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

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

andrewchen.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 224 posts

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

#151

Post by neeleshs »

autoexec wrote: post #133
PowerfulWizard wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the marketing differentiation works best when it is driven by factors that are hard to measure and control, but that are perceived as high value, like flavour and style. When buying bottled water, the water is free, you're buying the bottle, the refrigeration, then real-estate & inventory space, and you can compare it on those dimensions, but if you are sensitive to the taste that can override the other facto…

> but if you are sensitive to the taste that can override the other factors. I can taste the difference between certain bottled water brands and that really is the number one concern for me. The differences are much less apparent to me with spring water than in the filtered tap water brands like Dasani and Aquafina (who often add salt and other minerals). For spring water brands I try to buy ones that aren't owned by…

Re:Nestlé : Is that because of the "Rotten" episode on bottled water on Netflix?

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

#152

Post by rhizome »

greggman2 wrote: post #115
nostrademons wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Tinder for parents is a terrible idea. (Full disclosure: my wife's a Peanut member. She's been meaning to uninstall it for a while.) Think about the key observations that made Tinder take over the dating space: people are basically superficial and judge who to go out with based on looks alone; people have spare time to flip through photos; people want to be casual and not invest too much in a date before getting t…

me being stupid but I actually thought flickr for video would fail because video takes more work than photos to create and because it takes more time to view them. clearly I was wrong

The part that gets me with video is the upload time. Do people just have faster connections than me, or is the secret to create a phone app that restricts the files to greatly reduced resolutions? Seems like flickr for video would require greater bandwidth or time requirements, but I might simply be clueless.

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

#153

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

Kenonaut wrote: post #144
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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... )

Most people I know frequent it for that exact same reason! :P

I'm sorry

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

#154

Post by autoexec »

neeleshs wrote: post #151
autoexec wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if you are sensitive to the taste that can override the other factors. I can taste the difference between certain bottled water brands and that really is the number one concern for me. The differences are much less apparent to me with spring water than in the filtered tap water brands like Dasani and Aquafina (who often add salt and other minerals). For spring water brands I try to buy ones that aren't owned by…

Re:Nestlé : Is that because of the "Rotten" episode on bottled water on Netflix?

No, although I might have seen it. Nestlé has a long history of problems from the questionable exploitation of water resources, profiting from child/slave labor, unethically promoting infant formula over breast milk in developing countries, anti-union/labor practices, pushing for the privatization of public water access ("access to water should not be a public right."), promoting deforestation and the destruction of protected land, greenwashing the impact of plastic bottles, and that's not even all of the ethically questionable things they've done. Just as I was looking up the exact quote of from their chairman and then CEO I'm learning for the first time of complaints about their use of (and lies concerning) palm oil and their demand of £3.7m from Ethiopia while they were in the midst of a famine.

They clearly put their own profits over the lives and safety of people. I'm not taking to the streets in protest or starting facebook groups or anything, but where I can get a comparable alternative to their products I'll go out of my way to spend my money there so that I'm not supporting them.

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

#155

Post by LoSboccacc »

the list is questionable. I was very hopeful to see if there was a tinder for gamers (say, to find people to play coop games) but there's some sort of tinder inspired incremental game in that spot, so I wonder how much is it really curated and how much is a proxy to a Google 'feeling lucky' search

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

#156

Post by blackflame »

autoexec wrote: post #154
neeleshs wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re:Nestlé : Is that because of the "Rotten" episode on bottled water on Netflix?

No, although I might have seen it. Nestlé has a long history of problems from the questionable exploitation of water resources, profiting from child/slave labor, unethically promoting infant formula over breast milk in developing countries, anti-union/labor practices, pushing for the privatization of public water access ("access to water should not be a public right."), promoting deforestation and the destruction of…

I completely agree and there are definitely variations based on the mineral content of the source. For me, I can't stand arrowhead water because it tastes salty to me. I think a lot of it has to do with how local water supplies shape our concept of the taste of water.

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

#157

Post by dkarl »

nostrademons wrote: post #138
dkarl wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the best thing about Tinder when I used it was that by stripping down information and interaction to the bare minimum, it gets people face-to-face quickly with few established expectations, which is the best way to get to know anybody. There is so much about a person you can't learn through a web site or an app, and conventional dating sites worked very hard at getting you to invest a lot of time and work int…

It doesn't work with the reality of being a parent. There's no such thing as low-stress, low-commitment way of meeting people when you have an infant or toddler. At the very least, you need to arrange for a spouse to take the kid or deal with their retinue (car seat, stroller or baby carrier, snacks, water, milk, bib, baby wipes, and diaper). At worst, you need to arrange for a sitter, schedule everything, communicat…

> The closest to a low-stress outing for parents is "I'm going to be at this playground in this park for an hour on Saturday morning, and whoever wants to join me is welcome to come."

That's perfect. I don't think the perspective is as different as maybe I made it seem. On Tinder I always met people for a drink someplace where I knew I liked the drinks, or that I was curious to try anyway. If the person was a dud or a no-show, at least I didn't invest much effort and got something out of it anyway.

Another way of putting it that might resonate better is that finding someone you click with is an intrinsically low-yield process. At first glance, it seems smarter to try to improve the yield (% of good matches) rather than volume (sheer number of people you meet), but services that try to do that don't accomplish much if anything. At best, they produce small increases in yield while increasing your time investment and/or emotional investment significantly. I don't know if that describes your situation, but if it does, it might turn out that the best strategy is to accept that the yield will be low and optimize to make high volume as painless (logistically and emotionally) as possible. The equivalent of Tinder would be an app that provides you with a steady stream of new people to invite to the park. If they're not your next BFF, or your kids don't get along, or even if they're bad people, bad parents? Well, that's the kind of person you have to be prepared to encounter when you go to the park anyway, so no biggie.

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

#158

Post by tjalfi »

gwbas1c wrote: post #114

I started scrolling around, and then an unclosable "subscribe to my newsletter" blocked the entire page. WTF??? No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter. Furthermore, forcing me to subscribe to your newsletter just to read a silly post on your website is a jerk move.

I fill out undismissable popups as abuse@theirdomain.com. I'm sure their email support team doesn't want to miss out on the incredible rewards.

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

#159

Post by xur17 »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #40
ghaff wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I tend to avoid Kroger brands because I do not like that most of their sale prices are dictated by having a Kroger Card.

Aren't most grocery chains like this?

Post reply on HN