3d printing. I saw someone saying that 3d printers are the beginnings of replicators from Star Trek, and that really struck home for me. I think we'll see a lot of physical goods get redesigned to be made via single-material extrusion, and 3d printers will get smarter about how to manipulate that single material (some kind of plastic) to achieve a variety of qualities (texture, strength, color, etc.).
In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
81–90 of 102 posts
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Space, Robotics, Desktop Manufacturing, Augmented Reality
I would personally bet on payments, insurance, fashion, and banking over space, robotics, desktop manufacturing, and augmented reality. The former are things that virtually everybody does as part of their daily life. The latter are things that sound very sexy and have had some big wins in specific industries, but aren't related to what people do day-to-day. When pitting reality against dreams, reality usually tends t…
The same could have been said about computers fifty years ago. No one used computer as part of their daily life when computers filled entire rooms. I'm glad Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't get into insurance.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#83Personal decision support. I simply don't have time to search for the cheapest energy supplier/insurance provider/credit card/mortgage each month but I'm sure I could be saving money. The people who can demonstrably do so on my behalf have my interest.
I think the biggest issue there is trust. Who do I trust with all my financial information?
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#84driverless cars. I think google is years ahead of everyone else here, and it will be a product that will be high price, high margin. And the market is huge. I really don't see how google could walk away from that one without gobs of cash in their pockets.
It's not legal. The technology is being introduced slowly by the current manufactures as well. Assisted parking. Enhanced cruise control. automatic braking. If they can manage to get it legalized quickly Google has a chance to disrupt the market. But the car companies are introducing products to market that people are buying.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#85Marketplaces will become more and more common. Because Customer/Company/Employee is much more cumbersome (legally, administrativaly) than Customer/Maketplace(with reviews)/Independant Contractors. Robotic automation will take more jobs because they continue to do more and more cheaper.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#86As a co-founder of Tiny Farms[1], we're betting on the growing need for alternative sources of protein. Humanity's current protein supply is inefficient, unsustainable and won't scale to feed the future world. Our particular domain is edible insects; we wrote this article about why entrepreneurs should get involved: http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/09/10/5-reasons-dr... [1] http://www.tiny-farms.com
I'm very curious about how you're tackling this problem. It's no longer a secret that insects could provide a rich and abundant source or protein, the biggest problem I've seen this far is how to farm them, in other words what is the sustainable input into these farms? As the other commenter pointed out, black soldier flies are a wonderful output, but from my research I've seen that they need meat for to grow and the…
We're working on a lot of fronts, from designing farming processes through to developing feed and the substrate that the animals occupy.
With regards to sustainability of input: insects have an inherent feed conversion ratio far higher than conventional livestock, meaning they create more body mass per gram of food, but the actual food source varies from species to species. Since many species can consume things that are currently underutilized, like corn husks, there's a lot of potential for capturing wasted energy.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#87As a co-founder of Tiny Farms[1], we're betting on the growing need for alternative sources of protein. Humanity's current protein supply is inefficient, unsustainable and won't scale to feed the future world. Our particular domain is edible insects; we wrote this article about why entrepreneurs should get involved: http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/09/10/5-reasons-dr... [1] http://www.tiny-farms.com
What is the best climate for raising crickets in the US? Or does it matter that much?
Crickets thrive in the 80s; their optimal temperature is generally around 86 degrees. They also enjoy around 80% humidity for much of their life-cycle. While there are plenty of US regions amenable to their production, it's fairly easy to keep them at the appropriate temperature in any insulated, climate-controlled environment.
If you're curious about growing crickets in your home state, drop us an email if you'd like to know more: contact@tiny-farms.com
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the best climate for raising crickets in the US? Or does it matter that much?
Come to Texas, follow the grackles, bring a broom. you can get crickets by the truckload.
A huge amount of insects eaten worldwide are collected just like this. We wouldn't recommend it, though; they are likely to be contaminated with pesticides, fertilizers and other environmental pollutants.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#89Personal decision support. I simply don't have time to search for the cheapest energy supplier/insurance provider/credit card/mortgage each month but I'm sure I could be saving money. The people who can demonstrably do so on my behalf have my interest.
I think the biggest issue there is trust. Who do I trust with all my financial information?
Absolutely, trust is a massive part of this. Many people have accountants so trust can be be given. Perhaps accounting institutes would be in a good place to do something like this. I'm probably going to be giving the organisation a limited Power of Attorney so they will need some serious credentials. Don't forget that your financial information will have real value which you may be willing to trade for the benefit of better deals i.e. they don't charge actual money for the service but get access to your spending pattern.
Lots of issues but the point I was making was simply that a) I want the best deal possible b) I'm lazy. I reckon I'm not alone either.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would personally bet on payments, insurance, fashion, and banking over space, robotics, desktop manufacturing, and augmented reality. The former are things that virtually everybody does as part of their daily life. The latter are things that sound very sexy and have had some big wins in specific industries, but aren't related to what people do day-to-day. When pitting reality against dreams, reality usually tends t…
The same could have been said about computers fifty years ago. No one used computer as part of their daily life when computers filled entire rooms. I'm glad Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't get into insurance.
50 years ago (well, 60-70), a computer was a person - it was a job description. In world war 2 and the decade after, there would be rooms full of young women (they were usually women, because men were off at war) with Marchant calculators computing artillery trajectories and breaking Nazi codes. The first computers were invented to automate this job description. They were not some big pie-in-the-sky research project, they were a very pragmatic (and clumsy) attempt to mechanize away a very labor-intensive process so those workers could be freed up to do other work.
Many of the more successful startups recently follow the same pattern: they work to eliminate one job description. Zillow = real estate agents, Square = cashiers, LendUp = bankers, Yelp = food critics, AirBnB = hoteliers. Heck, the initial apps that made the personal computer successful also had that pattern: Visicalc = accountants, Adobe = print shops. Jobs and Gates got rich because they controlled the infrastructure that these businesses built upon, but the folks who built those apps also got fairly rich as well. Heck, Bill Gates's first programming job was writing a payroll program, and his first business venture was software for traffic counters.