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Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

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41–50 of 165 posts

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#42
post #17

1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workf…

My story. I used to use news API services for my side projects. One day, I realized that I can build my own service that will be both, best quality (like real multilanguage support), and cheap. 8 months into it, it is my full-time job and we are releasing our first paid version (post-beta). We have 600 subscribers (beta-testers) and some people claiming they will become paid clients. It is a huge experience in both,…

On side, does newscaptureapi provide author information i.e. name of author bare minimum, email will be great. And also how you tackle copyright issues?

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#44
post #36

Please steal any of my ideas! :) https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/eric Some software ones that I like: 1. A nicer web viewer for Google Spreadsheets - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9d... 2. Airbnb guest guidebook creator - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9d... 3. Thai writing trainer - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9d... 4. Instagram acc…

re. instagram account tracker: https://fraidyc.at/

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#45
post #8

I would probably get downvoted for this.. It's very rare to find those "scratch your own itch problems", the solution to that itch is most likely a google search away. Pick a good product that you use and clone it. Keep an open mind because you can never copy the entire business since there is only so much you can see. Atleast you get some direction to start and you know that you are not trapped in building something…

I agree, trying to scratch your own itch is complicated and frustrating and if you really actually need whatever you’re building, chances are you could solve the problem in an easier way. After that, you’re not scratching your own itch anymore, you’re making it easier for others to scratch the same itch that you’ve already solved. It’s just not that easy to say “build something you need”.

Chances are you can do it in an Excel spreadsheet without writing a single line of code, but where’s the business in that?

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#47
post #40

Please build a decent vms for residential use. I will pay for it.

Could you provide more specifics? Cloud based platforms for personal computing needs is something that intrigues me. I would like to understand what is it that NextCloud or other existing offerings are lacking according to you?

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#49
post #17

1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workf…

Cool! Let's try this.

> 1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work.

Emacs, vim, xterm, tmux. (I use them all for work. 99% of the time, what you see on my screen is either Emacs, or an xterm running tmux and some instances of vim.)

On my phone, alarm clock. (I use it to get up for work)

> 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app.

In emacs and vim, probably self-insert-command or some basic motion commands.

In tmux, switching between windows and panes.

In xterm.. uh, just the fact that it's a terminal?

Alarm clock. I use it to wake me up in the morning.

> 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature

Nothing about the most used features above annoy me. Well, terminals annoy me but emulating terminals is the raison detre of a terminal emulator so I don't know if there's much you can do about it..

I also hate alarm clocks but I kinda need one to wake up.

> 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workflow

Looks like it wasn't that easy :(

Something tells me that picking the most used application and the most used feature in it most likely leads to the most solved problem that doesn't need to be solved again...

Re: Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

#50
post #17

1. Write down the apps on your phone or computer that you use the most. If you want to bootstrap a profitable business, I recommend listing the apps you use for work. 2. Write down the one feature for each app that you use the most within that app. 3. Write down what slightly annoys you about that one feature 4. Build the product around the one feature you feel you can cook up quickly and that will benefit your workf…

I had an idea yesterday for an alarm clock that requires a qr code to turn off, checked and there's been one out since 2012 with millions of downloads. Tough to find low hanging fruit.
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