Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For • Hacker News Board

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#51

Post by reddit_clone » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 10:59 PM UTC

pdx wrote: post #22

edw519 wrote: post #17

Have you had another idea you’d pay if existed? 1. A device that rings a bell or flashes the lights in any/all rooms of my house if my cell phone is at home and rings. This way I don't have to carry it with me everywhere in the house. 2. A service which lets me know which restaurants have excess capacity and will give me a discount if I come right now. 3. A reasonably priced dependable on-line grocery service that de…

7. A device that automatically disables any cell phone in any car within 50 car lengths of me and heading in my direction. I think this device would have the opposite effect that you hope for. I wonder how many days you would last with it? Multiply the number of talker_drivers you meet with the probability that one of them can't handle the extra distraction of driving and banging on his cell phone, trying to reconnec…

Spoiler alert !

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#52

Post by dforeman » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:01 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #2

B2BRev is working on number 2. http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/yc-backed-b2brev-aims-to-be...

I think it's interesting how the Yelp model might work for business services, but breaks down for service providers. We're not doing lawyers, but I think lawyers are a good example of why the Yelp UX model is wrong for the "relationship" business services market.

- First, reviews are the wrong content. You won't get them, first of all, because customers of businesses who see 10-20 engagements per year will never leave lukewarm or negative reviews. Secondly, even if you only allow recommendations (like LinkedIn) and not open reviews, it's still the wrong content to describe a complex business service. The managing partner of WSGR has tons of recommendations on LI. Does one of them come close to capturing how he thinks about business or his potential value? No.

- Second, stars or any other standard comparison ranking system is the wrong discovery method. Stars help people discover who is good, but not who is good at what.

- Third, participation. LawPivot, who was able to raise several million dollars, lets lawyers generate business through a private Q&A site. Well, the most successful lawyers have no reason to use this service- they are already oversubscribed. Any service discovery/review tool dependent on active participation by the service providers leaves out the best players. This is less of a concern for the B2Brevs of the world, but describes why Guru.com and Elance became talent slums.

I probably shouldn't say anything, but we're launching (and applied YCW12) with something designed to fill a number 2 role for an often overlooked class of business services.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#53

Post by egypturnash » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:09 PM UTC

bobds wrote: post #37

swombat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7. A device that automatically disables any cell phone in any car within 50 car lengths of me and heading in my direction. Thanks, you just disabled my GPS, so now I'm looking at my phone trying to figure out what's wrong, instead of looking at the road. That's an idiotic idea if I ever heard one.

Do GSM jammers also affect GPS devices? It's illegal in most places anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer#Legalities

If you use an Android phone then you're streaming map data off of Google's servers. The Maps app does cache stuff but there's only so much room.

Also other stuff like traffic conditions...

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#54

Post by mikepmalai » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:11 PM UTC

I'd pay for something that made it easier for me to remotely manage my parent's life (documents, bills, schedules, appointments, insurance, money, etc.). English isn't their first language so I end up being the go to for a lot of things.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#55

Post by egypturnash » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:11 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #32

rednaught wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I use a cordless phone at home with stations in every room. The base unit has bluetooth which when paired with cellphone(s) is able to receive calls. I drop the cell phone off at my charging station when I get home and never pick it up again until I'm ready to leave the house. 4. Isn't this the Peek(getpeek.com) device? 6. Doesn't Windows have to work first before a working clone can even be fathomed? I kid.

1. Neat. Just to clarify, this doesn't require a landline? I keep my phone on vibrate all the time, which tends to mean that when I'm at home I miss a lot of calls. I'd definitely pay for a thing that looks like a regular landline phone but docks with my mobile phone.

