

Ask HN: Which project idea should I pursue?  - lupatus

I am suffering from paralysis of analysis and would like HN's advice on which of the ideas listed below I should develop.<p>A) Video voice mail Facebook App.  Most of my extended family, whom I have not seen physically in years because of geographic diversity, is on Facebook.  This app would enable us to send each other multimedia messages via the Facebook interface.<p>B) Telecommuting online workspace.  I enjoy telecommuting, but have found that managers are fearful of losing the ability to monitor my work progress if my butt isn't in a chair in an office.  This tool would allow the definition of project tasks, track my time on those tasks, report this information to my managers and myself, and have a document sharing facility.<p>C) Kid-friendly knowledge app.  My Dad used to just hand me the encyclopedia when I wanted to read about saber-toothed tigers, but I feel uncomfortable sitting my son in front of a computer when he has similar questions.  This app would contain a filtered sub-set of resources like Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, and public domain MP3s.<p>I would personally use each of these ideas.  And, I would probably turn whichever project I choose into a business if others found it had utility.<p>So, HN, which idea do you think is best?
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callmeed
C) especially if you can do it as an iPad app or at least iPad friendly HTML
site.

Have "daily features" and my kids would be going there a lot.

I'd open my wallet for that.

~~~
rmason
Having recently seen a three year old with his own iPad I think that's a
worthy pivot of the original idea.

~~~
lupatus
A few years ago I met a youmg cousin of a college friend who had his own
computer at home. I had my first compy at 17, this kid had his at 5.

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jules
Everyone here seems to pick C, which is the one that I am least enthusiastic
about. I'm not convinced that the dangers of a kid browsing the internet are
significant. Though of course what matters is what parents of these kids
think. Still aren't there enough internet for kids filters already?

Make something more unique, like a quiz where the kids have to find the
answers on Wikipedia. Or custom made videos a la sixty symbols or kahn academy
that explain something. Or a site like reddit for kids for sharing "hey this
is cool!"-stuff. Or a community site where kids can work and discuss projects
they're working on. As a kid I'd have loved a site for discussing and sharing
experience with other kids how to make the best water rocket, making a water
electrolysis apparatus, making trebuchets, making websites, fun chemistry
experiments etc.

B seems like a good idea to me, though I wonder how many competitors already
exist. A simple tool where multiple people can create a tree of tasks and
indicate that they are working on a certain task and set expected time of
completion would be useful to me. Though for me personally the collaboration
aspect wouldn't be so useful, more useful would be something tailored to
freelancers: a website that published certain parts of the task tree password
protected to help show clients what you're working on and what progress you're
making. Of course you're in an incredibly crowded space here.

~~~
foob
_I'm not convinced that the dangers of a kid browsing the internet are
significant._

I think that they are significant. I'm saying this as someone who grew up
during the time period when parents had little to no idea of what sort of
deranged things were on the internet. A kid could erase the history and clear
the cache and their parents would be none the wiser. I'm not in general a
supporter of censorship on the internet but I saw some things that are frankly
ridiculous for a 7 year old to see. I'm not talking about nipples or vaginas
either, you all know that there is some really weird stuff out there. There is
a large gray area but I strongly believe that there are things on the internet
that an elementary school child shouldn't see.

~~~
lupatus
That is why I would be uncomfortable just putting him in front of a computer
to find out about saber-toothed tigers.

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rmason
A. Interesting idea but how would you make money? Advertising inside an app
that carries advertising itself doesn't sound viable. If you charge for
subscriptions how do you compete when Skype comes bundled into Windows?

B. I've looked hard at that space. Software isn't going to suddenly make
managers become telecommuting friendly. I thought the market would eventually
make it happen but that doesn't seem to be the case. There's a pretty large
differential in coders wages between the Valley and the Midwest but you don't
see companies embracing telecommuting in large numbers.

