How is the answer to this not "working on it"? (Not that any startup idea has one author. It's always a collaboration.)
Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
71–80 of 187 posts
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#72Open source credit scores and history. Take down the oligopoly of the existing credit scoring companies by providing an open algorithm to determine scores. Change it as necessary. Educate people on how to improve the score. Provide the data to consumers for free, charge others (banks, mortgage companies, etc.) to use it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VantageScore
Sounds like it is a step towards transparency but doesn't seem to have much adoption yet.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#73bet tracking software and odds aggregation service..
what im working on now.. have four others but i will keep them in my head for now
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#74Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been thinking about something like this for the last few months. I think the mobile element is a great idea, and a very nice ice breaker - "Hey there, I'm Trent415 and superdate.com said you and I have a lot in common." Plus, you could determine if there was a mutual friend close by to introduce you. I also think there needs to be a wed based version that isn't location based, but I do like the mobile idea a lot…
The concept of monitoring social site streams for dating/authenticity purposes reminds me of a site I heard about recently, http://ge.la.to/ There are many sites struggling to gain traction in mobile aspects of dating, and the problem is likely that it's difficult to get a critical mass of users set up before using the feature is appealing. Regardless, I'm not aware of anyone who has put all this together successfull…
Yeah, I've looked at ge.la.to, and it's kind of similar with what I have in mind, although they don't really seem to do a lot of stream analysis (I could be wrong on this).
You're completely right, it's a hard nut to crack, and gaining traction will be tricky, which is why I'd probably just start in a few major cities first, or maybe just go after one vertical - think JDate but maybe for the younger/tech crowd.
Actually, I think that one of the big problems with dating businesses is that if you're doing a great job you actually loose customers. This may be why no one does a very good job of it.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#76Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How this differs from paypal? My assumption is that it won't involve paypal. :-) Seriously though, that's the difference - some way to avoid the third party lock in that paypal forces, replacing it with a simple: "money from my account into your account" method.
um...those are called checks. the reason that paypal got big was because electronic checks and wiring money is riskier than an escrow.
I know, and I'm not claiming to have the answer, but basically the idea seems to be "electronic checks".
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
The concept of monitoring social site streams for dating/authenticity purposes reminds me of a site I heard about recently, http://ge.la.to/ There are many sites struggling to gain traction in mobile aspects of dating, and the problem is likely that it's difficult to get a critical mass of users set up before using the feature is appealing. Regardless, I'm not aware of anyone who has put all this together successfull…
yes, this is the premise of http://ge.la.to . Wait until you see our recommendation/compatibility engine. It's going to be awesome.
Cool, I hope it works out for you guys.
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why limit it to flights? You could create a whole new stalking service! 1. Aggregate location info and travel plans of key celebrities from Twitter 2. ??? 3. Profit
I know you're joking around but I thought I'd answer anyway. The key aspect of flights is that your "victim" isn't going anywhere. He's stuck in that seat and can't escape nearly as easily as he could if you approached him in a cafe, museum, etc. EG - Got a startup that'll need buy in from a major wireless carrier (you're gon' change the industry like the iPhone did!) but can't get attention from any of them? Imagine…
That's a fair point, but it's also a little unfair IMO - on the stalkee. I can totally see the market but I would never want to corner someone like that for 6 hours. Plus, what if I snore on the flight and totally alienate the CEO? ;)
Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
The concept of monitoring social site streams for dating/authenticity purposes reminds me of a site I heard about recently, http://ge.la.to/ There are many sites struggling to gain traction in mobile aspects of dating, and the problem is likely that it's difficult to get a critical mass of users set up before using the feature is appealing. Regardless, I'm not aware of anyone who has put all this together successfull…
yes, this is the premise of http://ge.la.to . Wait until you see our recommendation/compatibility engine. It's going to be awesome.
Steve, just a heads up, I'm running through a few things on ge.la.to and it's super slow/crashy. Just thought you'd like to know.