Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

entrepreneur.venturebeat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 196 posts

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#91

Post by Tichy »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #81
thenduks wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the synopsis. I'm curious, though, what makes the solutions 'immoral' or dishonest? They seem perfectly legitimate to me.

From what I can see, their customers were happy, they made money, and it was all above-board, let alone legal. Clearly, something must be wrong! I have to say, I'm even more amused by people's outrage at these winning tactics than by the tactics themselves. I begin to understand why it's necessary to have an entire class in entrepreneurship. Perhaps it is largely about training people not to be pinned, like hapless c…

"their customers were happy"

The people who got a reservation, maybe, but what about the people who didn't get one?

Maybe a good business idea would be to sell kidneys that one steals from traveling students. I am sure the customers would be happy, too.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#92

Post by rdrimmie »

nkurz wrote: post #77
thenduks wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the synopsis. I'm curious, though, what makes the solutions 'immoral' or dishonest? They seem perfectly legitimate to me.

There are two levels --- the first is within the context of a class assignment, and the second is as a business operation. 1) The bike tire pressure check isn't bad, but seems to be cheating on the class solution by using outside materials. Once one can 'presume' a pressure gauge and a pump, why not presume further specialized equipment or further outside funding? As a business proposition I was happy with it when th…

Regarding item 1, in the real world analogy of getting seed money an entrepreneur certainly isn't limited to only using that seed money. They can use their credit cards or their house or their own equipment or anything else.

The point of the exercise quite explicitly was to teach people to look past constraints that do not exist, like the $5 limitation you're getting stuck on. There was no restriction on using outside materials, that is a constraint you created on your own due to your interpretation of the presentation.

3) You're also assuming that the students didn't benefit from being introduced to the presenting company. Another poster mentions that it was Frog Design, and if that's the case then it was probably to the benefit of the students as well; Frog Design's a good company.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#94

Post by Tichy »

vlisivka wrote: post #26

First team: regular work. Second team: speculation. Third team: ads. Where is direct marketing team? My solutions: Receipt one: * by bunch of cheap sport items; * walk to the park; * lease them; * hire and teach other people to do that instead of you for half of income. (Tested). Receipt two: * by a sport item (e.g. ball); * walk to the street; * encourage people to play a casual game with you, alone, or with other p…

Hm, maybe one could lend dogs to people who want to flirt with other people who have dogs.

Like suppose you take a stroll in a park and notice a hot specimen of the opposite gender walking their dog. Desperation kicks in, until you notice the helpful dog lender.

I would say sports items would be too boring, unless it would be some really hot new item (like those springs you attach to your feet). Plus you would have to worry about insurance - what if someone breaks his leg while playing with your sports item?

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#95

Post by ErrantX »

nanijoe wrote: post #70
ErrantX wrote: post #55

Apparently by ignoring the money and the time limit... Personally I found the latter 2 solutions pretty unimaginative in ignoring the $5. If the exercise is to maximise the $5 (a much harder task it seems) then they seem to have failed.

But to maximize the $5 was NOT the exercise...

no, but it would have been a lot more impressive.

If the point was to show that artificial limits were, well, dangerous I dont think it was made hugely well.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#96

Post by bhousel »

thenduks wrote: post #50
nkurz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She teaches a class at Stanford and offers each team $5 of 'funding' in an envelope. She tells them that once they open the envelope, they have 2 hours to make as much money as they can. She cites three teams' approaches: 1) First team opens a free stand that offers to check peoples bike tire pressure for free, then charges $1 to inflate if necessary. This team changes midstream to accepting donations instead of char…

Thanks for the synopsis. I'm curious, though, what makes the solutions 'immoral' or dishonest? They seem perfectly legitimate to me.

Agreed.. I'm surprised by the comments here where many seem to think that some ways of making money are more fair than others. I would have expected the Hacker News crowd to really admire the winning team's 'hack'.

But anyway, as long as it's not illegal, I don't see what the problem is. The instructor didn't say how (or even whether) to spend the seed money.

Another way to look at it -- a good idea and good execution can overcome almost anything, even shortages of time and money.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#97

Post by prodigal_erik »

bhousel wrote: post #96
thenduks wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the synopsis. I'm curious, though, what makes the solutions 'immoral' or dishonest? They seem perfectly legitimate to me.

Agreed.. I'm surprised by the comments here where many seem to think that some ways of making money are more fair than others. I would have expected the Hacker News crowd to really admire the winning team's 'hack'. But anyway, as long as it's not illegal , I don't see what the problem is. The instructor didn't say how (or even whether) to spend the seed money. Another way to look at it -- a good idea and good executi…

It's a funny stunt once, but it's not an admirable business, because over time it would create less value than it destroys. Stanford classroom hours are limited and vastly expensive for the students.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#99

Post by jasonlbaptiste »

aplusbi wrote: post #98

Sell frozen orange juice futures.

Actually oranges and extremely cold winters heavily impact businesses. Jamba juice 2 years ago stopped carrying fresh squeezed OJ and smoothies with orange juice in them were 25 cents more.
Post reply on HN