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“Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

andrewchen.co

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Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#31

Post by jandrese »

alex-wallish wrote: post #2

"Airbnb for Gamers" according to the infographic isn't taken. Any potential there? Letting people rent out their physical gaming rigs to other people in the area, in their homes. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to set up. I could see it be kind of like gaming cafe's in Asia, except you'd be renting a rig in somebody's actual home. I don't know if there'd be any market for this, but it seems like it wouldn't take to mu…

Blockbuster use to rent consoles. But in general the market for that sort of service is capped by the relatively low cost of said consoles. Plus you have the problem of everything being tied to an account these days.

Maybe on the PC side you could have a guy loaning out his rig with his monster Steam library and VR setup. On a small scale this might be a modest success, but it's hard to see it ever becoming the next Uber/AirBNB.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#32

Post by dheera »

tootie wrote: post #27
dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

How Lyft differentiates from Uber might be more on the nose.

As far as winning the market goes, actual product differentiation doesn't matter that much. In their particular market it almost all boils down to how much the rides cost. I usually just open both apps and pick the cheaper one.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#33

Post by ghaff »

tootie wrote: post #27
dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

How Lyft differentiates from Uber might be more on the nose.

And I’m honestly not sure what the answer is other than not carrying with it quite the same amount of negative baggage that Uber does. They were differentiated but it turns out most people don’t want to fist bump their taxi driver.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#34

Post by ghaff »

rolltiide wrote: post #26
dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

I just tell people that my neighborhood also has multiple grocery stores

But I’m guessing you probably tend to favor one for your regular shopping because it has characteristics you like better than the others.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#35

Post by dheera »

a13n wrote: post #29
dheera wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chevron, Shell, UPS, and FedEx are all billion dollar companies. They succeeded not because of differentiating product, but because the market is so big that it's hard for a single company to dominate it.

All of these companies were started between 50 and 150 years ago, when there was much less competition. These days you need a better story for how you're going to win a market and keep it.

While that's true that there were fewer people starting businesses, there were also proportionally fewer consumers in the world. I'm not sure things were any easier 50-150 years ago in that respect.

IMO only VCs want a bullsh!t "story". The rest of the world just wants X for $C and doesn't have access to it yet because the competitors aren't big enough. Brand loyalty, network effects, and cost of switching applies to some certain markets, but also doesn't apply to a lot of markets.

Nobody reads the story behind the founding of Taco Bell or Del Taco. They just get hungry, see the sign, and eat. Billion dollar business right there.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#36

Post by QuinnWilton »

airstrike wrote: post #16
QuinnWilton wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that, at least in places with decent internet, something like ShadowPC negates the need for such a service. I rent a top of the line gaming PC for ~$25/month, and run my games in the cloud. With what I used to spend keeping a gaming rig upgraded, it doesn't even make sense not to rent something that's always going to be state of the art.

Can't really play FPS or RTS on the cloud, though EDIT: I'll be damned, according to reddit you can even do CSGO on one of these beasts. I guess that solves what I'm buying myself for Christmas

You'd be surprised. I even connect from an Oculus Quest and stream VR over wifi without noticeable lag.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#37

Post by froindt »

WaxProlix wrote: post #5
alex-wallish wrote: post #2

"Airbnb for Gamers" according to the infographic isn't taken. Any potential there? Letting people rent out their physical gaming rigs to other people in the area, in their homes. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to set up. I could see it be kind of like gaming cafe's in Asia, except you'd be renting a rig in somebody's actual home. I don't know if there'd be any market for this, but it seems like it wouldn't take to mu…

Nobody wants their hands to touch someone else's booger and cheeto dust coated peripherals, or vice-versa. There have been some times recently where I'd have paid money (but not much) to test drive computer hardware before buying it, but to some extent you can do that by purchasing from places with a liberal return policy. Speaking of test drive, I'm in the market for a car and would love to be able to actually test…

Google Voice number for car dealerships.

Turo to try cars out for a few days. The owner would probably be happy to tell you what they do or don't like as well - and perhaps sell it to you if they were looking for something else.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#38

Post by dominostars »

tootie wrote: post #27
dheera wrote: post #3

Besides the "X for Y" approach, I find it laughable that every time someone says they are doing just "X" that the usual Bay Area response is "How are you differentiating from your competitors?" Go ask how UPS differentiates themselves from FedEx. Or how Shell differentiates themselves from Chevron. In reality, while product differentiation is good, unless there already exists a monopoly that has eaten every inch of t…

How Lyft differentiates from Uber might be more on the nose.

Lyft was “Uber but in a normal persons car and much cheaper” until Uber created their cheap option

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#39

Post by sp332 »

jonfw wrote: post #4

I searched a startup name in a seperate tab, came back and had an inescapable subscribe screen. If your going to attempt to hold the rest of the article hostage pending a subscription to your newsletter, at least let me get interested first. This is both hostile and ineffective- and unsurprisingly is the most amusing part of the website

Firefox is working on a JS popup blocker. They're collecting data now, use https://github.com/ehsan/popup-reporter to report sites.

Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups

#40

Post by SkyPuncher »

ghaff wrote: post #34
rolltiide wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tell people that my neighborhood also has multiple grocery stores

But I’m guessing you probably tend to favor one for your regular shopping because it has characteristics you like better than the others.

This is exactly the point.

I tend to avoid Kroger brands because I do not like that most of their sale prices are dictated by having a Kroger Card. I'm not particularly price conscientious and find Kroger has a great selection and quality. I simply choose elsewhere when I can.

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