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Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

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Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#1

Post by travisjungroth »

Successful software companies are mostly founded by software engineers, or at least other white collar professionals. And since people mostly work on what they know (which is good) this seems to leave a lot of industries behind. What blue-collar industries do you know that could really be helped by better software?

For more background, I'm in the early stages of forming a startup, and just narrowing down problems. I'm trying to get a friend on board as a cofounder. He's great at mobile, and I can handle the backend. We also both worked other careers before switching to software (oil and aviation). I've got B2B sales experience.

When you put this all together, it makes an interesting combo of an app for non-office businesses. I'd really like to make something that's more of a tool than just an app. Think "mobile phones in airplanes tracking your rental fleet" over "weather app".

Any direction-pointing is very welcome!

Re: Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#2

Post by joezydeco »

Successful software companies are mostly founded by software engineers, or at least other white collar professionals

They're also founded by people that know the business they're dealing with. If you know oil and aviation, think about where customers are feeling pain and focus your effort there.

Re: Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#3

Post by byoung2 »

joezydeco wrote: post #2

Successful software companies are mostly founded by software engineers, or at least other white collar professionals They're also founded by people that know the business they're dealing with. If you know oil and aviation, think about where customers are feeling pain and focus your effort there.

They're also founded by people that know the business they're dealing with

I worked as a contract software engineer and I built quite a few MVPs for niche businesses I would never have thought of. I built a dashboard for rental management companies to track vendors (e.g. plumbers, electricians, pool cleaners) to make sure their licenses, insurance, and background checks are up to date. I built a tool for companies to track and calculate multistate tax withholding for traveling employees (apparently there is a complex algorithm based on the number of days you worked in the state, your home state, etc). There are thousands of these business ideas out there that some domain expert is running in a spreadsheet but could be turned into a SaaS product.

Re: Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#4

Post by travisjungroth »

joezydeco wrote: post #2

Successful software companies are mostly founded by software engineers, or at least other white collar professionals They're also founded by people that know the business they're dealing with. If you know oil and aviation, think about where customers are feeling pain and focus your effort there.

That's where my main focus is right now. I want to push it out just a bit further. The best outcome of this thread for me is someone mentions something that I have a connection with (maybe friends with an expert I could get involved) that I didn't even think of.

Re: Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#7

Post by howardhughes »

yarper wrote: post #5

If you know aviation, literally anything that will decrease fuel usage. Also maintenance & repair operations (a whole lot of dirty fingerprints going on there).

> If you know aviation, literally anything that will decrease fuel usage

Apart from writing full blown avionics systems for engine/flight control - what are you suggesting?

Re: Ask HN: What industries are underserved by software?

#8

Post by bronco21016 »

yarper wrote: post #5

If you know aviation, literally anything that will decrease fuel usage. Also maintenance & repair operations (a whole lot of dirty fingerprints going on there).

This is changing somewhat at least in the airline world. Record profits have meant these companies finally have money to spend. Combined with iPads with ubiquitous connectivity a lot is changing.

The airline I work for is nearing a paperless cockpit. Flight attendants have handhelds loaded with tools for their job, credit card readers, and all of their manuals. Mechanics are joining soon with paperless aircraft logbooks, manuals, and line maintenance dispatching.

Almost all of this stuff is developed in-house or through contractors. It’s so customized to the existing data systems and airline operations that I don’t see how a SaaS could break into it. SaaS May work for smaller airlines who would be more willing to mold their operation to fit a tool.

As far as fuel usage goes that is unfortunately more a symptom of ATC. You can make the best flight profile in the world for fuel planning but as soon as ATC needs to change your profile it all goes out the window.

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