already are cross-platform.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#42

Post by roadbeats »

Waste management is a huge issue in the developing world. During my world trip, I observed that even a remote fisherman island in the middle of nowhere has a lot of plastic thrash dumped into the nature. It might be hard to believe for you, but here are some observations I had:

* Most people don't even know difference between plastic and compost thrash.

* Most governments in developing world are dysfunctional. They can't organize for collecting thrash.

I wonder; would it be possible to enable waste management entrepreneurs all around the world with an app? Could people get paid for cleaning up thrash ?

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#43

Post by Sophistifunk »

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…

There's a great list of products that should exist, but they're expensive and time consuming to do well, and nobody but JetBrains knows how to get people to pay for them.

Even Microsoft is giving away most of their dev tools these days.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#44

Post by jaxn »

This strikes me as an incredibly boring and typical list. And the core of why is summed up nicely by the author himself, "My favorite pitches solve a problem I'm already concerned about."

We have already solved most of the rich-white-guy problems.

I am sure he is well-intentioned and strives to understand as much of the world as possible, but if you want to invest in capital-intensive, asset-rich startups with problems you already understand, you should probably just buy real estate.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#45

Post by mkobit »

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.

I think of this article (https://medium.com/@sdboyer/so-you-want-to-write-a-package-m...) when it comes to package management.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#46

Post by mayop100 »

yazr wrote: post #24
mayop100 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(author here) Angel investors almost never provide the bulk of the capital for a startup. We provide initial money, advise, and introductions to help raise more. So, yes, I expect the bulk of the "heavy capital" to come from institutional investors in later rounds. Also note that I invest in follow-on rounds, so my total investment in a startup might get much larger than $250k.

Could you comment on what increases seed funding chances when pitching a "big hairy goal" ? Team? Progress so far? Clear road map? PoC & tech feasibility?

All of the above. Prove your team is credible and your idea is solid and the only thing holding you back is the money. Even if you don't have the capital to build the full-scale thing, you can still make a lot of progress on the cheap: conduct research, model your business, test components, do user testing, get LOIs from customers, line up your first few hires, and so on.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#47

Post by kjksf »

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.

Hydrogen is not economical for most use cases.

For example if you have solar/wind energy, you can transfer it very efficiently over existing power grid to provide energy for heating or lights. Transmission losses in power lines are 8-15% so the efficiency is 85%+ (https://blog.schneider-electric.com/energy-management-energy...)

If you do the same via hydrogen, you have to convert solar energy into hydrogen. That conversion is only 16% efficient i.e. you loose 84% of solar energy (https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2017/1117-nrel-establishes-w...).

Then you have to transport the hydrogen from where it's made to where it's used. That's additional expense and efficiency loss.

Then you have to convert hydrogen back into energy. Additional loss of efficiency.

It just doesn't make sense economically (https://phys.org/news/2006-12-hydrogen-economy-doesnt.html).

Hydrogen is not an electricity source. It doesn't compete with solar or wind.

It's electricity storage. It competes with batteries and it's not winning there either because of much greater efficiency losses and the fact that you would have to build (expensive) infrastructure (think network of gas stations, except for hydrogen).

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#48

Post by madrox »

jaxn wrote: post #44

This strikes me as an incredibly boring and typical list. And the core of why is summed up nicely by the author himself, "My favorite pitches solve a problem I'm already concerned about." We have already solved most of the rich-white-guy problems. I am sure he is well-intentioned and strives to understand as much of the world as possible, but if you want to invest in capital-intensive, asset-rich startups with proble…

This is a pretty sick burn, and you may be being generous.

Nothing in this list is a new idea. People have been trying and failing at open app stores for years. Same with touch OS. If "What does the internet-native version of the WSJ or The Economist look like?" constitutes a sleeper market, he may need to get out more.

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#49

Post by mikeyouse »

eldavido wrote: post #37
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 perc…

Reminds me of this story about a better construction crane that was killed by the existing industry:

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160515/REAL_ESTATE/1...

Re: Startups I Want to Fund

#50

Post by sigstoat »

Jun8 wrote: post #9

Some ideas: 1. Social Silo-busters: Couple the evils of the garden walled social network approach with posts on how hard is it to make friends later in life, add a pinch of all that useless time spent in the car commuting (scraping the bottom of Spotify or Audible) and you arrive at: ad hoc voice-based social networks based on proximity, e.g. through limited range (100m) FM transmitters (one cheap way would be to use…

> Examples: The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder?

those things are dropped, lost, chewed on by children for 8 hours a day, etc. they've got to be as cheap as possible. also who'd stare at the shitty little screen that's nothing but ads, when they could stare at ads on their expensive slightly larger screen that they carry around all day?

if you want really a menu, the host will be thrilled to hand you one. there's a box of them under their station.

> At a restaurant, why can't I see the most ordered 5 items and have to go through pages of menu?

because then they'll have fewer opportunities to upsell you on more expensive dishes, and alcohol.

> Similar idea for supermarkets: why not have a giant screen at the entrance showing most bought products, interesting product pairings and other data that may be useful?

who cares what's most bought at the grocery store? knowing that my store sells ramen by a truckload doesn't get me buying anything the store wants to actually sell.

Post reply on HN