
Business Ideas for 2014 - strwbrry
http://www.scottsbarlow.com/100-awesome-business-ideas-for-2014/
======
ignostic
Whoa, let's tone down the negativity HN. The hate is already piling up, but I
think there are some really good ideas here. Sure, many (probably most) of the
ideas are already done, but he does give some thoughts on the angles of
execution and niches. This would be a great place to start for someone looking
to brainstorm or for someone looking for their first startup experience.

At least don't deride the author for sharing some interesting ideas. If you've
thought about each and every one of these, good for you, but I had some
interesting thoughts while reading.

~~~
marknutter
Seeing posts complaining about negativity on HN is almost as annoying as the
negative posts themselves. Mostly because they ignore the fact that most
negative posts are voted down over time anyways. In fact, I'm having a hard
time even finding the negative posts in this thread; maybe somebody can help
me out.

~~~
kyro
Totally agree. I almost never see highly voted comments that are needlessly
critical on HN. And being a little self-aware by calling out that negativity
is just such an annoying thing to do.

------
visakanv
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man
who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." \- Bruce Lee

~~~
sajclarke151
Pretty certain that he'd at least be wary of the man who's practised 100 kicks
100 times each. A singular focus can create myopic vision

~~~
thenomad
I agree with the analogy, but not the specific example. You're training muscle
memory: 100x repetitions are nowhere near enough to make a kick seriously
effective.

10 kicks 1000 times, though, is enough to start being alarming. It still
wouldn't worry Bruce Lee, but lesser mortals might start getting cautious at
that point.

~~~
sajclarke151
It's an analogy. From experience, one practice session alone can involve
practising one kick 1000 times. Pretty much every trained karateka has done
each kick more than 10,000 times if we're being literal about it.

~~~
thenomad
Hmm... _Adds up in head_ Yep, I lowballed it!

Definitely agreed - and as an analogy, it works.

------
jonmrodriguez
The "Night time Delivery Service" sounds like it could be a big business. The
trend in logistics lately is getting closer and closer to same-day shipping.

A "Night time Delivery Service" could help start in one city and expand to
others. The existence of Luna in SF shouldn't dissuade anyone from starting
the same thing in a different city, because it will take years for any one
player to expand and colonize more locations. If anything, Luna is at a
geographic disadvantage due to SF's high wages.

The way you use Luna seems very convenient, which is that the customer has the
package shipped to Luna by any shipping service, and then once it arrives
there, Luna does same-night last-mile delivery for $7. This is nice because it
can interface with any existing shipping service without the need for Luna to
win any contracts.

Eventually, once a company like this is starting to scale, they could aim to
get a contract with UPS, FedEx, DHL, or USPS to pick up packages directly from
the UPS/whatever warehouse, saving both time & money for all involved.

If the company wants to exit they could sell to Amazon.

The company might have to pay a wage premium because the work is at night, but
then again, in this economy maybe the workers would just be happy to get a job
(and the hours involved would make it a great 2nd job). Also, compared to
daytime shipping services, the nighttime company would be more productive per
hour due to its drivers facing less traffic.

~~~
yinyinwu
I think it's an interesting concept, but it'll be difficult for Luna to work
because you'll need to scale by building a warehouse in every new city. For
consumers, you are also competing against free. Why pay $7 when UPS or Fedex
will come back another day?

~~~
jonmrodriguez
> you'll need to scale by building a warehouse in every new city

That didn't stop the existing players who are successful now, when they were
first growing. Remember that a warehouse can start small and simple with maybe
$1,000/mo of rent at small scale & non-prime location.

> you are also competing against free

Yep, this seems like the main problem. I think the solution is to find
additional ways to add value.

For example, one thing that is very frustrating when you have to receive a
package that requires a signature is that the major carriers all REFUSE to
call your phone to tell you when they have arrived. So if you don't hear the
doorbell ring, or if the person can't get in to your apartment building, it's
a missed delivery and you're out of luck. Luna could seize this opportunity by
being the one last-mile service that WILL happily call your phone when they
arrive.

------
alaskamiller
Cursory google searches and from my memory I can see all these ideas have been
done in one form or another.

So much talk about ideation and execution and force multipliers blah blah.

Real key of the matter is knowing your opportunity costs and choosing the
right thing. That actually takes time and experience to learn, albeit you can
take the shortcut and finding the right mentors to guide you.

