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Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

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Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#111
post #47

Yelp for products. I use Amazon in this way now.

remember epinions?

Yup. But it has too strong an emphasis on shopping, listing prices, etc, and lacks a clean hierarchy. Too many duplicates, and not enough reviews, e.g. http://www.epinions.com/search/?submitted_form=searchbar&#38...

I'd love something with a Yelp-esque interface that allows me to search for any product, whether grocery item or gadget, or whatever. e.g. "I wonder what people think of the Blueberry Stonybrook yoghurt?".

Previously it wouldn't be that compelling, but with mobile computing being what it is now, it could be very helpful.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#113
post #11
post #4

The Wikipedia of genealogy: a family tree for the entire human race, which everyone can edit and add to.

Although I've often wished such a thing existed, you run into a significant set of problems with accuracy. For example, the Mormons are big on genealogy; many of them are extremely reliable sources, but many are not--e.g., their genealogy files contain "Noah" and similar figures. On the other hand, if the information is accurate, it raises major privacy concerns. Most reliable sources will not display the backgrounds…

Using your mother's maiden name as a secret should have died out a long time ago. Public geneaology is an argument against it, not the other way 'round.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

You guys know that in Europe this is common? It's called a "bank transfer" and it is trivial to do, just need people's bank account and routing number and yes, people do hand it out. Many (most? all?) bank websites support it.

We have newly-arrived Europeans working at our US office that cannot believe people still write cheques here.

[Edit since there has been some curiosity: here is who underwrites the scheme in the UK: http://www.bacs.co.uk/ - as you can see it's not-for-profit unlike PayPal. US companies that trade in the UK (like ebay.co.uk of course accept payments in this way . eg see http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Payment-by-Direct-Bank-Transfer_W0...]

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#117
Here are my current 3 picks.

1. The Reverse Job Board

The mini pitch: “Buy and sell work online.” What it is: You know all those job boards you see littered around the web? This is a job board flipped on its head. Think of it as a “work wanted” board. Instead of employers posting job offers, this is a place for service providers to post requests for work. How it works: Designers, developers, writers, and anyone else wanting work can post their request, together with the percentage or fixed fee they’d pay to someone providing a lead. Why it’s hot: More people than ever are turning to the web as a source of work. Sometimes it’s very hard to find it, or very time-consuming to browse offers and make pitches. Wouldn’t it be great if people could find work for you? And imagine getting paid just for referring someone you know who needs a new website or logo design. Where the money is: Take a commission when work is successfully placed, or charge a monthly fee to either buy requests or see contact details.

2. Live Auction Sites

The mini pitch: “Buy it now on steroids.” What it is: Online auction sites are great, but few of them capture the same adrenalin rush and buzz that you get from a real auction room. I think there’s still space for a well-executed live auction site that makes listing and bidding super-simple. How it works: Imagine a list of iPhones for sale — you can only bid on the one at the top, and it’s only available for minutes instead of days. Bids are live and backed by escrow, and when the top item’s been sold, the ones below float upwards and a new item becomes active and open to bids. Why it’s hot: As a seller, it’s becoming increasingly complicated to list things online, generate buzz, and make a quick sale. A simple live online auction site could solve all that. Where the money is: Make it free to list and just charge a commission for successful sales. You need to think carefully about how you’ll guarantee that all bids (and items!) are genuine. This could be by asking users to deposit funds into their account prior to bidding, or some other way.

3. Website Sales

The mini pitch: “The place to buy and sell websites.” What it is: If you’ve got an established website to sell, where do you go? There is still no clear-cut market leader in this field. What’s stopping you from filling that gap? How it works: List your website for sale at either a flat fee or auction rate. Include screenshots, traffic, pagerank and earnings info and watch the money roll in! Why it’s hot: Domain name sales are big business. But selling a website for what it’s really worth, or buying an online property in a trusted way is still rather tricky. Where the money is: Take a commission from successful sales in return for offering escrow and listing services, or charge for each listing.

source: http://www.dailybits.com/11-undiscovered-website-ideas-to-st...

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#118
post #16

I tried a separate post of this but didnt get much response. So round two: In short, more and more people are going to college which makes getting into "top" colleges harder. I know there has been a lot of discussion as to the worth of the college degree these days, but regardless, I think the overwhelming majority of people still believe you should go to the best (highest ranked? best fit? whatever) college you can.…

How would you make money?

I think there are a lot of revenue streams available both provider and student side. I think the most viable is to have a counselor list their normal price, gross it up say 10% and take 15% of the proceeds of the transaction. That way the provider gets most of what s/he wants and the student pays a little more for the added convenience.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#119
post #51

A simple drag and drop web interface for creating rich web applications-- no programming skills necessary.

Like Frontpage used to be?

I think the difference is that these would be web applications. Imagine a big, UMLish parts bin of controllers and models that you drag between to create relationships, sourced from an online db. Once you're done, it gives you the skeletons of the views and you drag-and-drop them to 'beauty.'

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#120
An unmonetized (account holders accumulate credit(s) per textbook(s) already traded/donated) college textbook exchange hub.

Kind of like a distributed library of users holding textbooks for a finite period of time until it is eventually re-queued for someone else to checkout. Payment for textbooks exchanged are abstracted as credits according to some scraped average.

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