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Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

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Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#41
post #27
post #24

We've been seeing a lot of these idea threads lately. Maybe someone should make an "I have an idea" site :D It would be nice to have a page per idea, plus commenting, and maybe some sections for research (other competitors in the area, probable market sizes, etc). If I had unlimited funds, I always thought it would be cool to start a company that did nothing but churn out little ideas. People could put idea synopses…

Have a look at http://www.halfbakery.com/ - it's pretty much exactly what you describe in terms of an ideas site. Also, there are companies which churn out little ideas - my girlfriend works for one. It's pitched as an innovation consultancy, aimed at opening up new markets for companies big enough to afford their fees. Not sure if that's exactly what you were talking about, but maybe kind of similar?

Perhaps I should whip something up more central to web businesses than halfbakery is?

I mean, it's a good concept of course, but if I'm looking for entrepreneurial web ideas, I have to figure out whether they're in 'business', 'computing', 'culture', etc.

Also, many of those ideas suck, which is fixed easily enough with moderation, but it makes you wonder how many people would have upvoted Twitter or Facebook as an idea? I'm guessing far fewer than use the service, for sure.

Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#42
post #24

We've been seeing a lot of these idea threads lately. Maybe someone should make an "I have an idea" site :D It would be nice to have a page per idea, plus commenting, and maybe some sections for research (other competitors in the area, probable market sizes, etc). If I had unlimited funds, I always thought it would be cool to start a company that did nothing but churn out little ideas. People could put idea synopses…

I've built an application called ideaKIN. It's basically a place where you enter in ideas, and look at other people's ideas, add them to your 'container', etc. The ideas are treated more like simple 'tasks' where you can either complete or not.

Anyway, I just built this a few days ago, and it's still in its super early phase. http://ideakin.com

Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#43
post #23

One More Idea: A super simple dating mobile app. Your profile consists of a picture of yourself and the question , "Ask me about....?", filled in. There would be a list of bars organized by cities and people could choose to share which bar they were at. Potential suitors could browse all the singles at a bar and decide which person to talk to (in real life). The goal is to solve the awkwardness of cold openings at a…

Chicken and egg, but kinda neat. Screw the whole bar scene though and just make it "geo-aware". You pre-define picks and as you travel throughout town, it let's you know when one of those picks is close by.

What about socially determined "meet a date" nights?

For an area, you have each user pick a place.

All the places go up for vote.

On whatever night, it's date night at that place and it's like a flashmob meets speed dating.

I would think you'd only need a handful of people in any given geographical area for this to work (though I could be wrong).

Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#45
post #23

One More Idea: A super simple dating mobile app. Your profile consists of a picture of yourself and the question , "Ask me about....?", filled in. There would be a list of bars organized by cities and people could choose to share which bar they were at. Potential suitors could browse all the singles at a bar and decide which person to talk to (in real life). The goal is to solve the awkwardness of cold openings at a…

"The goal is to solve the awkwardness of cold openings at a bar."

Isn't that what alcohol is for?

Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicken and egg, but kinda neat. Screw the whole bar scene though and just make it "geo-aware". You pre-define picks and as you travel throughout town, it let's you know when one of those picks is close by.

I disagree. People go to the bar when they're ready to socialize and meet people, and they'll value something that makes that easier. Making it more geo-aware makes people have to decide which parts of their day they want to be interruptible, and I think makes the app more intimidating. I like the bar tie-in, it provides a pleasant addition to something people are already doing.

Well, like every other time you'd like to opt out of social contact, I'd just assume there was an "off" button.

Re: Ask HN: Steal my Ideas (or help me)

#47
I'm working on idea #2 along with other location aware services for mobile browsers. The domain I've picked up so far is http://this.st (standing for This Street); figured it'd be easy to type on a phone. One of the services is going to cater to schools, starting with mine (University of Waterloo). MIT has done a great job with m.mit.edu and it will be a good benchmark.

Other services for densly located areas will be in places like malls and theatres.

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