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

Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 121 posts

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#91

Post by ankit219 »

mushufasa wrote: post #21
ankit219 wrote: post #19

The internet is rife with blogs (and now podcasts) about what can be a billion dollar startup ideas. It just depends on where someone sees an opportunity and exploits it. (not as easy, but thats about the crux of it) I wanted to touch upon the other thing Garry Tan mentioned when he said that reason people try the same ideas is because "desire is mimetic". We want what other people want. Same ideas especially ones wh…

> Most of these ideas fold because travel is very cold market for an investor and most dont want to invest. This isn't true. For example, AirBnB has plenty of funding. Investors as the constraint currently happens for capital-intensive opportunities, like nuclear fusion. There's plenty of investors for software as a service. There are lots of other reasons why there aren't more "apps for x." The main barrier for any…

I said that based on experience as a travel entrepreneur. There is a sentiment in investors about travel being a cold market, and many arent interested outright(regardless of traction).

Airbnb was an exception given they had good people backing them (PG et al) just based on team and they competed in a different segment and that they had enough funds to actually show repeats and retention (something many others lack). It did spawn a few clones all over which got funded, but folded very early. This indeed helped Airbnb in later rounds as they virtually had no competition.

> There's plenty of investors for software as a service.

True when the Gross Margins are 60-80% and not about 5-10% as in case of travel.

> tech services like AirBnB and TripAdvisor are competing with DIY search

Travel planning is an experience in itself, and hacking those prices/places gives a dopamine hit which no app can compensate for imo. People like to try out the app and use it once, but the retention for these apps are low. Users tend to forget about these apps next time they travel.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#92

Post by Pyramus »

pontus wrote: post #83

I keep hearing over and over again how the idea doesn't matter and it's all about "execution execution execution!". I get that execution is important, but can we also agree that the idea is important too? I get that good ideas are easier to come by than good execution, but I kind of feel like completely discounting the idea also missed the point. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time coming up with a super successf…

You are right. I find it helpful to look at risk. Broadly speaking there are two types of risks when starting a startup:

1. Customer/market risk

2. Invention risk

When invention risk >> customer risk (you can be certain there are customers, they have a need, you can satisfy the need), then a good idea will play a bigger role relative to execution (which still remains crucial).

However, we tend to grossly under-estimate customer risk, hence the "ideas are cheap" warning.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#93

Post by erikbye »

baxtr wrote: post #76
krisgenre wrote: post #75

Haven't watched the full video yet but the saying that one shouldn't build what everyone else is building doesn't seem like good advise. Yahoo was hugely popular when Google launched. Orkut and MySpace were very popular when Facebook launched. There were many popular messaging services when Whatsapp launched. In fact I think just digging out something from the Google graveyard would be a good idea. 4-5 million users…

Yeah. It's actually also against what Peter Thiel says: Be the last to enter market, to do things right I guess. Another counterexample seems to be note-taking apps. Even though this is something native to many OS, there seem to be a couple of successful players: Notion, Bear, Roamreasearch. If you solve a relevant problem for people, who cares if something similar was available before but not solving the problem? On…

> It's actually also against what Peter Thiel says: Be the last to enter market

He also said:

"Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them."

Regarding note-taking apps, I think few of those will turn into billion dollar companies, which is what the video is about.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#94

Post by fxtentacle »

pontus wrote: post #83

I keep hearing over and over again how the idea doesn't matter and it's all about "execution execution execution!". I get that execution is important, but can we also agree that the idea is important too? I get that good ideas are easier to come by than good execution, but I kind of feel like completely discounting the idea also missed the point. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time coming up with a super successf…

I believe that greatly depends on how you define the idea. In my definition, the idea for Google was: "Get advertisers to pay for a free information portal." That idea doesn't seem much different to "Advertisers pay for a free newspaper", which was common practice at the time. Similarly, "Advertisers pay for free classified ads" was common, too, but it's how Facebook started out. "Pay for a car ride" = Uber also doesn't seem that new. Or how about "Rent out rooms for money" = AirBnb.

In my opinion, all of those are ideas that aren't really new. But they were executed in a new way and that made all the difference.

HomeAway was already well-known and successful at the time when AirBnb was founded. But the latter reached more potential landlords, due to their specific execution.

I remember using AltaVista for years before I ever heard about Google. So their business idea and business model wasn't new. Their initial execution was incredible, though.

