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YC: Requests for Startups

ycombinator.com

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Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#301

Post by snapcaster »

bradgessler wrote: post #175
snapcaster wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the narrative incorrect though? I feel like the underlying situation is described pretty well by that narrative in most cases. Inequality has increased pretty massively since tech has taken over the economy Maybe take a crack at it, what is incorrect with the "feudalism" narrative? what is the better way of framing it that you're implying exists?

It's both correct and incorrect at the same time and both "sides" are "right". Let's look at "Inequality has increased pretty massively". One anecdote paints a picture of billionaires getting richer and wages of the working class stagnating. Another narrative paints the opposite picture that tech has brought billions of people out of extreme poverty over the past few decades. Both are true and can be supported by dat…

I see what you mean, I will say that in people's lived day to day experience and happiness relative wealth matters a lot. I'm not sure it's fair to say both are "right" in the sense of you're just talking about different groups of people.

If people are more wealthy on some kind of absolute scale but they can no longer have the financial security to compete and secure a mate they're probably not going to be happy about it regardless of what underlying material net increases have been.

For example, I think if you're a white man in US (probably true for other groups just don't want to speak on things I don't have much experience with) and you aren't into education or computers you're _correct_ to be anti-tech. All it will mean is continuing degradation in your quality of life and feelings of self worth

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#302

Post by nradov »

turnsout wrote: post #291
nradov wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is already an insurer, and has been for years. They are self-insured for the health plans they offer to employees, and only rely on third-party payers for network management and claims administration. They could take that part in house but it's a low-margin business where they would have no particular advantage.

You mean they provide self-funded insurance, or are literally underwriting plans? It's quite common for companies to be self-funded/"self-insured," but rely on a large payer like Aetna to do all the work. If they cut out the middleman, they could negotiate directly with providers and Pharma, lowering the "fully loaded" cost of their payroll. It would be a massive savings. Once they did it for 1M people, the hard work…

There's no real underwriting per se. My understanding is that Amazon just pays claims as those come in. They rely on large payers to do all the network and formulary management including negotiating rates with providers. There's no reason to expect that Amazon could negotiate lower rates than Aetna, which already covers 22M lives.

In order to achieve any real savings, Amazon would have to build up a captive provider organization with practitioners as direct employees. Which all of the large payers are also increasingly doing. Basically the industry is consolidating and converging on the Kaiser Permanente business model. Eventually most US residents will obtain healthcare from a handful of huge nationwide "payvider" organizations.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#303

Post by plondon514 »

kilroy123 wrote: post #296
shrimpx wrote: post #281

To those who think this list will help them get into YC, or lament "why didn't I get into YC when my idea was squarely on this list": The YC application is a sales pitch, and you're not selling your idea, you're primarily selling your charisma and capacity to spin vision and sell. Second, you're selling your chemistry with your cofounders and stability of your relationship. Third, you're selling your capacity to buil…

From what I've heard, you also need to build up a lot of hype about yourself.

I don’t think this is true at all. I did YC and neither I nor my cofounders had any hype surrounding us or our idea. Unless if by hype you mean a handful of paying users then sure, that won’t hurt :)

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#304

Post by jaredmclaughlin »

skrbjc wrote: post #239
Animats wrote: post #221

Most of those take a lot more time and money than YC usually offers. There are some opportunities in "New Defense Technology". Something like a low-cost replacement for the Javelin anti-tank missile based on off the shelf phone camera parts ought to be possible. Of course, once that's out there, every insurgent group will have some. "Explainable AI" is really important. "Stablecoin finance" is mostly how to make sure…

"Bring manufacturing back to America". Is it possible to build a cell phone in the US? I think we should start more basic and work our way up. For example, there isn't a real reason we can't produce all of our domestic iron and steel needs in the USA, but we end up importing a lot right now. Same with aluminum, etc. But this isn't something YC is really going to help with unless they are funding manufacturing and ind…

We import a lot but we make a lot. I made a living supervising the manufacturing of the rolls used to roll steel in mill. We weren't exporting even the majority of the product.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#305

Post by theGnuMe »

nradov wrote: post #276
skrbjc wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone needs to tackle Epic in the EMR space and overthrow their closed system.

Y Combinator has already funded several Epic competitors in the EHR space including DrChrono, Medplum, and Akute Health. Always room for more. The requirements for an EHR that can work in any provider organization are so overwhelming that no startup could directly compete against Epic. But a startup could initially target a particular medical specialty or facility type that Epic doesn't support very well, then expand…

There needs to be anti-trust action taken against Epic.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#306

Post by rogerkirkness »

kilroy123 wrote: post #296
shrimpx wrote: post #281

To those who think this list will help them get into YC, or lament "why didn't I get into YC when my idea was squarely on this list": The YC application is a sales pitch, and you're not selling your idea, you're primarily selling your charisma and capacity to spin vision and sell. Second, you're selling your chemistry with your cofounders and stability of your relationship. Third, you're selling your capacity to buil…

From what I've heard, you also need to build up a lot of hype about yourself.

Not true for me. No social media other than HN and got in first try.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#307

Post by stn8188 »

shrimpx wrote: post #281

To those who think this list will help them get into YC, or lament "why didn't I get into YC when my idea was squarely on this list": The YC application is a sales pitch, and you're not selling your idea, you're primarily selling your charisma and capacity to spin vision and sell. Second, you're selling your chemistry with your cofounders and stability of your relationship. Third, you're selling your capacity to buil…

I think this is an excellent point. That being said, there are some warm fuzzies that come by seeing my grad school research topic listed here as well (the ML for physics simulations topic). Just some validation that the area I'm spending time in could not only help my specific niche, but be broadly attractive to VC funding to help grow it. Not that I'm anywhere near being ready to build anything (or near graduation, for that matter) but the conversation about it being a possibility came up recently and maybe sometime in the far future it could be a reality.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#308

Post by hef19898 »

arach wrote: post #294
hef19898 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the migration has to be auditable. And the data fields between the systems / databases mapped against business processes, on both systems. If you find a solution to automate that, cudos...

would it be fair to suggest an automated migration solution (therefore less manual) might be more auditable than human driven? You'd probably start with a human in the loop solution but mapping should be a solvable problem

No, from my experience it wouldn't be fair to say that.

There is a reason why migration projects are yearlong, multi million projects. Go through one, ideally multiple, of those first before looking at automating any of that. Added benefit, jobs at those projects pay incredibly well for the functional consultants involved. And when, when not if, automation doesn't work out, you still don't have to worry about a job ever again.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#309

Post by miki123211 »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #131
codegeek wrote: post #104

"ELIMINATING MIDDLEMEN IN HEALTHCARE" I honestly am game for this even though I have zero experience in healthcare but as a consumer, where do I start how bad it is. I would do anything to change our shitty healthcare system where there are so many middlemen b/w me and my doctor. Recent event: Went to ER because my toddler son spilled hot coffee on him (thankfully he is ok and wasn't as terrible as it could have been…

Let me pitch an idea that I've long been noodling on that I think gen AI finally enables -- automated healthcare patient billing support for individuals. In essence, when you get that bill in the mail, you can fight with the hospital to decrease it, fight with your insurer to cover more of it, or not pay it and fight with a debt collector down the line. Maybe there's an alternative world where an AI agent does this f…

This is called a robo lawyer, there was an YC startup (whose name I don't remember any more) who tried this and basically had to shut down for obvious reasons.

Companies don't want poor people to have easy access to this stuff.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#310

Post by politician »

Are there any open-source tools or charts for modeling the tax liability for a pre-revenue startup that primarily is doing software development R&D with some number of employees and some amount of investment?
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