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YC: Requests for Startups

ycombinator.com

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Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#391

Post by neilv »

burkaman wrote: post #236
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…

> Is it possible to build a cell phone in the US? Definitely possible, this one is mostly US-built: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/

It's a good sign that Purism can do this at all, even though it's a boutique/fringe product right now.

Note that it's $1,999+ for mostly made/assembled in USA version, vs. $999 for Purism's made in China version.

And China is more capable at scaling, if the product were ever competing on price rather than principle. So still a ways to go to be competitive at manufacturing.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#392

Post by Fomite »

frob wrote: post #367

Today I learned that YC not only funds military companies, but encourages new startups to focus on killing machines and spying. And to point to the spy firm Palantir as an example of a model company shows how morally bankrupt YC truly is. Anything for a buck, right? All this while those same defense firms are currently making tens of billions of dollars supplying hardware to kill hundreds of civilians a day right thi…

Move fast and break things*

*By things we mean people.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#393

Post by Fomite »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #222

Some of these are not like the others. Also some are way more achievable by software-type engineer-types and the financial associates in their ecosystem, due to extreme familiarity with that particular landscape. Some also require a little more commitment than starting a small software company. If I was going to split the combined vision into only two categories it would be like this: - Applying machine learning to r…

I'd move "Foundation models for biological systems" to Moonshotty efforts. Foundational models for biological systems are hard, and honestly I think require a degree of patience that is at odds with VC funding.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#394

Post by jryle70 »

frob wrote: post #367

Today I learned that YC not only funds military companies, but encourages new startups to focus on killing machines and spying. And to point to the spy firm Palantir as an example of a model company shows how morally bankrupt YC truly is. Anything for a buck, right? All this while those same defense firms are currently making tens of billions of dollars supplying hardware to kill hundreds of civilians a day right thi…

Ukraine suffer from daily Russia's drone attack. How about a low cost network that detects, disables or shots down those drones before they can get to their targets? That also, and truly is, a defense system.

Do you have any problems with that?

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#395

Post by yashap »

hef19898 wrote: post #33
yashap wrote: post #22

> A way to end cancer What they’re proposing here seems so doable. Certainly not EASY, but POSSIBLE. Companies tackling this problem could legitimately change the world.

They do already as we speak.

The idea is basically “MRIs for all, so that we can consistently catch early stage cancer before it spreads.”

They don’t go into specifics, but it seems to me like this means making MRIs cheap enough, with low enough false positive rates, that every day ppl can get them frequently. Probably ~twice a year, given how fast cancer spreads.

I’m aware of companies doing proactive MRIs that cost ~$2K/scan, that aren’t covered by health insurance. Great for the wealthy, but seems infeasible for every day ppl. I’m not aware of anyone legitimately trying to make this affordable/scalable enough that most people can get scanned frequently. Maybe they’re out there and I just haven’t heard of them? Or were you referring more to the ~$2K/scan companies?

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#396

Post by jryle70 »

appplication wrote: post #358

> The UK became the world's richest country in the 19th century by being the workshop of the world Ahh.. haha. Yes it was certainly the innovation and industrialism of the UK that did it, not the inevitable result of centuries of imperialism, conquest and subjugation.

Huh? Spain and Portugal were also huge empires yet they never became industrial powers. Germany had very few colonies, yet achieved rapid industrialization in the 19th century.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#397

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#398

Post by snowmaker »

meow_mix wrote: post #272

I'd be curious about YC's thoughts on founders breaking into manufacturing/robotics from a normal SWE background

One of the interesting potential futures is one in which every software engineer can build awesome robotics systems.

What really unlocked ML was when you didn't need to have a deep academic background in ML to be able to use it. Now that the primitives exist, every software engineer can build a compelling ML app.

I'm not sure if robotics is there yet, but if not it probably will be.

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