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Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

ycombinator.com

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Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#261

Post by anamax »

foompy_katt wrote: post #168

This is going to have to be a multipart comment, I wrote so much: 1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. My idea for this is included in a more robust solution for #17. 17. New payment methods. Here's the $100 billion dollar idea (if it could be pulled together). Make a new credit card (or work with an existing company). Consumers would sign agreements to exclusively use that card (more financial i…

Assuming that "less than listed retail" is a bargain is false. There are lots of things where a huge fraction of the customers already pay less than retail. There are even some where the vast majority do. (Hotels may be one of them - I've never paid anywhere near the rates posted in the rooms.) "Listed retail price" is a fiction - it is manipulated to maximize revenue and need not have anything to do with typical price.

Interestingly enough, the discrepancy between "listed retail" and reality is especially large for high-status/cost items. Many rich folks seem to think that they're entitled to significant discounts on "bling".

> retroactively charge them more for everything they've bought recently, since they are now demonstrating evidence of heightened income

The fact that someone has high income does not imply that they're willing to spend a lot of money for any specific product/service. (They might be spending their money on back debt or saving for something.)

> some rich people might get annoyed that others are systematically paying less for the exact same goods

Rich people aren't going to pay more. If you're building a system that requires that they do, it's dead.

FWIW - I've never seen a decent plan from someone who disliked the domain in which he was working. Such people always think that their policy preferences trump facts.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#262

Post by busyant »

pixcavator wrote: post #58

Regarding #27, is there anyone who is working on image processing for digital cameras?

Apple (or someone like them) needs to make a digital camera with iPod simplicity.

I bought my parents a digital camera a few years ago and it might as well have a plutonium core the way my parents deal with it.

Primarily they hand it to me on social occasions and say, "take some pictures...I don't know how to use this thing"

Just a simple camera with these features and nothing more:

1. on/off button

2. zoom in /out

3. take picture

4. review pictures

5. delete picture

6. transfer all pictures to walmart via wifi (you walk into the store, press a button and walmart slurps them up).

I'd do it, but as pg says, hardware scares me.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#263

Post by anamax »

agentbleu wrote: post #215
jerry5 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry on the first 10 or so pages I saw just blah blah. Don't spam the forum here if you have nothing to offer.

To give you one idea about the design and how it would treat people like you within it, (I notice that your kama on HN (jerry5) is -10) The creatocracy recognizes that one size does not fit all, treats all according to their history and respect. You would find that your voice counted less with regards voting rights and you may well find that if your attitude became a burden on others that your tax level would rise hi…

Why do so many of the "better than capitalism" theories insist on "we will punish you for your thoughts"?

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#264

Post by narag »

cturner wrote: post #183
narag wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm obviously sending the wrong message in the way that I promoted it, because I found artists to be not very receptive at all to the idea of them giving away their music. I took the first steps for a similar thing in Spain a couple of years ago. Laws here are different so the problem to solve might not be the same. Anyway, the conclusion was that it's a hardware problem. It's possible, even easy, to atract musician…

Interesting. If you're in London at any point in near future and want to catch up send me a message. Did you end up with any content? And if so, can we stick it in my system? :)

How do you send a message here? I don't travel much, and spoken English is difficult for me. But if you want some more details, I'm nico.aragon at gmail. I'm on holydays so my connectivity is random, be patient.

I didn't gather any content. The idea was to create a complete service for young groups and later trying to attract some stars, I thought that I would do the online and legal parts and my cofounder the musical part. In the end I was researching everything. I had a regular work, so I gave up when I found out that external funding was a need.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#265

Post by gsmaverick »

benbeltran wrote: post #39

About two years ago I wanted tot make a craigslist competitor for my area... But it was just me alone so I never kicked it off. I've been wanting to revive it though. I made some preliminary designs. (the design tests are oooold and in spanish though). http://nsovocal.com/lalista/ http://nsovocal.com/lalista/login.htm http://nsovocal.com/lalista/registro.htm http://nsovocal.com/lalista/list.htm http://nsovocal.com/la…

Contact me at gavin.schulz [at] gmail cause I'm interested in your design, and possibly developing it.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#267

Post by Tichy »

dood wrote: post #54

An idea for new news: Start with the reddit concept: users submit and vote on links to articles, blog posts and so forth. Then, allow users to tag each link (or otherwise add metadata), and vote on the relevence of the story to the tag. Also allow users to vote on the trustworthiness of each link and/or each source or author. Could also allow users to vote on other users, to get networks of trust. Then you just take…

All that voting could become tiresome, though.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#269

Post by ph0rque »

greyman wrote: post #107
thaumaturgy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but I hear what mechanical_fish is saying, too. I suffer from much the same problem: many elements on the list are things which I have thought about to an extent that I've worked out every single step needed to make them work. The problem is, I haven't the time to pursue everything I would like to. Let's take the "simplified browsing" problem, for example. I worked phone technical support for an internet…

"there is a huge, absolutely massive number of people out there that need a simpler computer" This is a good observation. Anyway, the issue here is, whether that massive number will have some common notion of what the simpler computer actually is.

I believe it is possible to start with a metaphor that everyone educated enough to want to use a computer understands: a book (my 1.5-year-old daughter qualifies: she would love to push the buttons on my laptop keyboard, were it allowed; she also loves to look at (picture) books). XO 2 is the right step in that direction: see http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006986.html for details. Once the hardware is in place, the software is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to design and build.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#270

Post by dood »

Tichy wrote: post #267
dood wrote: post #54

An idea for new news: Start with the reddit concept: users submit and vote on links to articles, blog posts and so forth. Then, allow users to tag each link (or otherwise add metadata), and vote on the relevence of the story to the tag. Also allow users to vote on the trustworthiness of each link and/or each source or author. Could also allow users to vote on other users, to get networks of trust. Then you just take…

All that voting could become tiresome, though.

True, it would need a nice interface which makes the benefit to the user very clear. Of course you wouldn't need all users to vote all the time, as long you have enough users voting occasionally.

I do agree, this sort of approach would require significantly more engagement/interaction from users than news readers are accustomed to. But there is a lot of people who want news, if some small fraction were convinced they benefit from a bit of input they could get much better news, and it would also help give better news to people who do little or no explicit inputting.

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