
Ask HN: What are your startup ideas that you aren't pursuing? - marginalcodex
(I&#x27;m going to keep posting this topic on HN - partially because I think the answers will be interesting, but also partially as an experiment to see how much randomness goes into a HN post becoming successful).
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RantyDave
It turns out that councils (i.e. a city council) don't actually know where
their pipes run and in particular don't know where their storm water drains
are. This makes flood planning very difficult. So there's money in driving
around a la streetview and finding where the drains are. One could possibly
license the actual streetview images and mine them, too.

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jeffmould
[http://cityscan.com/](http://cityscan.com/)

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randomnumber314
FYI - most links the menus lead to 404

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jeffmould
Oops, looks like they went out of business. They had some pretty interesting
LIDAR technology for mapping cities. Not sure what happened.

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almostkorean
Ever moved a couch into an apartment with a small and/or winding staircase?
It's a huge pain in the ass, and a couple years ago when I moved 3 times in a
short period I really wanted to find a better way.

My idea is to use 3d scanning to help you move, using something like Google's
project Tango. You scan your couch, bed, or table and the area you want need
to move it through. Then it could algorithmically find the easiest path to
move it and it shows you directions, so you and your moving partner know
exactly how/when to rotate, turn, etc.

I'm sure it's possible because my mechanical engineering friends have software
to do something similar for their robotic arms on the assembly line. I think
this idea is really cool and hard to make profitable :)

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ganeshkrishnan
I have one of the largest database of camping sites and hostels globally at
[http://www.wikibackpacker.com/](http://www.wikibackpacker.com/) I get pretty
decent organic footfalls and it's stressing out my hosting bills.

I tried to get some media coverage & some funding for it but it's getting
impossible from Australia.

It's stuck in a limbo for now until I decide what to do with it.

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randomnumber314
Describe someone who is using this service, and how they use it.

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merchang
Subscription boxes for very specific fetishes. The market is there, and
willing to pay. Problems are: a) Margins don't justify time required for a
worthwhile product b) The state of payment processing for anything "adult" is
offensive

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samblr
..like improving education, democracy, gun violence!

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nickthemagicman
Yes. Share your secrets with me!

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swcoders
I want to build drone startup.

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zbuf
Nice try! :)

