171–180 of 239 posts
Having exited earlier this year from the start up I co-founded, I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I weigh up what to do next. We arrived at our start-up idea 10 years ago in much the way pg says you should, which was more by accident and serendipity more than anything else. So, I can vouch for the veracity of his advice. I came across the following quote by William S. Burroughs recently: Happiness is a by…
Free startup idea for the day. 3D design software for the masses. It seems to cover lots of the bases in the article. I feel the need for this right now (just this weekend I wanted to print out a plastic part to fix the broken piece on my lawn mower). 3D printing seems to be an up-and-coming area. The hardware for this is still being perfected, but the software seems further behind. There are lots of competitors maki…
Problem with 3d printing (and one blemish on this otherwise fantastic essay) is that 3d printing related stuff I think is too sexy to be a good startup idea. Much like video games or developer tools, it's too meta and every nerd on the Earth who has read any sci-fi would jump at the chance to work on these types of problems. That's not to say that being an employee of a company working on these wouldn't be a lot of f…
I worked on what I, at the time, called software to do "3D printing" in the late 1990s. CAM - Computer Assisted Machining - software. (It was CNC drilling, not additive sintering).
Sure, it was very expensive (like a mainframe), not cheap (like a PC). However, it definitely wasn't sexy. Nobody, not even sci-fi nerds, was jumping to work on that type of problem.
It's actually quite schlepy, at least the part we did. Lots of maths and problems with floating point rounding errors, and weird edge cases of strange shapes.
Bet there are plenty of schlepy bits in the new, cheap world of 3D printing. We're certainly early enough, it has nowhere near even begun to play out.
Only tangentially on topic, but I imagine someone here knows the answer: is there currently an Airbnb for cars? AirBnb lets you monetize your spare housing capacity for rent. Congested cities are full of cars with spare capacity that isn't being monetized. I'm not the only one that's noticed this. Someone will eventually try to use smartphones + ridesharing to use this spare capacity. Is anyone doing it at present?
Before Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen built and tried to sell a hardware product (!) called the Traf-O-Data. The device processed raw data from roadway traffic counters and printed out human-readable reports for traffic engineers. Luckily for the two budding entrepreneurs, they were unable to close the first sale, leading them subsequently to pivot into making Basic interpreters for microcomputers.[1]
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[1] http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=45
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Thanks! The answer I generally give to "who are your clients?" is "yes" -- it's so across the board that even I was surprised. The median client really varies on location -- in NY it's typically a guy heading out to the Hamptons or Jersey Shore for the weekend of fun, but it's also women looking for a fun gift, celebrities looking for better service (though, somewhat surprisingly, celebrities more frequently rent wha…
tx for the answer. due to the price tag I always thought most of the people that afford it, can afford to buy one as well. I guess you pay a lot of insurance. have you had any problems like 'spoiled kid rents a murcielago, wrecks on the first corner?' or some fun/weird stories? (needless to say the whole business of owning such cars must be fun :) maybe you could do an AMA on reddit)
I recall someone did a similar AMA a few years ago, but indeed, maybe it's time for another one.
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Thanks! The answer I generally give to "who are your clients?" is "yes" -- it's so across the board that even I was surprised. The median client really varies on location -- in NY it's typically a guy heading out to the Hamptons or Jersey Shore for the weekend of fun, but it's also women looking for a fun gift, celebrities looking for better service (though, somewhat surprisingly, celebrities more frequently rent wha…
Can you give us an HN discount? I've always wanted to rent one of your cars..
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This idea strikes me squarely in the category of "Yeah, maybe I could see using something like that."
Of course you do, otherwise I wouldn't be frustrated. =P
If they were a "yes", they would take out their wallet and offer you money. "Something like that" means "not what you are offering".
"Maybe I could see using something like that" is what people say when they want to be nice to you. Even "I would use that" is basically a "no".