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Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

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Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#161

Post by twic »

smsm42 wrote: post #100
abalone wrote: post #46

My take (just the first five): 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.) 2. Simplified browsing...Grandparents and small children don't want the full web... Apps. Remember this list is from just one year after the…

> (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly Lately seems to be going into an opposite direction. I.e. I have TV subscription, Netflix subscription, Amazon Prime subscription... but what I have to do to see Start Trek Discovery? Get yet another monthly subscription. Not exactly "one umbrella $10 subscription covers all" but rather "everybody has its own $10 subscription in whic…

Indeed, film and TV are very much not in any sort of "pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music" situation, due to fragmentation. That said, they could be undergoing a transition towards it - the current models are clearly frustrating for some users, so there is an opportunity for a company that can make the supply chain work to clean up.

But, as with news, i would much rather have an à la carte model. I don't watch enough movies for a subscription to be worthwhile, but i'd pay 2 or 3 pounds to watch an old Bob Hope movie every now and then.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#162

Post by taurath »

blueyes wrote: post #68
reza_n wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. New news. NY Times topped $1 billion in subscription revenue last year. Quite a feat and definitely an indication that money is to be made in digital news. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/new-york-times-c...

There's a lot of evidence that a large part of the NYTimes revenue surge is a "Trump bump", and that, more broadly, there are way too many media outlets offering free content for the same limited number of eyeballs, and they're burning a lot of VC dollars in the process: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital-media-...

My take is it costs a lot of money to become worth any money in the space. The story breakers matter a lot more than the story regurgitators, and people see the value enough to pay for it. If you want to shoestring and cost cut your news room, your core value goes to none.

Biggest problem I find is the local news space. There’s nowhere for funded investigative reporting at the local level - I feel like some type of local club or community organization needs to start growing to get it back.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#163

Post by skgoa »

tlb wrote: post #125
WikipediasBad wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm particularly interested in #23 since it is clear that Wikipedia is even more dominant now than it was in 2008: More open alternatives to Wikipedia. Deletionists rule Wikipedia. Ironically, they're constrained by print-era thinking. What harm does it do if an online reference has a long tail of articles that are only interesting to a few people, so long as everyone can still find whatever they're looking for? Ther…

The advantage of deletionism is that users can have some confidence that anything they find on Wikipedia has received some attention from editors. Without deletion there'd be an unlimited number of pages, (100-𝜀)% being crap. If you search and don't find it on Wikipedia, you can look elsewhere. That's a better experience than finding unmaintained crap.

But with deletionism an unknown (yet significant) number of pages are still crap. One of the sad aspects of wikipedia is that their idea of "maintenance" enshrines crap and their idea of "sources" makes it incredibly difficult for experts in a (sub)field to improve an deficient article. That's orthogonal to the number of pages, though.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#164

Post by anonymous5133 »

doctorOb wrote: post #50
markivraknatap wrote: post #11

#17 New payment methods - Cryptocurrencies

The Bitcoin whitepaper came out just three months after this post, if I'm not mistaken.

First post was 2008-11-01

link: http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/1/#...

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#165

Post by anonymous5133 »

Zak wrote: post #79

As I was on HN in 2008 and paying attention to these sorts of things, I'll pretend I'm qualified to offer opinions. 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom - Streaming, both paid and ad-supported seems to be the answer here. It's prone to monopolies and music streaming doesn't seem to pay artists very well, but Netflix is producing quite a bit of original content. 2. Simplified browsing - mobile ate…

In regard to comment #13, I agree but companies are slowly starting to change. Just look at the rise of these coding "boot camps".

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#166

Post by anonymous5133 »

golergka wrote: post #32

#1 Spotify #2 Facebook #3 Facebook, Buzzfeed #8 Tinder #9 Instagram #10 Alibaba? #12 Facebook #13 Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy #14 Fitbit? #17 Stripe, crypto #19 AWS #27 IoT #29 WIX

>#13 Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy

All have fallen very short IMO. Coursera's courses are generally pretty watered down compared to the real undergraduate versions with a few exceptions here and there. Udemy focuses more on skill-based courses and they also have a huge issue with enforcing copyright. A lot of people are uploading pirated materials to the site and masking it as their own creation. The courses aren't that high quality compared to a traditional university setting. As with coursera, there are a few exceptions but overall most courses are low quality.

Khan academy is more for short tutorials where you need help here and there. It does play a role though but I don't think it is anywhere near possible to replacing traditional university education.

I think most people would agree that they want to see some sort of online learning system that can actually compete with a traditional university. As in, if I want to take physics 101 I can take it either at a traditional university or this online university. The online university would offer cheap/free and high quality courses such that you would basically be learning the same thing as the traditional course. It would also be possible to have a better overall learning experience thanks to internet/computer enhanced features (simulations, interactive videos etc.). Ultimately it would have some sort of certification, verification system that employers would place value upon, similar to the value currently being placed on BA degrees.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#167

Post by WoodenChair »

pascalxus wrote: post #34

I solved #16! If you are "searching" for a food or recipe based on it's nutritional contents (for example: I want foods/recipes high in potassium and selenium, but low in sodium), check out https://kale.world/c You can search by over 20 different nutrient types, weight them, and filter them to your hearts content.

Sliders do not appear to work on iPad.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#168

Post by lucideer »

abalone wrote: post #46

My take (just the first five): 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.) 2. Simplified browsing...Grandparents and small children don't want the full web... Apps. Remember this list is from just one year after the…

> 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom.

> Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.)

The disease that the RIAA is a symptom of is not piracy. Piracy doesn't have a negative impact on music sales. The disease is an industry that makes success (i.e. financial sustainability) inaccessible to most, and excessive (lucrative beyond need) to few. Spotify/Apple Music do precisely nothing to change this.

Beats and Google Play Music are closer to the mark, but still a good bit off.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#169

Post by mcny »

lucideer wrote: post #168
abalone wrote: post #46

My take (just the first five): 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.) 2. Simplified browsing...Grandparents and small children don't want the full web... Apps. Remember this list is from just one year after the…

> 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. > Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.) The disease that the RIAA is a symptom of is not piracy. Piracy doesn't have a negative impact on music sales. The disease is an industry that makes success (i.e. finan…

Winner take all is something freakonomics talks about: why do workers for drug dealers work for low pay and high risk knowing there's a higher chance of dying than getting on top? Why do so many high schoolers aspire to become NFL players knowing the chances are so slim?

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (2008)

#170

Post by lucideer »

mcny wrote: post #169
lucideer wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. > Spotify & Apple Music. Pay $10/mo for unlimited access to most music. Took the wind out of music piracy. (TV & film are undergoing a similar transition to subscription models, more slowly.) The disease that the RIAA is a symptom of is not piracy. Piracy doesn't have a negative impact on music sales. The disease is an industry that makes success (i.e. finan…

Winner take all is something freakonomics talks about: why do workers for drug dealers work for low pay and high risk knowing there's a higher chance of dying than getting on top? Why do so many high schoolers aspire to become NFL players knowing the chances are so slim?

It's a problem that occurs in a lot of industries, but one that's definitely significantly more severe in some than the average.

I wonder if there are common cross-industry causes, or more specific contextual reasons this occurs. I suspect the latter.

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