Is anyone else offended by the non-dismissable email signup pop-over on this page? Ctrl/Cmd-R refresh allows continuing to read from the same point, but still....
“Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
91–100 of 224 posts
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, in the UK at least there are VC firms which invest solely in retail and food businesses. Usually they take an already existing restaurant with a single location and turn it into a chain. It is possible to create scalable value in the retail and restaurant businesses, mainly due to the power of brand recognition.
Creating a recognizable brand means answering the question about differentiation, though. People know how KFC is different from McDonalds is different from Pizza Hut is different from Chipotle. Hell, most of the time they even know how Burger King is different from McDonalds (white meat chicken tenders and more meat in the burgers), how In'N'Out is different from McD's (simple menu, Thousand Island dressing, onion ri…
> and how Chick'Fil'A is different from KFC (sandwiches over buckets; Chick'Fil'A sauce; lighter frying)
Assuming they've eaten at Chick'Fil'A in the past decade, of course. Most people I know boycott it because of its horrendous anti-LGBT politics. (To wit: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/uganda-murder-gay-chick-fi...)
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#93Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#94I 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
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#95Besides 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…
Your examples are all big companies, but the question is being asked about startups. That's a category error.
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe but here on the Internet there seems to be one search engine which rakes in most of the money, one social network where most people have accounts, one electronic toy maker which sits on top of a mountain on cash. Second prize is a set of steak knives.
Google, Facebook and Apple are all increasingly hated though, and can't figure out new ways to make money. The time may be coming where taking a shot at their profitable businesses becomes a possibility.
They're hated because they make a lot of money and you don't have a choice about using them. Companies in competitive markets that piss off their customers don't end up hated; rather, people just don't patronize them, and they go out of business. To be hated requires an inability to simply ignore your existence.
If you look at institutions in terms of their favorability ratings, it's basically an inverse list of the level of competition they face. At the top you usually have things like beloved local restaurants, day cares, variety stores, computer games, etc. where if they weren't extremely good, you'd just go somewhere else. At the bottom you have the U.S. Government, the one institution that nobody in the world can escape. Near the bottom are monopolies with heavy network effects like Facebook and Comcast.
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#97Besides 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…
One thing I've learned dealing with other businesses in my company is that businesses don't necessarily need to be good. Selling to the public I'm sure you need to good but it seems to matter far less when you sell to other businesses. Just be able to hit their price point. Their employees could complain for years about it before moving on
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#98This idea needs to be incorporated into https://thisstartupdoesnotexist.com/
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#99[deleted]
Re: “Is your startup idea taken?” and why we love X for Y startups
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe not an opportunity for consoles per se (see cheeto comment), but maybe an opportunity for renting games from your neighbors. Heck, I could see this being extended online in quite a unique way. Cheaper renting some movie or game from someone who already owns it...
Except that nobody owns games or movies anymore. I suspect that letting someone log on to my Steam account would potentially be grounds for a banning, and losing whatever investment I have in the platform.
I heard there's quite a market still: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA