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Ideas for Startups (2005)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#41

Post by thewhitetulip »

dasmoth wrote: post #12
CalChris wrote: post #4

I'm deeply skeptical of anyone who wants to start a startup. I'm very respectful of people who have great ideas. One thing about startup first is that it ends up with a lot of duplication. Granted Google and Facebook were duplicates. And so it's fitting that they are in essence aggregators. But I'm an engineer (and not a VC) and I have a natural inclination towards the Woz approach. The magic happens in the process o…

One reason to want to do a startup (in the abstract) is because you're unhappy with the degree of autonomy at most 9-5 jobs. I somewhat think a bootstrapped-profitable business might be a better route though, if you can manage that.

I met with a "startup" founder who wanted to "disrupt" hiring. His idea was to provide a platform for hiring which would be audio/video based and would use some magic to connect companies and people. As if parsing a resume wasn't enough and like recruiters don't know how to use Skype. All the time we were talking, he was explaining more about "disruption" rather than talking concretely about the idea itself.

Sam Altman, in the startup course in Stanford said a nice quote, " don't start a startup just because you want to start one, work on something and if it clicks, then start a startup"

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#42

Post by vasanthkay »

pascalxus wrote: post #16

Anyone can think of ideas. I'm sure we've all got entire documents with lists of ideas we never followed up on. The hard part is finding opportunities to create value for others (making stuff people actually want). Generally speaking, people already have the stuff they want that they can have. Now, I'm sure Paul Graham would say people's desires are infinite and there's still many unmet needs and wants. For All the s…

We can often misunderstood the value of ideas. Like you mentioned - many people have thought about flying cars, internet or space travel. That doesn't make us smart or a visionary. Ideas need to have a possible course of action. Everything else is just a wishlist or a desire.

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#43

Post by icantdrive55 »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #40
brian-armstrong wrote: post #32

I actually think there's still potentially room for a new phone OS, though maybe only just barely. iOS is in dire need of new UX patterns. Take the text selector for example, which felt like a stopgap when it was made and hasn't been changed since its release. There a ton of papercuts like this in iOS. I don't use Android regularly so I can't speak as much to its weaknesses, but I believe there's a lot of room for im…

We need a full fledged OS for the mobile, despite the fact that Steve Jobs created iOS so that phone softwares won't be "baby software" we are still not seeing many apps which are mobile centered, they build the webapp first and as an after thought the mobile app comes into place. I want my phone OS and my laptop OS to be in sync, I want to program using my phone and many many more features. But both iOS and Android…

1. " I want to program using my phone and many many more features."

Yes--and yes! I actually don't have an activated smart phone. Partially, it's the monthly data cost--that just irks me. I think there's collusion going on. But a bigger part of me is I don't want to get used to just receiving information. I want to work on that little device. I want to build.

2. I want to see data costs go down. I would like to see more companies combining wifi, with cell signals. Someting along the line of what Republic Wireless is trying to pull off. Actually, I might just sign up for Republic wireless tomorrow. I think any smart phone that radically brings down monthly costs will be huge. Those $50 monthly phone bills are rediculious, at this point in the game.

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#44

Post by icebraining »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #40
brian-armstrong wrote: post #32

I actually think there's still potentially room for a new phone OS, though maybe only just barely. iOS is in dire need of new UX patterns. Take the text selector for example, which felt like a stopgap when it was made and hasn't been changed since its release. There a ton of papercuts like this in iOS. I don't use Android regularly so I can't speak as much to its weaknesses, but I believe there's a lot of room for im…

We need a full fledged OS for the mobile, despite the fact that Steve Jobs created iOS so that phone softwares won't be "baby software" we are still not seeing many apps which are mobile centered, they build the webapp first and as an after thought the mobile app comes into place. I want my phone OS and my laptop OS to be in sync, I want to program using my phone and many many more features. But both iOS and Android…

If you want to program using your phone, here's a C/C++ IDE and compiler, which doesn't even require root: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.n0n3m4.dro...

There are also interpreters for many languages, various tooling and even full-blown ports of GNU/Linux distros: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cuntubuntu...

Frankly, people overstate the lockdown-ness of Android itself. Maybe your specific model was particularly locked down, but introducing a new OS won't solve that problem.

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#45

Post by BjoernKW »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #41
dasmoth wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason to want to do a startup (in the abstract) is because you're unhappy with the degree of autonomy at most 9-5 jobs. I somewhat think a bootstrapped-profitable business might be a better route though, if you can manage that.

I met with a "startup" founder who wanted to "disrupt" hiring. His idea was to provide a platform for hiring which would be audio/video based and would use some magic to connect companies and people. As if parsing a resume wasn't enough and like recruiters don't know how to use Skype. All the time we were talking, he was explaining more about "disruption" rather than talking concretely about the idea itself. Sam Altm…

> As if parsing a resume wasn't enough and like recruiters don't know how to use Skype

Actually, it isn't and no, they often don't. The way many recruiters behave makes you think they're not allowed to use the internet at all.

Recruiting or rather the market for expertise is broken. It's not a problem of technology though but one of cargo cult practices and entrenched middlemen.

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#46

Post by samcheng »

mathnode wrote: post #10
xcoding wrote: post #2

What is your next idea for startup?

A regional Condom Drone Delivery Service. - "Rubber up 'bruv", in the UK. - "Rubber a brother" for the US. Expand to CAAS (contraceptives as a service) when applying for second round, pre-ipo.

Contraceptives as a Service already exists! https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/these-apps-deliver-bi...

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#49

Post by ENGNR »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #40
brian-armstrong wrote: post #32

I actually think there's still potentially room for a new phone OS, though maybe only just barely. iOS is in dire need of new UX patterns. Take the text selector for example, which felt like a stopgap when it was made and hasn't been changed since its release. There a ton of papercuts like this in iOS. I don't use Android regularly so I can't speak as much to its weaknesses, but I believe there's a lot of room for im…

We need a full fledged OS for the mobile, despite the fact that Steve Jobs created iOS so that phone softwares won't be "baby software" we are still not seeing many apps which are mobile centered, they build the webapp first and as an after thought the mobile app comes into place. I want my phone OS and my laptop OS to be in sync, I want to program using my phone and many many more features. But both iOS and Android…

Maybe if Apple didn't take 30% cut off SaaS revenue just for signing up on an app, people would go mobile first for serious applications

Re: Ideas for Startups (2005)

#50

Post by thewhitetulip »

icebraining wrote: post #44
thewhitetulip wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a full fledged OS for the mobile, despite the fact that Steve Jobs created iOS so that phone softwares won't be "baby software" we are still not seeing many apps which are mobile centered, they build the webapp first and as an after thought the mobile app comes into place. I want my phone OS and my laptop OS to be in sync, I want to program using my phone and many many more features. But both iOS and Android…

If you want to program using your phone, here's a C/C++ IDE and compiler, which doesn't even require root: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.n0n3m4.dro... There are also interpreters for many languages, various tooling and even full-blown ports of GNU/Linux distros: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cuntubuntu... Frankly, people overstate the lockdown-ness of Android itself. Maybe your…

I didn't say we need a new OS now, we need existing OSes to be a bit more open. Have you tried programming on an Android phone? I have, the experience is horrible. I used termux which is a full blown linux terminal. I installed python and wrote a few python script and later Go programs also. Wasn't able to get dependencies for Go programs because of root issue plus terrible experience with typing things on mobile. Maybe I didn't have the right tools.

I want all my OSes to be able to talk to each other, when I write code on my phone, I should be able to transfer it to my machine. There is a new project which aims to do this, mobile OS and PC OS are the same in it.

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