

What happened to "real world" startups? - g0atbutt
http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/02/27/ask-tsf-readers-what-happened-to-real-world-startups/

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vyrotek
I see proof these problems every day. There are definitely a lot of non-tech
guys out there who have great ideas but no way to execute. When friends and
family learn that I'm running my own business the conversation almost always
turns into "I had an idea once for X..." Its really amazing to learn about the
_"problems"_ they see and their idea to solve them. Most of the time its for
something I haven't been exposed to at all.

Perhaps its a result of the _"scratch your own itch"_ advice many give to
developers looking for a great idea. There are a lot of problems out there but
it takes a lot of time and knowledge to find something worthwhile that is
outside your normal realm of experiences.

I'm not sure I have an answer for your question at the end. I definitely think
those startups are out there. But, I imagine they're focusing on the actual
business, product and customers rather than trying to grab the attention of
bloggers and online communities such as HN.

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eande
Real world problems need real world solutions with real world money.

Designing a physical product, which can be manufacturer and has a healthy
margin for a business to survive will take some invest money. There had been
exceptions, but usually you will need a couple hundred thousand dollar to get
there and at the same time yo need protect your product with IP.

Once you reached that point you are in a symmetric market, where a product
gets exchanges for cost plus profit. It will always be a more linear curve on
profit. On the other side software and internet companies in high demand have
this hockey stick potential, which makes it so attractive to investors.

So hardware is hard, because it has just a much higher barrier to entry and at
the same time it offers less sexy chart types. The number of hardware
companies are far less compared to a person with a computer and internet who
could be a software or internet company.

