#17 New payment methods - Cryptocurrencies
Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
11–20 of 184 posts
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#12pg is Nostradamus, this list is amazingly prescient - #5 explosion of upstream SaaS - #6 tons of higher-res components of CRM software - #9 instagram - #11 google drive - #22 smartsheet wonder if the few on here that haven't been solved (wrapper for customer service) are simply unsolvable, or something has to shift for the economics to make way for them.
Id almost argue that intercom/drift are making customer service a lot easier. The chat bubble lets you connect with users of your product a lot faster than a phone call and paired with some other softwares can do a lot of what you need. This probably is more meant to challenge bad customer service like ATT/Comcast but the (non legacy) software world is doing better with this I think.
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Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#13Cloud may have done some these like 4 5 7 9 11 18 22
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#14pg is Nostradamus, this list is amazingly prescient - #5 explosion of upstream SaaS - #6 tons of higher-res components of CRM software - #9 instagram - #11 google drive - #22 smartsheet wonder if the few on here that haven't been solved (wrapper for customer service) are simply unsolvable, or something has to shift for the economics to make way for them.
Id almost argue that intercom/drift are making customer service a lot easier. The chat bubble lets you connect with users of your product a lot faster than a phone call and paired with some other softwares can do a lot of what you need. This probably is more meant to challenge bad customer service like ATT/Comcast but the (non legacy) software world is doing better with this I think.
Arguably, we've either automated or made self-service a lot of the things that you'd have historically had to talk to a customer service rep about. The problem is that, with a lot of companies, if you do need to deal with a human, it's at least as bad as it ever was.
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#15Arguably, things like DoNotPay are a response to 24 ("A buffer against bad customer service")
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#161. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom.
Music became irrelevant.
2. Simplified browsing.
The web became irrelevant. Replaced by Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook (none of which YC funded).
3. New news.
Journalism never covered itself in glory, but approximately half of the separation between the NY Times and Weekly World News has been erased since PG wrote this. Reddit probably didn't have anything to do with it.
4. Outsourced IT. 5. Enterprise software 2.0.
These two items seem to be the same. It's one area where I would say startups have been tremendously successful. If you can call thought-terminating technologies like Slack successful.
6. More variants of CRM.
Interacting with customers hasn't got much better.
7. Something your company needs that doesn't exist.
I'd say this has been a success. Everything from corporate formation to payroll to office space is now plug-and-play.
8. Dating. 9. Photo/video sharing services.
The iPhone existed when this was written, but that the smartphone represented a shift at least as large as the original PC revolution is nowhere on the radar.
10. Auctions.
Everybody hates them. The last 5 times / 5 years I've used Ebay, it's been with the "buy it now" feature. I can remember at least two smartphone apps that promised to get rid of unwanted stuff through auctions, which no longer exist, but I can't remember their names.
11. Web Office apps.
The Windows desktop world was already looking dire in 2008, and its slide continued. Web apps, mostly from Google and Microsoft, picked up some of the business. Rich text documents (Word) are also a lot less important today.
12. Fix advertising.
I've been blocking them since this was written, so I'm not sure. In general, I'm skeptical that "paid human discourse" is something that can be fixed.
14. Tools for measurement.
I think he means SEO, aka "machine learning".
15. Off the shelf security.
Doesn't exist, but a lot of it is sold. Did YC get any of that action?
16. A form of search that depends on design.
?
17. New payment methods.
Apple Pay has potential but has so far been disappointing. Same with cryptocurrencies.
18. The WebOS.
Nope.
19. Application and/or data hosting.
Sure.
20. Shopping guides.
Stores are so 2008.
21. Finance software for individuals and small business.
Mint was acquired I guess, but nobody uses it.
22. A web-based Excel/database hybrid.
There was a good try at this, which existed when this was written: Dabble DB. It went under in 2011. Silk shut down in November,[1] leaving Airtable and Fieldbook...
23. More open alternatives to Wikipedia.
Doesn't exist, and at this point we're lucky to have Wikipedia. It's clear to me that our society could not presently create it from scratch.
24. A buffer against bad customer service.
While good customer service is not more common than in 2008 (see #6 above), really really bad service is much more rare. Not sure who gets credit for this. Twitter and other platforms that let word about bad service spread easily may deserve some credit.
25. A Craigslist competitor.
Pretty much every startup ever. Still no overall competitor for the general case (online classifieds) though.
26. Better video chat.
Video chat is too intrusive for many applications. Apple Facetime, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Skype own the market.
27. Hardware/software hybrids.
?
28. Fixing email overload.
It wasn't fixed but email has become less relevant.
29. Easy site builders for specific markets.
Again, websites are less important now. Squarespace isn't more specific than Weebly.
30. Startups for startups.
See #7 above.
[1] http://blog.silk.co/post/167155630197/its-time-to-say-goodby...
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#17We are fixing 12 (Advertising) all the way down to the fundamentals, with sprinkles of 16 (A form of search that depends on design) and 20 (Shopping guides) in the mix.
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#18I wonder how this list changed in the past 10 years. Time for a new list PG?
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#19I would love it if someone tackled the auctions market better. Ebay continues to focus more on being a marketplace, and promoting buy it nows. A real auction house should extend the time limit as long as people are putting in bids.
Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)
#20For #8. Dating, it has progressed pretty significantly with the likes of OkCupid, swipe-based apps (Tinder, Bubmle, Hinge), CMB to name a few. Heck it has done so well that IAC spun off its dating group as a separate business entity with its own IPO of The Match Group.
Tinder has changed everything here. Top grossing app last year. Real genius is not the swipe interface it’s the double opt-in that solves a lot of the signal v noise problem on old time dating sites like okcupid, match, etc.