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Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

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61–70 of 91 posts

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#61
a weather app or service that allows you to look at least one year-long time lapse of global satellite and radar loop. Most services that i looked into offer up to 12hrs, but not sure why.

Something like this, but up to date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w3o6_cn-O8

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#62
post #18

I have paid about $5 a month for a couple of years for the most promising Google+ replacement I could find at the time. At some point after sending feedback multiple times on a specific pain point I gave up.) Today I'm paying $20 for Marginalia while I wait for Kagi (and because I love Marginalia and the ideas behind it). I'd probably pay for a "cloud provider with seatbelts" too for learning/testing (e.g. "GCP"/"AWS…

How does marginalia work for you? I am using kagi and it's really nice but it still has some misses, especially for non-English content

Marginalia puts a smile on my face.

Just knowing that there is one Swede with one tower PC doing what almost everyone on HN thinks needs redundant datacenters, sysadmin teams, ux teams and what not gives me some hope for the future of the web.

Oh, another reason: every time I use it, either searching for something or using the explore function it proves that the old web isn't dead.

And sometimes it gives very good results that I wouldn't have found otherwise (ln topics like linux, git etc).

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#63
post #39

IMO this kind of question will get "faster horse" kind of responses, not "a car" kind of responses (context: https://www.inc.com/michael-graber/people-would-have-asked-f... ) Don't focus on price. Don't focus on other people's ideas. The word "need" is overloaded; too many people will tell you the solution they think they need and not the emotional need itself that is not being met by a solution. Instead, try to unde…

It's a good point, but I think this is still a valuable exercise. The strategy shouldn't be "listen to what people say they want and then build that", but instead listen through what they say they want and into their problems. If nothing else this may lead, eventually, to discovering a class of problems you weren't aware of.

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#64
post #47
post #37

A viable YouTube competitor, including its social and recommendation features, but without the ad-based business model making it so... fraught. I am happy with (and pay for) YouTube, but I'd love competition in this space.

Just out of curiousity, how would someone go about competing with YouTube? Build a prototype, raise a bunch of $$ from investors? Do you need to come in with domain / technical experience? Do you target a niche first?

Nebula[1] comes pretty close to what I want, actually. They are targeting a niche, like you suggest, mostly educational video content. I don't know their business model. Anyway, I should put my money where my mouth is and try it out.

[1] https://nebula.app/

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#65

What would you pay for? Every really successful software business I know came from somebody solving one of his or her own problems.

I know this is good advice, but it is the thing that holds me back the most. I live a simple life and I literally don't have anything I would pay for that I could also conceivably build myself (any ideas I have tend more towards hardware than software).

Maybe you should build hardware! There are plenty of businesses built on hardware. What's keeping you from going that route?

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#66
post #18

I have paid about $5 a month for a couple of years for the most promising Google+ replacement I could find at the time. At some point after sending feedback multiple times on a specific pain point I gave up.) Today I'm paying $20 for Marginalia while I wait for Kagi (and because I love Marginalia and the ideas behind it). I'd probably pay for a "cloud provider with seatbelts" too for learning/testing (e.g. "GCP"/"AWS…

To be fair, my search engine isn't really trying to be google, it's more of an exploration and discovery tool even though it dresses up as a search engine and sometimes does a decent job at it.

Unless someone sends me a ton of money, I just don't have the budget to be more than that. I also think the "better google" space is getting a bit crowded anyway, I think there's probably more interesting niches to be carved out in the general space of discovery.

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#68
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is good advice, but it is the thing that holds me back the most. I live a simple life and I literally don't have anything I would pay for that I could also conceivably build myself (any ideas I have tend more towards hardware than software).

Maybe you should build hardware! There are plenty of businesses built on hardware. What's keeping you from going that route?

The few ideas I have are for very niche needs (think homesteaders / permies) and I already make enough money writing software for others that the risk of investing in hardware for a tiny, tech-averse market makes it a foolish risk / payoff proposition.

Everything else I could want hardware-wise already has a startup that I would rather support than compete with.

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#69

The problem with questions like these: There is a difference between what people say they will pay for, vs what they actually pay for; as many failed startups found to their chagrin. Unless somebody actually gives you their credit card, what they say they will pay for is largely an imaginary game (sorry if this comes out too negative)

It is a simple fact, not too negative at all. My wife started a business largely on the support of friends, family and strangers she talked to who said it was a good idea. Imagine her surprise when literally noone was interested when it came time to buy what she was selling.

In a sibling comment there's this book "The Mom test" mentioned. It deals exactly with this: don't ask your mom or other close people for business idea opinions because they will be too supportive to answer honestly.

Re: Ask HN: New web service idea that you would pay for?

#70
post #59

I'd like an accountability service like beeminder but with an actual human being who helps me not stray for my indiehacking goals. There was something called bossasaservice or something but don't think they were able to keep up with the demand and closed. Also the suggested $10 might be too low a price point for this.

I think about this all the time myself. Have you looked into StikK? They provide services like automatically donating to your most hated charity if you don't meet your goals (they provide options like the NRA and Planned Parenthood).

No haven't heard of them but sounds like beeminder. In my opinion these automated solutions seldom work in the long run. Otoh having a real human being who calls you up or even WA you to check how you're doing from time to time can make a hell of a difference (right now my wife does that for me in a good way :P but I really think the guys who started bossasaservice were on to something and people were going crazy about them on PH and twitter.. but due the crazy amount of orders and the difficulty of scaling something with a real human I think they had to shutdown. I think the demand is still there though.
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