Take-out services / services for restaurants.
Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
41–50 of 220 posts
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#42Here are some of the other common one's I've heard: - A social-networking site that totally respects my privacy and lets me own my data! - An app store that lets anybody sell their digital stuff to anyone, not in some walled garden! - A drag and drop interface that lets you make any program you want...totally code-free! I could go on and on...
The drag-and-drop interface reminds me of 280 North's Atlas. (and Cappuccino to some extent) I guess it falls under pg's "could be pulled off if done right", since they were acquired by Motorola for $20M :)
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#43It's true that such ideas tend to be magnets for sloppy thinking, but I think most if not all of them could be pulled off if done right.
Out of curiosity, what do you dislike or think can be done better with Craigslist?
In other words, if you were going to build a Craigslist competitor what would you focus on doing differently?
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#44It's true that such ideas tend to be magnets for sloppy thinking, but I think most if not all of them could be pulled off if done right.
I totally agree. The premise is not that they can not work - rather, that many people have tried them, or thought of them, but they have not worked as of yet. Even more importantly for the article, the really do come up in every brainstorm I have ever had :) I think social news (Reddit, Twitter) and Cloud based file sharing (DropBox) are two ideas I would have put on my list before that have been addressed in some go…
Shouldn't the parenthetical note in your title be (That Haven't Worked Yet)?
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#45Social network. That tends to be a common one.
(yes, I spent a long time creating a social network, no it went nowhere special :))
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#46is anyone still trying to innovate in the online dating arena? i thought okcupid has had it pretty much locked for a while.
From what I can tell old dinosaurs like Match.com continue to dominate this field. OkCupid was the last site I heard of that people found unique in approach, but even that was mostly used for the fun tests and quizzes rather than dating.
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#47I don't see why 1 to 4 shouldn't work. How many failed dating sites are there? Also, many dating sites seem to simply be a matter of efficient advertising - even if you are a newcomer, if you can pour enough money into advertising, you are all set. Machine learning: I hope Directed Edge is doing well (YC startup). Social Travel: what are some good social travel sites? I don't know any.
>How many failed dating sites are there?
That's the problem, we don't know, do we?
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#48I was honestly expecting to see something about a bar revolving around gaming. I've heard it proposed by at least 4 seperate nerd friends.
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#49Does this mean I should stop working on www.craigsmatchsquaretravelocifund.com?
Re: Startup Ideas Every Nerd Has (That Never Work)
#50I hope I don't come across as negative here, but I hate lists like this. Peopel are always raining on each others' ideas "Oh, what, you're going to make a myspace clone? Bahahahaha." (facebook) "Oh, what, you're going to make a facebook clone? Bahahahaha." (twitter) "Oh, what, you're going to make another dating website? Bahahahaha." (Okcupid, plentyoffish) "Oh, what, you're going to make another social bookmarking w…
Life is very, very short. Given the choice between not building anything at all and building a "Craigslist killer" that no one will use, I absolutely agree - go for it!
Given the choice between building a cliche project and something a bit more off the beaten path - you may as well put a few extra days of thought into a project before you start, and come up with something unique (as long as you don't spend all your time thinking and none of your time doing).
The problem with the ideas listed is that they're obvious - both myself and my friends have talked about/wanted to approach almost every single one - but it's not obvious how to actually build a better mouse trap for each of them. It's useful to realize when you're trying to attack a generic problem (that has already been solved) with an equally generic strategy.