------
dalacv
Add one more to your list: I had this one in 2012 and created a small app.
There were a couple of lawsuits that I could have gotten "my fair share" on,
but just didn't know about them in time. Didn't get too far with it, so I'm
donating it in case someone else wants to "run with it": ClassAction website
or app. Aggregate all current class action lawsuits. Use crowdsourcing to keep
the list current. You have like 5-10 "standard" pieces of info: link to the
official website where you can fill out the form, Date that you need to
respond by, who is eligible to participate, etc. Not sure about payment model,
but as they say, worry about that later. Solve the Class Action Lawsuit
'problem'?...

~~~
x0054
How about a Patent Litigation crowd sourcing. I pitched this several times,
but I just can't get around to get it going. A site were everyone being
threatened with a lawsuit based on a given patent can pull together monetarily
to invalidate the patent or defend against the suit. If any one is already
doing it, please post a link. And, if any one is interested in starting it up
and needs a partner with legal background, let me know :)

~~~
DefenseMob
We're working on a similar concept. It's called DefenseMob
([http://defensemob.com](http://defensemob.com)).

~~~
x0054
I am really happy you guys are doing this. I have some ideas you could use.
What's the best way to contact you? I did not see any contact info on the
site.

------
zaroth
I like the style of these, in that most have low barrier to entry but for the
hustle. Also, I don't think any idea is ever really "done", only incumbents
waiting to be challenged. It does make sense to ask 'how is this different
from X?' but often times the differentiation comes down to just being more
_hungry_ than your competitor.

These scribbles from my notebook may be a bit more tech heavy or have other
barriers to entry;

    
    
      Student loan servicing
      Programmatic corporate founding docs, term sheets, seed rounds (legalese as code)
      Self managed SMB 401k/IRA/125/etc SaaS
      Crowd-based intermediation of credit [card] payments
      Single-click self-hosted [insert data-sucking, privacy violating SaaS here]
      SMS for every business
      Bid on anything (build the demand curve)
      Stop social fallout (crisis management as a service)
      P2P two-party escrow
      Telepresent expert hired by-the minute/hour (fix my ___)
      LouisCK as a Service (the way he sells his content, not him specifically)
      Self-hosted everpix
      Yours If You Want It - A way to buy a gift for someone, but only if they 'accept'
      Disciple - Subscribe to talks by geniuses in your industry
      
    

And the one I'm currently working on... passwords that can't be cracked.

Happy Hacking in 2014!

~~~
fourstar
The LouisCK as a service is the same idea I had pretty much but for script
(movie) writers to find a production crew, directors, extras, etc. Like Rent A
Movie Crew.

Best of luck on your current endeavor.

------
revx
I'm already doing the "Rock Your CV" as a side business! Maybe time to step it
up? [http://handprintresumes.com](http://handprintresumes.com). Would love
some feedback from HN on prices, design, etc.

~~~
yannis
I find them too busy and too colorful for my taste. You also need a few more
examples and templates. You also need to add to your pitch a bit.Granted the
examples have appeal to hacker type jobs, but would probably fail in other
fields.

~~~
revx
Thanks! Yeah, I'm doing some friends' for free to beef up my examples and
feedback section. But I'm also full-time employed so I'm not super invested in
this taking off.

------
mikegirouard
A note on bamboo eyewear:

I'm in the eyewear business. I've struggled with the idea of wood or bamboo
for a while now. There seems to be a lot of interest in the area but I'm
skeptical. Materials like these are porous and people sweat -- not the best
combination.

I've been waiting for the acetate fad to fall out of fashion but we're still
doing pretty well in this area.

~~~
slash-dot
In Finland you can buy these: [http://pöllöt.fi](http://pöllöt.fi)

------
sajclarke151
The best thing about this list is that Scott took the time to explain WHY he
thinks these ideas can make money. In some cases, he even implies where the
pain points lie. Scott aimed to spur people into action and I think that he's
done a very good job of it. At least, these ideas can serve as fun weekend
hack projects

------
clark-kent
It's easy to come up with a 100 ideas when you don't have to execute any of
them. I know it sounds dismissive but i'm speaking from experience. One idea
will take a thousand other new ideas to turn it into a successful business,
plus a ton of hardwork and persistence.

~~~
mattlutze
And as a gift to the hackoverse he's given out a bunch of ideas that may spark
the next thousand for someone else.

------
andersschmidth
I really enjoyed Scott's list and to be honest, I think it's great to see
someone openly sharing business ideas for free instead of letting them rust
away in some notebook.

