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YC: Requests for Startups

ycombinator.com

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Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#531

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

paledot wrote: post #472
MangoCoffee wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low cost swarm of drones for new defense technology. We have seen consumer grade DJI drone use in Ukraine-Russia war by both sides. AI to control a swarm of cheap drones to survey and kill?

Is this a serious suggestion, or a warning for why there's no place for move-fast-and-kill-things startups in the defense space? No one should be working on this, especially not involving AI in any way.

> No one should be working on this

Well, given the fact that people are working on it, and many of them probably don't like you so much, it's a good idea for "the people you call friendly" to work on it.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#532

Post by khokhol »

lukan wrote: post #522
khokhol wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but making statements that are plainly and objectively false (simply for alarmist effect) doesn't help make that happen.

Natural language is not mathematically precise. Effectivly Ukraine is out of critical ammunition, when they have to evaulate every shot.

There is imprecise language, and then there is spin.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#533

Post by keiferski »

zknowledge wrote: post #520
keiferski wrote: post #503

It's surprising to me that Tech never seems interested in conflict resolution. A lot of issues in the world are basically negotiation problems, yet they get treated as competitive ones. A better world is probably one in which conflicts are defused early, not one in which arms races are treated as the default. Why is that? Is conflict resolution too much of a non-tech thing and more in the realm of politics? Or is the…

I don't have an answer for your questions but this comment really stood out to me. Maybe it's just my years in tech, but I have never thought of conflict resolution in the context of a tech problem to solve. The only format of this I can think of is anonymous forums or communications tech. Otherwise, it's very out of the box thinking which is great to see.

One example that came to mind was providing information on various sides of an issue (I’m thinking of alternative media, Wikipedia in some sense, although it’s still a bit biased.) Essentially the internet as a communication medium allows for more viewpoints to be distributed and understood. Unfortunately in practice, no one is really using it to try and understand each other and solve conflicts. Instead, they’re still trying to push certain viewpoints and exclude others.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#534

Post by dilyevsky »

a_vanderbilt wrote: post #515
lukan wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine is out of ammunition NOW. If the war suddenly ends and they have to dispose of warheads that will expire soon, that is a cost that can be paid. But more importantly for them is ammunition now, if that can be achieved by making the build process simple, it should probably be done.

You can't immediately scale up manufacturing. People have to be trained, parts have to be procured, and facilities made available to build the things. Ramp-up takes months, and if you're lucky the product is well established already so you aren't stepping on landmines as you scale. I helped to restart a mothballed process for a military product once and I have stories that you wouldn't believe.

You’re advocating general motors approach over tesla/spacex approach. Tesla is selling millions of evs every year now an gm, boeing and friends are with you making excuses about training people and their process

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#535

Post by yashap »

hef19898 wrote: post #433
yashap wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cover…

Look up all the mRNA research going into fighting cancer for example. Or tailor made treatment. Fighting cancer is so much more than just early detection, which isbincredibly important for sure.

Yeah agreed, early detection isn’t a panacea, but it does seem like a pretty promising approach to have a big impact.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#536

Post by troupo »

troupo wrote: post #319
monero-xmr wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

So it' snow been over 24 hours, and we still haven't seen the answer to two questions about this business-plan. But I guess we'll hear about "unwarranted hate on HN" or some such very soon.

> the point of my business idea above was to solve a pain point around paying a global work force considering the costs of global wire transfers

How much do you think it will cost to "systematically go country by country, learned the local HR laws, partner with the most trusted exchange, and then handle all accounting and taxes"?

> 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

#537

Post by lukan »

khokhol wrote: post #532
lukan wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Natural language is not mathematically precise. Effectivly Ukraine is out of critical ammunition, when they have to evaulate every shot.

There is imprecise language, and then there is spin.

I might have done a bit of hyperbole to get the point across, true. But by my understanding, when you are in a war and see the enemy, but cannot shoot at them, then you are effectivly out of ammunition by my definition. Even though sure, more precise would have been, very low on ammo.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#538

Post by jamietanna »

> Developer tools inspired by existing internal tools

Is something I'm working on right now - it's all Open Source but I'm looking at what could make it Commercial Open Source or what additional offerings would make sense to businesses

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#539

Post by a_vanderbilt »

dilyevsky wrote: post #534
a_vanderbilt wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't immediately scale up manufacturing. People have to be trained, parts have to be procured, and facilities made available to build the things. Ramp-up takes months, and if you're lucky the product is well established already so you aren't stepping on landmines as you scale. I helped to restart a mothballed process for a military product once and I have stories that you wouldn't believe.

You’re advocating general motors approach over tesla/spacex approach. Tesla is selling millions of evs every year now an gm, boeing and friends are with you making excuses about training people and their process

I'm not advocating any approach. I'm telling you, as someone who has years of experience in the field of defense manufacturing, that one cannot force manufacturing processes into existence through sheer will. My posts on the topic are for the edification of whoever reads them, convincing anyone isn't my concern as ultimately it isn't HN comments that are going to change the situation. Maybe SpaceX should start making Javelins by the millions (:

For context btw: I oversaw the production of hundreds (if not into the thousands) of the Javelins we sent to Ukraine. Two of my coworkers were Ukrainian too. Do not mistake my brutal realism for a lack of caring about the situation.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#540

Post by ThinkBeat »

Do no evil unless there are massive profits.

YC is seeking startups for

"NEW WAR TECHNOLOGY" Killing is our business. and business is good.

Yes, what we need are startups focused on killing people in ever more efficient ways, with the least amount of threat to our own people.

Hopefully, we can invent a even more efficient way of genocide by inventing something much stronger than a hydrogen bomb, but with less radiation. Friendly and looks good on TV.

The future so bright. I gotta wear shades.

Many years ago, when the state was more honest the US had a "Department of War".

Which it ought to have kept given that few wars ( or "military conflicts") that the US engages in is about Defense of our home country. Our patch of dirt. Easy to see since they usually take place on a different continent.

In 1984 they call it "Department of Peace".

--------------

>NEW DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY - Jared Friedman and Gustaf Alströmer

The US is now engaged in large-scale conflicts in several regions that threaten to change our world. While the US has historically led the world in defense technology, the defense contractors it depends on have grown slow and inefficient, bloated by decades of cost-plus contracts.

SpaceX showed the world that a private space company could be vastly more effective than the publicly-funded United Launch Alliance. New companies that sell to the DoD like Palantir and Anduril are showing that the same thing is true for defense tech.

Silicon Valley was born in the early 20th century as an R&D area for the US military. Early Silicon Valley companies were largely funded by the DoD and played a key role in WWII by building military radar, code-breaking equipment, and components for the atomic bomb.

This decade is the time to return Silicon Valley to these roots.

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