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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?

#161

Post by heisenzombie »

bityard wrote: post #122
motohagiography wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than asking my mechanic if he would buy from me (answered strong yes), no, I have not tested it. I look forward to seeing the Launch HN or product hunt launch if you or someone runs with it. It could be run out of a small town near to an airport somewhere, 2-3 employees. Website could have where in the queue your job was. Complementary goods for extra margin could be in small, specific lubricants (food grade, h…

I had this same idea a few years back while rebuilding my classic Suzuki GS850 motorcycle. Parts and gaskets are not hard to find for most old Suzukis (thankfully) but there are plenty of older motorcycles, cars, and other engine-related equipment where if you need a gasket, your only option is to make one. Many gaskets are intricate enough that making one by hand is extremely time-consuming, and that's assuming you…

There are plenty of companies that will custom-manufacture gaskets for prototyping/custom 1-off jobs, though I don't know if they're generally geared up to sell to end-customers in a streamlined way.

The tools generally used are "flash cutters"[1] (the industrial version of your wife's vinyl cutter); waterjet cutters; or laser cutters. They're all CNC controlled. You need a DXF or other vector file to send to these machines. They're often quite user-friendly now, with either projectors or cameras to help position the cuts on the workpiece, and vacuum-beds which make holding down material quick and easy.

[1] https://cutting-systems.co.uk/flashcut-flex-series-2/

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

#163

Post by dmd »

cityzen wrote: post #86
julian_t wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just sorting out my late father's stuff. He was an avid photographer and so I've got hundreds - probably a couple of thousand - 35mm slides, along with a load of printed ephemera. I do have a slide scanner but it only works one at a time, so there's no way I'm going to do all those. There are a couple of places that will do it but prices are prohibitive, so I'd definitely consider a service like this.

Have you seen DigMyPics.com? I knew the owner in Phoenix, he built the whole pipeline custom. Very smart guy and cool business.

+1 for DigMyPics. I digitized more than 10k slides and photos with them and they did a phenomenal jobs.

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

#166

Post by PM_me_your_math »

raunometsa wrote: post #37
jdthedisciple wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question: How can your platform help me besides rendering me in awe of other founders?

One thing is motivation – to show that it's possible and many solo devs are running profitable interent startups. But also, you can read Q&A-s with the founders about how they started, got their first customers, etc.

Yet, people don't need motivation. They need to make movements. Deciding to do something is not the same as doing it. I can still see the value in learning what others are doing. It may offer ideas and most of them market-related, such as letting you know that, yes - there is an active market here for similar ideas/audiences. To me, that's the biggest take-away and perhaps the greatest question since it is foolish to build something and then struggling to find an audience for it. This contrasted with finding the market first, studying them, and then building out a solution around what that audience has objectively expressed as needs and wants.

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

#167

Post by mamcx »

I work on a niche eCommerce app (https://www.bestsellerapp.net) that I only sell in Colombia for now.

Is mostly about making orders/invoices for small companies.

A LOT of people are like me that work in this space that you never heard of. Doing the "same" kind of apps that have a bigger brand but because we serve locally can do a better job there.

---

Other option is open source. I think https://tablam.org could become an Access/excel option for my customers for the same reasons.

Open source itself is not very profitable (heck, I love to work more on TablaM than my ecommerce app but that one is what bring food).

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

#168

Post by afigkka »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #119
afigkka wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

government involvement is the root of the problem, care used to be familial and community responsibility which we abandoned. I'm already paying the highest average tax rate since the war to pay for current pensions that are unfunded and thereby expect future generations to give me their money when I'm old. Poor outcomes

I would have thought that agglomeration of economic opportunities and desirable quality of life in urban areas for working age populations is some of the “root” of the problem. And also the aging demographics, leaving fewer and fewer younger age people to support more and more older people. >I'm thinking if each rich old person in the village paid a subscription for a dedicated local care team who lived together in a…

I live in a shared house with a doctor who earns most care staff are on £12 an hour where I live

a care home ratio of 1 staff to 6 members is good, (1 nurse + 3 carers to 30 people is not uncommon for a shift)

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

#169

Post by hardwaresofton »

bityard wrote: post #123
hardwaresofton wrote: post #106

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 peo…

There are lots of players in the enterprise space for compliance and security of software, e.g. Black Duck. I think the trick would be to figure out where those solutions are lacking for smaller dev teams and try to serve them

Thanks for mentioning black duck — yeah this would definitely start out looking like a consultancy at first I guess

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

#170

Post by thinkmcfly »

There is shitloads of money to be made in Idaho off of the national nuclear labs there. Can you machine simple parts and secure an American supply chain? Can you get security clearance? Can you handle living in that state that has such horrible governance?
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