

Ask HN: Startup Ideas vs Bureaucracy? - diminium

This is more of a discussion question.<p>How do you guys deal with (government) politics and the hurdle of a good idea?  Do you think of ways around it or just hold off the idea till later?<p>One of the coolest things about the internet is the lack of politics and bureaucracy. Want to start a website about something social?  Just start it!  Unfortunately though, as time goes on and more people want their hand in the cookie jar, politics and bureaucracy will rear it's ugly head similar to other more mature industries.<p>For example, I have a cool idea of a medical start up where doctors and people get together and treat and research each other.  The hurdle?  Nine thousand miles of red tape, politics, court orders, licenses, insurance, privacy laws, liability laws, and so forth.  That's even before I get to the idea!  It's so much easier to start a social networking start up than to deal with that mess.  Though for how long, I don't know.
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nostromo
At a previous gig I worked with a company that was providing legal, medical,
and financial information online. They dealt with it by being based abroad. It
may make sense for you to explore this as well. If you incorporate somewhere
other than the US, you can still live and work here just fine. (Keep in mind
that this may make it harder to raise financing in the US.)

However, there was still a lot of red tape for people providing that sort of
information (our service providers). For example, we found out that financial
advisors are not supposed to provide their services across state lines. Of
course this makes no sense for someone practicing online. What we ended up
doing is dumping a huge amount of disclaimers in the terms of use to try and
protect everyone involved.

tl;dr: terms of use; disclaimers; perhaps incorporate in another country

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dmd149
I worked in the operations department for one of the Navy training commands
for a short period of time. It was amazing how many random regulations there
were that didn't make sense and were only sporadically followed.

If you have the confidence to stick your neck out there and not worry about
getting yelled at, its better to just do it and beg for forgiveness later. If
it works, minor berating. If it doesn't work, well, getting yelled at doesn't
have too many permanent negative effects.

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aginn
I work in healthcare. What types of problems are you running into?

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diminium
It was just an example. I was just looking at other people startup ideas in
the medical realm and the problems they face.