And before I heard of Facebook, I was using MySpace, which was kind of the same basic idea, but pretty badly executed. Until 2 years after the iPhone came out, MySpace was actually larger than Facebook. So my guess would be that it was Facebook's superior execution of their mobile experience that crowned them.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#95

Post by worldsayshi »

fxtentacle wrote: post #94
pontus wrote: post #83

I keep hearing over and over again how the idea doesn't matter and it's all about "execution execution execution!". I get that execution is important, but can we also agree that the idea is important too? I get that good ideas are easier to come by than good execution, but I kind of feel like completely discounting the idea also missed the point. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time coming up with a super successf…

I believe that greatly depends on how you define the idea. In my definition, the idea for Google was: "Get advertisers to pay for a free information portal." That idea doesn't seem much different to "Advertisers pay for a free newspaper", which was common practice at the time. Similarly, "Advertisers pay for free classified ads" was common, too, but it's how Facebook started out. "Pay for a car ride" = Uber also does…

The important ideas that made those companies get big wasn't what problem to solve but how to solve it. Google had PageRank and various other smart ways to make their search better than the competitors at the time. Facebook had better UX. Airbnb made renting out rooms ten times easier.

The important ideas here is in the realm of "how". And that realm is both ideas and execution. Ideas of how to execute?

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#96

Post by danjac »

systemvoltage wrote: post #4
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #2

Haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I will push back on some of the popular mythology that everyone thought successful startups we're just toys or would fail in their early days. IMO that's mostly bullshit. Amazon, Google, Uber, Facebook (despite some cherry picked article from the video about it never being able to hit profitability) were all hugely popular right off the bat, and indeed, many people saw them as…

All this hoo haa about startup ideas - Just make products that excel at every aspect of what it does and make sure there is a demand for such a product. I see people making a better soap dispenser, the hardware equivalent of what most SaaS startups are working on. You need to invent a new kind of soap that is better than anything else out there. It should take the grime off of everything from kitchen to bathroom scum…

> Just make products that excel at every aspect of what it does and make sure there is a demand for such a product

Or, just make a mediocre product and make sure you have a big enough moat that competitors don't stand a chance.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#97

Post by baxtr »

erikbye wrote: post #93
baxtr wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. It's actually also against what Peter Thiel says: Be the last to enter market, to do things right I guess. Another counterexample seems to be note-taking apps. Even though this is something native to many OS, there seem to be a couple of successful players: Notion, Bear, Roamreasearch. If you solve a relevant problem for people, who cares if something similar was available before but not solving the problem? On…

> It's actually also against what Peter Thiel says: Be the last to enter market He also said: "Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them." Regarding note-taking apps, I think few…

Yes, and that's exactly my point. There were search engines before there was Google. Still it has become a multi-billion company. If you provide 10x value no one cares if there is competition already (depending on switching costs I guess).

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#98

Post by TrackerFF »

I've said this before, but I'll say it again - if you want to get ideas, try to get exposed to some (pretty much any) industry as either a consultant/freelancer, or even regular employee. Most industries and businesses are rife with smaller (and larger) inefficiencies, especially when we're still in the twilight of digitalization.

This is obviously going do the B2B domain, and a lot of the problems and products will be deemed "boring", but hey, there's good money to be made.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#99

Post by aaron695 »

pontus wrote: post #83

I keep hearing over and over again how the idea doesn't matter and it's all about "execution execution execution!". I get that execution is important, but can we also agree that the idea is important too? I get that good ideas are easier to come by than good execution, but I kind of feel like completely discounting the idea also missed the point. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time coming up with a super successf…

> but can we also agree that the idea is important too?

No

> a super successful company based on a bad idea.

Magic Leap

Super successful companies based on nothing ideas are a dime a dozen. Almost all sites.

- Amazon, it sells things. It's execution was cutting edge.

- Rocket-internet is a great example - https://www.businessinsider.com.au/rocket-internet-companies...

Even the great mathematical ideas were execution. Working out how to create protocols is execution.

Lots of drunk discussions about internet currencies in the 2000's but no one implemented the mathematics -

Satoshi Nakamoto also released bitcoin software on Sourceforge.

Bram Cohen created torrent protocol and also release the software and filled it with porn.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#100

Post by corobo »

pontus wrote: post #83

I keep hearing over and over again how the idea doesn't matter and it's all about "execution execution execution!". I get that execution is important, but can we also agree that the idea is important too? I get that good ideas are easier to come by than good execution, but I kind of feel like completely discounting the idea also missed the point. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time coming up with a super successf…

I always liked Sivers' version of this, which might help a little here

https://sive.rs/multiply

Post reply on HN