Use location-awareness apps to set it to a ringtone when you're in the house. If you're on Android, I've had good results with [Locale](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.twofortyfouram.loc...). If you're on iOS or something else I have no idea.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#56

Post by amandalim89 » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:12 PM UTC

#5 definitely!!! I think the ladies working in startups will definitely appreciate it! Startup schwag rarely fit me properly :( and most of them are just a logo slapped onto a T-shirt. Would be great for team morale! Plus, nice swag like rovio's angry birds plush toys, t-shirts etc are selling like hotcakes http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/SF2011/2011/09/12/angry-birds-... there's definitely market validation for that idea! I definitely believe in investing in gd schwag and who knows that might even become a source of income for a bootstrapping startup :)

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#57

Post by rednaught » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:13 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #32

rednaught wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. I use a cordless phone at home with stations in every room. The base unit has bluetooth which when paired with cellphone(s) is able to receive calls. I drop the cell phone off at my charging station when I get home and never pick it up again until I'm ready to leave the house. 4. Isn't this the Peek(getpeek.com) device? 6. Doesn't Windows have to work first before a working clone can even be fathomed? I kid.

1. Neat. Just to clarify, this doesn't require a landline? I keep my phone on vibrate all the time, which tends to mean that when I'm at home I miss a lot of calls. I'd definitely pay for a thing that looks like a regular landline phone but docks with my mobile phone.

That is correct. I also couple it with a VOIP service but cordless phones can be used with only cell phone if you want that. I'm using Uniden but I know AT+T and Panasonic also have cordless sets that offer this "cell link" feature as well. The key is just ensuring you've got compatible versions of Bluetooth. If you're on a fairly recent cellphone, it's almost a given it will have Bluetooth.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#58

Post by pitdesi » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:15 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #17

Have you had another idea you’d pay if existed? 1. A device that rings a bell or flashes the lights in any/all rooms of my house if my cell phone is at home and rings. This way I don't have to carry it with me everywhere in the house. 2. A service which lets me know which restaurants have excess capacity and will give me a discount if I come right now. 3. A reasonably priced dependable on-line grocery service that de…

1. Clever. You can probably build it yourself with some google voice hack. My computer (via googlevoice chrome plugin) tells me when someone has called or texted already, which is pretty useful in itself because there are often times when I've left my phone somewhere but I'm on my computer.

2. http://www.groupon.com/now, https://livingsocial.com/instant. I don't know if they are in Pittsburgh yet but will be soon, and maybe google will join the fray now that offers is there.

3. In Chicago (also flyover country) we have http://Peapod.com

4. http://www.getpeek.com/ was an attempt. A failed attempt as far as I know, though it did get a lot of press 3 years ago.

5. I can always tell by looking at them. You should add a sliding clean/dirty thing on your dishwasher.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#59

Post by callmeed » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:17 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #17

Have you had another idea you’d pay if existed? 1. A device that rings a bell or flashes the lights in any/all rooms of my house if my cell phone is at home and rings. This way I don't have to carry it with me everywhere in the house. 2. A service which lets me know which restaurants have excess capacity and will give me a discount if I come right now. 3. A reasonably priced dependable on-line grocery service that de…

So you'd pay for a service that gave you a restaurant discount? How would this be priced so that there's a net savings?

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For

#60

Post by dforeman » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 11:19 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #17

Have you had another idea you’d pay if existed? 1. A device that rings a bell or flashes the lights in any/all rooms of my house if my cell phone is at home and rings. This way I don't have to carry it with me everywhere in the house. 2. A service which lets me know which restaurants have excess capacity and will give me a discount if I come right now. 3. A reasonably priced dependable on-line grocery service that de…

As someone with consumer electronics experience and a 94-year-old grandmother, I actually think #4 is brilliant. She will never understand how to maneuver to email on her iPad, and the abstract 'reply' and 'send' symbols we all take for granted are hieroglyphics to her. There's definitely a market for an always on, single screen email device a toddler could use. Perhaps the stylus isn't dead yet!

I don't know the first thing about marketing to senior citizens and their caretakers, but I know I spent hours searching for "senior citizen email app.."