C. This is the best idea in my opinion. There are multiple revenue options but
you've got answer how you will distribute it? I would also consider seriously
marketing to the school at home market. It's a sizeable niche that you could
target inexpensively and once you're successful you can build out from that
beachhead.

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systemtrigger
Facebook already has video voicemail. Half the time it breaks during a
recording and you have to start your message over again. If you can program
better than the Facebook team, success! Even if you build a worse product a
lot of people might nevertheless try it, and there's your ad opportunity.

The project collaboration management space is pretty crowded. If you go down
that road, differentiate. Own a segment. The work of a telecommuter is
identical in most ways to the work of a commuter. Go niche or don't play.

Parents can't buy enough toys and crap for their kids. Make something that
will truly engage kids. Your idea of filtering public domain search results
has limited financial potential. Make a game. People pay for games, no one
pays for search.

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toksogun
A. Skype and Facebook are close on that and you would be on Facebook's
platform.

B. Has good promise. Workers wouldn't like it but it may put managers as ease.

C. Has good promise. You could make it into an app and focus on some niche
content.

~~~
lupatus
I used something like B at my last job, in which our office was in Virginia
and I worked from the Alaskan Bush, but the system we used was a bit cobbled-
together.

With C I purposefully would not make it niche so that my son could explore a
wide-array of resource. The novel aspect would be automatically
rating/filtering public domain content to exclude non-kid-friendly material.

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Serene
I think the kids/young parents market is underserved, I'd pick C

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petervandijck
A)

An app that increases monitoring by managers isn't going to make anyone happy,
and kid-friendly apps are pretty hard (because their users grow out of them so
fast).

------
lupatus
Thanks for the responses everyone!

So far, Project C is the winner. Frankly, I am surprised about the positive
responses to it. I was hypothesizing that A would get the best response. So, I
am a bit surprised. But, pleasantly surprised nonetheless. :)

Now, I am going to start sketching out details about just what Project C would
be and how it would work. I'll let HN know when I have something to review.

Thanks again everyone!

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noarchy
I'd say A, though I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook were working on
something similar as we speak.

B meanwhile, just bothers me (I wouldn't want to work under such
circumstances), but perhaps there is a market for such a thing. If I'm not
mistaken, ODesk has a similar, Big Brothery package of their own....check what
theirs does, and see if you can improve it.

I can't comment much on C, so I won't.

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13rules
B is awful idea ... A and C are great. I would go for C - parents will spent
money for an app for their kids without even thinking about it. And with A you
might be going up against something that FB is going to release in the future
which will just crush your business.

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calebamsden
I think a) is the most unique - there are already quite a few companies going
after b) (FengOffice, Zoho Project, etc), and c) seems like it would be more
difficult to monetize. It also might be easier to develop and market a
Facebook App, depending on your skill-set.

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arctangent
Assuming you have equal passion for each of the ideas, I think you should
choose the one which you feel:

\- has the biggest possible market \- has the lowest costs (e.g. maintenance,
support, marketing) \- is easiest/quickest to implement

~~~
BasilAwad
market penetration strategies can be more important than market size.

for example, a smaller market with better acquisition strategies could be
better than a larger market with nebulous or not unique acquisition
strategies.

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teyc
A) Pros - viral, Cons - monetization, fickle hardware/drivers/bandwidth

B) Pros - enterprise space, Cons - enterprise space

C) Pros - Would run well on tablets, a growth market. Cons - You are trying to
build a search engine.

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abcd_f
Not (B), the space is already over-saturated. Every second designer on
Dribbble appears to be working on some sort of online collaboration / team
management / invoicing something for telecommuters.

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aymeric
A: You can integrate tokbox for that.

B: What is the difference between your idea and a classic online project
management solution?

C: Buy your kid an ipad :)

My vote: start with A.

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Mz
No suggestion as to which to go with, but if you go with C, drop me a line
when you have an MVP and I will promote it a little. (I still belong to some
homeschooling lists.)

