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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?

#191

Post by samsquire »

Kinrany wrote: post #189
samsquire wrote: post #153

Let me share an idea. Imagine lifestyle subscriptions. You have an app that is a digital catalogue where you type in your salary and then it tells you what packages you can buy with your salary. Think of it as a life personal trainer and adviser with a shop attached. * Coffee at Starbucks every other morning on way to work * Gym once a week * You could get a job at these companies if you tried. * I drink coca cola or…

This seems like a good idea. The consumer gets a discount, the store gets high quality info about future demand.

The company would be a logistical powerhouse and person expert

They would know how to produce good results from people subscribing to be musicians or vegans for successful outcomes. They could send you instruments or food parcels. They would schedule your week socially and free time. Watch this show.

They would be measurers.

They would be marketing experts.

The goal is to sell someone a dream and to live the dream.

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

#192

Post by jononor »

motohagiography wrote: post #38

There was one I looked into building to solve a problem, which was gasket printing. If you are having motorcycle or other engine repair done, waiting for a gasket can take a week or sometimes more depending on supplier location, and it's something printed from gasket paper. A website where you can print aftermarket gaskets on demand, and even do it with CAD files or derive them from edge detection in photos would mak…

I also had that idea. I came at it from the side of thinking about using computer vision for (semi) automated CAD file production, and gaskets was one of the best usecases I could come up with.

One the fulfilment side, gaskets can be laser cut, and there are services which offer this on demand. Batching up multiple orders into a sheet would make it more cost efficient, along with always printing Nx the required amount and then stock the rest.

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

#194

Post by karmakurtisaani »

aynyc wrote: post #113
zdragnar wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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".

NJ has entered the chat!

X has entered the chat is a funny meme and all, but most of us have no idea what it is referring to. If there's something interesting behind the meme, it would be nicer to elaborate on it.

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

#196

Post by grzes »

gofreddygo wrote: post #136

For months now, I've been thinking and backing off from building a virtual queue for small shops (think barbers, food stalls at events, anything where people queue up) Scan a qr code, get in line. Or via a url or app. Sounds simple enough, useful enough. Friends easily pointed out issues with how this could go wrong and with very little extra time after work, I dropped it. Comments on this thread just stirred it all…

what about this: https://www.qmatic.com/solutions/virtual-queuing-system ? isnt this idea implemented already by various entities?

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

#197

Post by joshka »

CrypticShift wrote: post #116
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…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the market for musicians’ audio software and hardware is underdocumented. Despite this outstanding explosion (especially software), I fail to find "insiders" or dedicated open communities writing articles or books on the business side. You mostly hear the musical side because that's what the audience wants at kvr or SOS... Don't you think this will give people like you (especially those n…

Definitely agree there's not much in the way of going from idea to business. I'd love to read this sort of thing too.

There's a little bit of this on the Valhalla blog[1] IIRC (great reading if you're into DSP tech). You might also find pieces of insight by looking at some of the hackaday posts or by looking at some of the DIY Synth groups on facebook etc. There's definitely some interesting stories there of Kickstarters that over-promise and under-deliver (late/buggy/etc), ISLA Kordbot[2] springs to mind as an example that was a long wait, as well as some darlings like the Oxi One[3]. Perhaps reading Kickstarter comments and the associated forum posts could be a viable strategy for getting more into this field.

[1]: https://valhalladsp.com/blog/

[2]: https://www.islainstruments.com/product/kordbot/

[3]: https://oxiinstruments.com/

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

#198

Post by joshka »

beardyw wrote: post #29
LadyCailin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always been interested in writing VSTs, but haven’t really known where to start (I also need a motivating idea for one, but I’m sure that would come.) Do you have any resources that you would recommend for an experienced programmer and composer?

VST 2 was not so hard as you would imagine to get started. They are just a dll with a well defined interface. Sadly 2 is now deprecated by Steinberg but probably available. Don't know about VST 3. However ... getting deep into DSP is another thing!

Check out the valhalla blog for DSP stuff. https://valhalladsp.com/blog/

Also, you might want to checkout CLAP rather than VST https://cleveraudio.org/

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

#199

Post by esperent »

ozim wrote: post #176
esperent wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every bakery and independent pizza shop has point-of-sale software now, but how many have back-end software that reads the sales figures and can tell them to order [sugar, flour, cheese] before they run out? Huh, I basically just spent my entire week working on this for our bakery (and the last 6 months on other software and systems like recipe management, team messaging, online sales, social marketing and more). W…

Not to say that small businesses cheat on taxes always … but quite often they don’t want their stock to be accurately counted.

You're not wrong. And I think for very small businesses this is fine, maybe even necessary.

I guess I'm talking about one step above that, for example when a business grows beyond a single shop with just a couple of staff. At this point the you'll have an accountant and pos software and so on and inaccurately reporting stock or sales would actually take quite a bit of effort. Your staff would have to be in on it, for example. And staff that know you are dishonest are more likely to decide that they can be dishonest too, after all if the business is cheating the government surely it's ok if they cheat the business just a little bit? Overall I think it's not worth it and it's not the kind of business we want to run. I'd rather find extra efficiency elsewhere.

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

#200

Post by esperent »

justansite wrote: post #127
esperent wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every bakery and independent pizza shop has point-of-sale software now, but how many have back-end software that reads the sales figures and can tell them to order [sugar, flour, cheese] before they run out? Huh, I basically just spent my entire week working on this for our bakery (and the last 6 months on other software and systems like recipe management, team messaging, online sales, social marketing and more). W…

You should check out Toast and Xtrachef.

We are only using software that allows all data to stay on our own servers. Open source if possible.
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