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Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#101

Post by leros »

le-mark wrote: post #85
leros wrote: post #78

My favorite $100k idea to share is starting a landscaping business. The startup cost is small, you grow through hustle and good work, and the ability to expand to multiple employees/crews is there as you expand. I think it's something just about anyone can do as it doesn't require special training.

> the ability to expand to multiple employees/crews is there as you expand. Finding reliable, motivated employees who will work for you and not themselves is the challenge that makes this type of business exceptionally hard to scale, from what I’ve been told.

You're well beyond $100k/yr at that point. A single person with a lawn mowing company can make $100k/yr.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#102

Post by solardev »

phphphphp wrote: post #66
ionwake wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many jobs have you worked in the It field ? Were they mostly in management? I ask because I disagree

individual contributor, not management. 6 companies, Europe and US. If you are in a high demand profession, there is no reason to accept mistreatment: we have the luxury of being able to vote with our feet, use it.

Exactly.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#103

Post by zdragnar »

drdrek wrote: post #95

Stand up from the computer and walk out the door, pretty sure you'll find your local problems there. Do local brewers need better distribution to stores? Can you connect local handymen with clients? Can you organize local neighborhood cleanup days, maybe supported by local businesses? You'll be amazed what can be done with the technology of outside, its like the internet just with real people! :) Some call it web 4.0

> Do local brewers need better distribution to stores?

Probably, but state laws (varying from bad to worse) make alcohol distribution one of the more heavily regulated things you could try to "fix".

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#106

Post by hardwaresofton »

I've got a whole bag full of em:

https://unvalidatedideas.com/archive

The only problem is I can't tell you which ones are the 100k ones...

I've got a hunch that this one is solidly 100k and not million+:

https://unvalidatedideas.com/editions/11

Got all the hallmarks of an idea that is hard to profit/scale:

- selling to developers

- content-based (so often very manual at the beginning)

- absolutely boring (to some people) niche

[EDIT] - wait no I could see this one possibly getting big, if you strike the right "compliance and security posture" tone.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#107

Post by SuoDuanDao »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #74
valdiorn wrote: post #3

My startup ideas :) I've been designing and building audio software and hardware components for musicians since I was a teenager. VST plugins to start, then moved on to digital guitar effects and now Eurorack synth modules. I've also built custom midi controllers, traditional guitar pedals, you name it, I've designed and built it. I have absolutely no doubt that I could build a small, semi-successful company around t…

There was a time when I questioned decisions like Amazon hiring[1] 50k tech workers along with Google, FB and other tech giants, because I did not understand their value to the company, when it seemed like they do not absolutely 'need' that level of tech workers. Now I think I do: 1. Those engineers will less likely to upend the apple cart by inventing something that could disrupt business 2. Those engineers will be…

Denying your competition human resources you don't really need yourself is a strategy I've seen in real life. Can't comment on the other points.

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#108

Post by SuoDuanDao »

autotune wrote: post #104

I work in the trucking and consumer banking industry industry. A $100K idea is buying your own truck and becoming a trucker, shipping goods from one state to another. This is a billion dollar industry right now and is booming like crazy.

tangential question, does buying an electric truck seem like it would make sense due to lower fuel costs?

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#109

Post by hindsightbias »

autotune wrote: post #104

I work in the trucking and consumer banking industry industry. A $100K idea is buying your own truck and becoming a trucker, shipping goods from one state to another. This is a billion dollar industry right now and is booming like crazy.

I watch a few of those YT channels and it seems like a race to the bottom. Truckers in debt and driving at prices just to make payments, brokers taking advantage of everybody and every truck built in the last decade with all sorts of electrical and emissions issues.

Now, if I had a $1B to disrupt that industry with some Uber model…

Re: Ask HN: What are 100K dollar ideas but not million dollar ideas?

#110

Post by afigkka »

z9znz wrote: post #56
afigkka wrote: post #31

in the UK most villages/small towns without a school have very old residents with no real village population replacement (people die of old age and the big old cold houses are bought by increasingly wealthy retirees leaving urban environments). The current residents need increasing amounts of care and infrastructure but there isn't anybody nearby of working age (compounded by the fact that NIMBY policies have driven…

This idea could be scaled (and likely is implemented somewhere) to big $$$. This is essentially a last-mile care system which could be contracted by governments to do what, in this case (not all cases), private industry can be more efficient at doing.

I don't think it has to scale though, maybe it can but it might just perpetuate poor conditions for care workers

I think it could be as simple as a few standardised processes and contracts. If a village wants to try it they follow the steps and set it up themselves

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