I think there is a germ of an idea in
- antithesis - topless computing - programmable company
I was surprised to see ERP as a real option - interesting
YC: Requests for Startups
311–320 of 582 posts
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#312I spent a great while inside of medical during the pandemic and it was… interesting.
There are some incredibly large interests in the space that wield intense power and control over various markets. There is also a profound degree of inefficiency in a lot of what’s happening.
The question is whether many of those inefficiencies are technology problems or if they are intentionally constructed for the many reasons these things are created.
I feel like there needs to be almost a Walmart size company pushing down on prices with that kind of scale before many of these structures will be broken, and unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be the direction most things are going (oh they exist in scale, just not direction). I was hoping Amazon’s entry into the market would do it. It didn’t.
Might be time for a different direction in health care entirely. Kaiser had it right, but I don’t think they executed well and they are largely a company rooted in past thinking in how they are structured.
Combining health care and subscription with ongoing medical care is definitely the direction of things to come. The fundamental shift needs to be moving the system from fixing problems to keeping people actually healthy, and that means that healthy people need to pay for the system or the entire thing gets it’s incentives inverted (as it is now). This is a fundamental shift, but if it were done right it would be a massive company and really change the world. I’ve been looking in to how to build this over the last year and know I want to go in this direction.
And there is also a ton of interesting businesses in generics.
Just some thoughts from someone who has been in many aspects of the medical industry over my career. Hope it inspires some good discussion with my favorite community.
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#313APPLYING MACHINE LEARNING TO ROBOTICS Exactly what I thought would be absolutely terrific: a robot commanded by voice that poses floor tiles. That's v1. V2 builds a house. I can't think of any "toy" as exciting as this atm. Plus you pose the first tile of this and you're a trillionaire.
Tesla's robot shoupd be able to do just that already! Well, depebding on who's wearing the costume that is...
thank god someone mentioned elon's companies, it had been about 5 seconds and i was starting to worry it wasn't cool to blindly hate him anymore
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The unwarranted hate on HN It's only "unwarranted" if you're willing to be blind to the entire history of crypto. > The crypto economy advances year after year, Yes, the speculation and scams in crypto grow year after year. > but you would never know it perusing HN. People don't only peruse HN. We've yet to see that amazing growing economy grow beyond speculative trading and scams [1] [1] Yes, there's a small part…
We get it, you don't like crypto. You would be better off leaving the snark and sarcasm at home if you want to get your points across without sounding bitter. Your last line completely contradicts the previous point you were trying to make-- it's clear to anyone that's paying attention that crypto economy has objectively grown beyond speculative trading and scams.
ad hominem, ad hominem, ad hominem, "it's clear to anyone".
nope. it's not clear. and crypto-proponents who can't even show this beyond kindergarten-level name calling don't help
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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…
The US currently imports only 17% of its steel, mostly from Canada and Mexico. The US also exports steel, but imports are about 4x exports. So the US steel industry is doing OK. 60% of US steel consumption is now from recycled steel. Nucor became the largest US steel manufacturer by making that work.
US Steel is now Japanese, btw
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 e…
it's complicated because it's complicated and the pay is good sounds like good white collar jobs about to get automated away
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even more to the point: what does crypto add in this scenario? Would the company be just as effective doing all that regulatory work, then handling settlement in local currency? (Or just using USD as the “stablecoin”?) The best business ideas I’ve heard for crypto inevitably don’t need crypto.
Countries want US dollars. They want dollars to use to buy goods, which are usually priced in USD, and for debt interest payments. Countries sell services (tourism) and goods (products and commodities) to earn dollars. However another major source is by creating their own local currency (i.e. Brazilian Reals), inflating it (5 to 10% common in Brazil), and banning citizens from holding foreign currency (i.e. citizens…
So you want to pay in dollars, but at the same time "figure out local laws and taxes" even though at the same time local laws and taxes don't allow payment in dollars...
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tesla's robot shoupd be able to do just that already! Well, depebding on who's wearing the costume that is...
thank god someone mentioned elon's companies, it had been about 5 seconds and i was starting to worry it wasn't cool to blindly hate him anymore
Come on, the spandex robot presentation was so cringe it was almost hilarious. Even the dancing was bad.
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could employers just pay USD to foreign workers who have something like a Wise account (i.e. to keep it in USD and convert it to their local currency at will)?
The US is blessed with stable laws, individualism as an ethos, and a culture that asks for forgiveness over asking for permission. Corruption is less overt here. In less developed countries, it's the opposite. Wise and other centralized money transmission platforms are ripe targets to apply government pressure, with capital limits, currency conversion games, freezing accounts, and so on. Cryptocurrency inverts the wh…
> Having a crypto wallet is like having an offshore bank account
> It makes collecting taxes ... harder.
How does that mesh with "If some company systematically went country by country, learned the local HR laws, ... and then handled all accounting and taxes"?
Re: YC: Requests for Startups
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't buy (or sell) cybersecurity. It's a property of things, not a thing in itself. The same will certainly apply to the intra-head security you want against fake content and propaganda.
I apologize, but I don't understand your point. Could you please explain to me what you mean by that or how the fact that you "can't buy cybersecurity" contradicts what I wrote? The cyber security market was valued at USD 153.65 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from USD 172.32 billion in 2023 to USD 424.97 billion in 2030, so apparently people are buying cybersecurity solutions.
Almost the entirety of that market does not actually improve the security of anything.
The rest looks much more like services than products.