
What will be the top 3 trends in 2016, that shape how we build our startups? - aszig
Hey there,<p>During the holidays I was thinking about how 2016 will be different, better than 2015. There are a lot of articles about emerging markets, technologies, but those are the focus of entrepreneurs. But I&#x27;m interested in what will change in how we build startups...<p>Here are my top 3 guesses.<p>1. Augmented productivity:
I&#x27;m a fan of the gig economy ever since I ordered the first $5 logo design from fiverr. And I&#x27;m just starting to explore MTurk. This year I&#x27;ll put a lot of effort into learning how to combine these with workflow automation services like Zapier, and new AI stuff... I think such methods could multiple personal productivity. Inspired by the guy who automated 90% of his work. 
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;programmer-automates-his-job-2015-11<p>2. Improved startup-building platforms:
It would be such a blessing to multiply the ratio of successful startups, and lower the pain of failing. I mean, 9 out of 10 startups fail even in developed startup hubs. That&#x27;s one metric that we need to fix. Traditional incubators and accelerators are nice, but not too effective in mitigating risks. I loved how YC started Research (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.ycombinator.com&#x2F;yc-research), and even more, that there are now so much more startup studios (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;buildtogether.co&#x2F;startup-studio-list), and finally there&#x27;s a booklet (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;laicos.com&#x2F;anatomy-of-startup-studios-is-out&#x2F;) that explains in detail how these venture builders work.<p>3.Crowd*:
Besides perk based crowdfunding, there are more and more platforms where you can offer equity in your startup for support. That just adds to the option of the founders to get the money they need... who know, maybe even faster than angel money and with better than vanilla term sheet conditions.<p>What do you think, what are your picks?<p>@aszig
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tmaly
Here is my guess

1\. More AI bots and machine learning applied on top of apps etc.

2\. Less money for startups while they are private, and more pressure to go
public to handle the liquidity issue and valuations we saw with Fidelity

3\. More platforms and infrastructure automation to help with the algorithms
and cloud side of the equation. Google recently released a deep learning api
that runs in the cloud. I think we will see more of this cloud driven AI/algo
type services.

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sebg
Chat bots come to life through Slack and other platforms

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cbzehner
Skynet.

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aszig
The long term future is not human vs machine armageddon, but human-machine
integration. We are already cyborgs with our addiction and dependence on
smartphones (not to mention ppl with pacemakers, prosthetic limbs...)

Actually, it would be kinda cool to plug into the Machine. So you don't have
to type and click to give instructions. Just think about it and the Machine
Spirit will make it happen.

But I think this one is not for 2016 :)

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coderKen
AI will be the new UI. before you downvote ask me for an explanation.

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aszig
Please explain? :) Do you mean some Jarvis (or Watson?)-like stuff that can
recognize natural language, and figure out how to solve?

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coderKen
Definitely, you see the use of buttons and textboxes and checkboxes will
slowly become obsolete, especially as advancement in natural language will
continue to rise. So I just got a new Android Phone and since I got it, I have
never for once set an alarm or reminder manually, I just do the "Ok Google"
thingy and talk to it and boom, it's all done. This made me realize that the
user-interface as we know it today will slowly become obsolete and even more
so when AI is embedded in the OS and an API is exposed so that third-party
apps will be able to tap into it.

Let's Imagine a future where the Android OS has become so advanced say v9.3
and has natural language API embedded that apps like say Uber can tap into, if
you wanted to request for a ride, you wouldn't need to tap silly buttons and
drag a pin across a map, you would simply say "Hello Uber I am going Trafalgar
square, kindly request an Uber X to come pick me up"

PS: I build android apps

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aszig
"I just do the "Ok Google" thingy and talk to it and boom, it's all done. "

I wish such apps (incl Siri) would be able to handle accent. Sooner than
later, I hope.

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EvanPlaice
1\. Bots become more prevalent on the business end

Developers and designers work best when they're not interrupted. Asynchronous
communication enables workers to ride the flow when they're focused and
address communication when they take a break. A bot that requests a daily
status, collects results throughout the day, and summarizes them would save
the time wasted in unnecessary meetings without sacrificing communication.

Managers tend to piss off their workers because they perceive their time as
more valuable and expect their workers to drop everything for a status update.
Bots have no ego, can collect all the necessary data, without being intrusive.

That's just one example. Why are we still paying people to manually aggregate
data? Bots can and should be used for menial/repetitive work.

I think startups will start to popup to 'spread the bot love' to our less-
technical business counterparts.

2\. ChatOps and greater cross-platform integration

Microservices are on the rise, everybody is talking in REST, and ChatOps is
becoming the backbone of successful organizations. Slack is a good example of
this. What it can't integrate with by default it can be extended with using
bots or glue services like Zapier.

It's time we ditch the push/pull models of communication. It doesn't scale and
it's too easy for bad actors to game the system. Work, progress, and status
should be tracked passively and in the open. No more lazy people hiding from
their responsibilities, no more bad actors advancing by kissing ass and taking
credit for other's work.

Many sites/services have been exposing public APIs with a 'build it and they
will come' mentality. It's about damn time we tap those resources.

3\. Unikernels will start to be used in production

For stateless webservices, it simply doesn't make sense to use a full-featured
general purpose OS. A unikernel drastically reduces the surface area for
security vulnerabilities, requires zero maintenance, requires very little
memory/space overhead, and is small enough to fit in version control.

Docker containers will live on as a scaleable approach for 'pets', unikernels
will start to emerge as a replacement for 'cattle'.

To take this a step further. If we're running a service that doesn't require
mutable state, why the hell are we running it on a mutable operating system?

DevOps is expensive and difficult to setup. Organizations that figure out how
to embrace this new approach will be able to move fast and __not __break
things..

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Bonus: Anti-trends

1\. TDD will be on the decline

Devs start to question whether TDD is just another form of 'waterfall' model.
If we collectively agreed that making a ton of assumptions up front before
starting development is a bad idea, why has that practice been pushed into the
testing domain.

The important question to ask isn't, "how much test coverage do we have?" It
should be, "how many tests are we throwing away?"

On a short timescale, startups will start looking to 'trim the fat'.

2\. We reach 'peak mobile app'

Apple has been coasting on the success of mobile since the passing of Steve
Jobs. They're betting the future on mobile at the expense of everything else.

Safari has become the new IE and the updates to OSX have been lackluster. OSX
is the preferred platform for a large percentage of Developers/Designers and
nothing pisses them off more than watching their favorite tools/ecosystem fall
by the wayside. Resentment toward Apple will grow.

To make matters worse, both React and Angular2 are aggressively pushing to be
the platform of both the web and mobile. UI responsive issues have been
resolved with the VDOM, and they've effectively built architectures that
separate the application from the UI rendering layer.

Mobile has never been scalable from a business sense. There's only a limited
amount of screen real estate for apps. Mobile development strongly favors the
few at the expense of the many. Plus, proprietary platform lock-in sucks. The
mobile app ecosystem will contract as well as any -- but the most successful
-- startups that depend on it.

3\. 'Nobody ever got fired for purchasing Oracle' will become a past time

Amazon AWS is aggressively pushing to eat Oracle's lunch. With the recent
launch of services that achieve feature parity with Oracle's db as well as
tools that assist the migration, Oracle will be on the decline. Not to
mention, the business world finally overwhelmingly accepted the cloud as the
future in 2015. Amazon AWS is the sleeping giant that just woke up holding a
can of whoop ass in one hand and a can opener in the other.

Startups that specialize in data migration to the cloud will be flush with
cash.

