

Octopart (YC W07) helps nearly a half a million people find parts every month - smock
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4213736/Octopart-helps-nearly-a-half-a-million-people-find-the-part-they-need-every-month#9

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bobz
_Soon after that I sent Andres the link, and we started throwing around ideas
for startup companies. In the spring of 2006 I got a phone call from Andres.
He was having trouble finding a low temperature capacitor for his experiment
and suggested that we build a database of electronic parts and make it easily
searchable on the web._

I love seeing successful YC startups that are outside of the fairly insular
"startups serving startups and other stuff startup people are interested in"
space.

There's so many verticals out there that have passionate users that are being
under-served by today's technology. It might be less sexy from a TechCrunch
perspective, but I have the sense that's where a good amount of the lucrative
business opportunities are going to be for this next era.

We don't need "a better Twitter", "the next Google", or to be "as big as
Facebook". But we do need to bring the power of these products to more and
more people and markets.

~~~
c2
The problem is finding them - that is the opportunities to serve relatively
niche markets. Unless you are talking to and involved in such an ecosystem you
will have no idea it exists or how to appropriately address the niche market's
burning problems.

But I agree - from my experience these are absolutely the best avenue for a
return on investment. On the flip side, 9 times out of 10, you won't need any
outside investment to get the product off the ground, all you have to do is
post on a few specific forums and you will have a business overnight.

~~~
reneherse
Agreed, the question is how to find such niches. Though often it's deep,
expert knowledge that provides insight, I highly value the idea of the
"beginner's mind". An fresh perspective on a new field (or re-obtaining
freshness on a familiar one) seems to often suggest new opportunities.

From a lifestyle perspective, having a wide range of interests and making
friends in different fields might help...

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loganlinn
As a Computer Engineering student, Octopart is defiantly one of nicest sites
for buying parts or just looking for data sheets. I actually wasn't aware it
was a YC company, but it makes sense!

~~~
taylorbuley
This biz idea reminds me of Hipmunk. Even though I know Hipmunk is more or
less just an affiliate referral service for Orbitz, the UX is enough "value
add" to win my business.

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storborg
I love Octopart and wish it would become even more wildly successful.
However...

The problem I have with Octopart and other "better search" engines (like
Hipmunk, Padmapper, et al) is that the coverage is not 100%--not every item in
inventory is shown on the search engine site.

The lack of complete coverage kills me when I'm looking for a very specific
edge case, which are exactly the sorts of cases that would most benefit from a
better search experience. When I really want that one 10uF/6.3V X7R ceramic
capacitor made by TDK, and I can't find it on Octopart, it renders the whole
of Octopart useless.

Until these sorts of frontend sites get better adoption from the people who
actually _supply the inventory_ (e.g. Octopart -> Digikey, Hipmunk -> Expedia,
Padmapper -> Craigslist), they cease to be useful in all the cases where they
would provide major benefit.

~~~
sam
You raise a valid point. While we don't have every part, we're constantly
increasing the number of distributors and manufacturers who send us data. We
have about 60 distributors on the site now which is about double what we had
this time last year. We're always going to be getting better.

As for the part you mentioned, I didn't find a capacitor with those specs from
TDK, but there are 12 alternatives here: <http://bit.ly/hWnqhP>

If you know of a supplier of the TDK part, let me know and I'll contact them.

~~~
storborg
That was just an example I pulled from nowhere, not something specific. I
don't think TDK makes a 10uF/6.3V X7R cap (although I did notice the Octopart
interface doesn't show temp spec/dielectric material as one of the specs that
I can filter on... that's disappointing).

My point is just that in the course of normal use I want each one of these
searches, be it for a capacitor or an apartment or a flight, to be very
thorough. If I can't guarantee to myself that the search will cover 100% of
the available inventory. I _can_ guarantee that if I skip the nice frontend
and go directly to the supplier.

FWIW, I picked the wrong one to pick on--Octopart has way better coverage than
Hipmunk, Padmapper, or a multitude of other sites.

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strooltz
I was wondering what happened to these guys - I was watching a YouTube video
this weekend of PG speaking at a conference circa 2008 and he spend a good
deal of time talking about Octopart and their business model...

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mattbauer
Octopart if you want to start making money, build in some BOM management
features. It's not a sexy area but BOM management is a pretty good problem to
solve with designers, suppliers, CMs, etc. Don't forget the EOCs and MCOs too.

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camdykeman
Its funny how often successful products and services are just obvious
modifications of pre-existing ones. Correct me if Im wrong but this sounds
like the Google of electronic parts. Thats not to downplay the genius or
ingenuity of these companies by any means--in fact, if anything, its a
compliment to their observational skills. Still, funny how it tends to be the
obvious ideas which prove the most successful. Bravo

~~~
skmurphy
Parametric search is a very different problem from text search. It's nothing
like the Google of electronic parts.

~~~
camdykeman
Its described as a consolidated search engine so i dont think its fair to say
that its "nothing" like Google. Different problems though, you're absolutely
right. I suppose I was generalizing but I think you see my point.

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skmurphy
See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2286772>

