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Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

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Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#41

Post by raylad »

traverseda wrote: post #3

Bulk laundry service using RFIDs. The economics of scale are different when you can just throw all the fabric into one giant washer/dryer, like the type they use in hospitals, and let robots sort out who owns what. My province has one central laundry facility that services basically all government buildings (hospitals, prisons, etc) using giant washing machines. RFIDs let us turn something like that into something th…

They do that in Mumbai, sorta, but using tags they put on the clothes.

You drop off a bag of laundry, it gets picked up and taken to this central washing area in town. Someone labels every piece of clothing, and then throws all the clothes together with everyone else's clothes for washing.

After washing they fold and separate all the clothes and you get everything back (at least I always did).

I think this has been going on since at least the 19th century.

Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#42

Post by solardev »

A federated technology co-op that serves local needs, like rideshare or food & drug delivery or point of sale systems. It'd be entirely employee owned and operated, shared between the people making the tech and the local drivers and restaurants and technicians and the such. Needs trickle up, app & hardware dev is done collaboratively and centrally and the output trickles back down to every chapter, profits are split among all employees accordingly to some formula. No outside shareholders.

It might also be possible to organize this as a worker self directed nonprofit, such that you have no profits at all (still pay salaries and benefits, but removing speculatory investments and controlling shares from employee owners).

Similar businesses exist in other fields, but tech is uniquely reusable between chapters once developed.

Gain the efficiencies of scale of a small national command economy, with democratic input from co-owners/co-workers, without the bureaucracy and corruption of the formal government.

It would never be able to directly compete with the VC bubbles of Uber etc., but it would be a more ethical and sustainable operation, and maybe can win some government contracts and protectionism if it has a special nonprofit status...

Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#44

Post by solardev »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #40

Autobiographies. A platform to write your life story. Free for basic text, premium for extra features, subscribe to read more than n per month etc.

It'd be fun to scrape these (with consent) and turn them into non-player characters in a MMO game with rich backstories. Immortality through digital simulations.

Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#45

Post by solardev »

gtsteve wrote: post #37

A search engine for physical shops, which indexes their items and inventory so you know where to go when you want a specific type of cheese for a recipe and you're in an unfamiliar small town. Of course you can just ask locals but that's so analogue.

I wish Google Shopping did this. They have the code for it, but right now it's all paid placements instead of organic inventory levels.

Maybe it's something Square and the bread one can team up and offer?

Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#46

Post by simon_acca »

countWSS wrote: post #20

A sort of "temporary building constructor" like a LEGO for sheds, made from small pieces like interlocking plates/hinge blocks of standard size to build cube-like shapes extending from each other like Minecraft blocks.

I can very much recommend Exel Composite's "system 30". It is a sort of lego-like system for building structure's frames, we've built several 30m by 10m barn/shed type buildings with it that have withstood the elements for 20+ years.

https://exelcomposites.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/EN_Sys...

junctions: https://www.etra.fi/en/engineering-plastics-e540/plastic-rei...

tubes: https://www.etra.fi/en/exel-tubes-e54211505

Re: Ask HN: Startup ideas that you'll never do?

#48

Post by warrenm »

solardev wrote: post #38
warrenm wrote: post #19

Enabling libraries to become print-on-demand centers for public domain / out of print / old / unusual works

Or just expanding their ebook rights beyond "1 copy, one loan at a time"

I'd rather have physical books most of the time :)
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