I actually wrote Scott about the idea management software, since we at
Brightloops ([http://brightloops.org](http://brightloops.org)) provide a free
alternative for social idea development to Danish highschools and colleges; he
wrote back almost instantly, friendly and enthusiastic. Even provided some
great inspiration. He's one to remember. :)

------
yitchelle
After reading the post, a skeptical person might say that this post is a
clever hack to sell domain names. The article has a few links to domain names
available for purchase.

However, these are pretty good ideas. At the very least, they should inspire
further tweaks to the ideas for execution. Great list!

~~~
strwbrry
Nope - no affiliates and if you want any of the domains I have purchased you
can have them for free. No hidden agenda, no hate - just love from me :)

------
edwardliu
A lot of these ideas are great. Perhaps executable for other countries as
well. Thanks Scott!

------
jbrooksuk
Some of these are actually viable, that's the important thing. They seem
mainly aimed at the UK market (finally!) and I'm going to have a proper read
through later and figure out if any of them affect me and how I can break into
the market.

------
AHconsidered
I've been thinking about the "Sell my car" idea for a bit. I think it's ripe
for new thinking. If you're interested and in the SF Bay Area, ping me at
ahconsidered@hushmail.com

~~~
poulsbohemian
Just a tangent here... I donated a car to charity this past year and was
really pleased with the outcome. The charity was able to sell the car at
auction for more than a dealer and a private party offered me locally - so
everybody won. Chances are I will do the same in the future, and would
encourage others to do the same, IE: it's an easy way to help a charity. That
said, while you are thinking about new ways to move used cars, you might also
consider how to get into the charity auction business for cars. Reason I say
this is that I was able to donate my car to a large, well-known national
organization, but I actually approached several local/regional groups first.
The local/regional groups were horribly organized - didn't return phone calls,
etc. Perhaps there is a social-good angle you could take, if you are exploring
this market, as there are many worthwhile groups that just don't have the
organizational skills to handle processing the cars.

------
grumblestumble
I thought this article was satirizing every negative stereotype about HN,
until I came in here and read the comments.

------
nawitus
>Also as a vegan some good vegan dishes!

Oh God yes.

------
tzm
GradFolio is very similar to GradFly.

------
dalacv
I like it! Good job.

------
notastartup
I can see some patterns emerging in the list of ideas, some of which are quite
okay. I think to me the value is seeing categories of the ideas and sort of
what problems are on the horizon.

------
Eleutheria
MySpace 2 is exactly where the money is. Tons of it.

I like the idea of users monetizing it.

------
freehunter
Am I the only one who sees a giant and useless header on the site?

[http://i.imgur.com/XQHyc2O.png](http://i.imgur.com/XQHyc2O.png)

~~~
ignostic
That was your takeaway and most useful comment, huh?

~~~
freehunter
I hadn't read the article yet, the giant waste of space annoyed me enough that
the content didn't matter. Besides, this is HN. Web design is fair game for
discussion just as much as the actual content is.

~~~
argonaut
No, I personally don't think web design is fair game for a non web-design-
related article. Downvoted.

~~~
shangxiao
I do, UX matters!

~~~
argonaut
UX matters, but criticizing a site's UX when the central focus is not UX is
just adding more noise to the growing morass of noise on HN.

I'm well aware that my own comment adds to the noise on HN, but hopefully
it'll help prevent some future noise.

------
snitko
And not one of those ideas is Bitcoin related. It's 2014 for god's sake.

~~~
mrfusion
I'd be really interested to see a list like this of bitcoin ideas?

I keep thinking how revolutionary it is yet I can't seem to think of any ideas
beyond payments :-(

~~~
pazimzadeh
BitVote.

Every citizen is issued a unique "wallet" and can use it to vote. The
underlying bitcoin infrastructure does need to be presented to the user, but
one way that the app could work is that each candidate has a unique numeric
identifier associated with him. If Obama's number is 0.05476 and Romney's is
0.02299 then when you click Vote for Obama, the app sends 0.05476 btc to a
designated counting wallet. Several methods may be used to count the votes.
Either each candidate has its own counting wallet and counting can be done by
dividing the total btc in the wallet divided by the unique number, or all of
the votes could be mixed into one wallet and the blockchain could be analyzed
to determine how many votes of each type were cast. All of the votes are
obviously public information on the blockchain, so there can be no funny
business. As long as you don't tell anyone your wallet address, your vote is
anonymous.

~~~
icebraining
The problem is issuing a single wallet to every citizen without violating
anonymity.

