
Ask HN: What startup WOULD be a good idea now? - rossdavidh
Since this may be a moment when VC is realizing that startup investments need to be in something different than what they&#x27;ve invested in lately, I thought we could ask for things that we don&#x27;t want to make, but would be willing to pay money for.  Just in case anybody out there is listening.
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rossdavidh
I would also like to be able to send, say, an apple bought from the local
farmer's market, to a lab, and get back results about its nutritional content.
Then, compare it to what the FDA says that apples should contain. Same for
non-apple foodstuffs, of course.

Also, testing for lead and other not-nice stuff would be good.

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rossdavidh
I'll start: I would be willing to pay a small amount monthly for a search
engine that was restricted to independent websites and news sources that don't
have a problem with adblockers.

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freediver
What is a small amount monthly? Can you share a use case? Would you
consciously go to that engine instead of Google for your daily routine?

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rossdavidh
Let's say something like $5. I would probably check it at least daily. It
would also be something I would look for when trying to find, say "recipe for
spinach quiche", where there will be a lot of ad-tastic and very spammy
content.

Or, "things to do in Prague", when I do not want Google to start telling the
world to spam me about Prague. I just want to see websites of people who went,
themselves, to Prague, and want to tell the internet about it.

Or "how to build a bench", when I just want to see indie blogs where Joe
Carpenter tells how he made a simple bench, without getting ads.

Perhaps also date-sensitive, so that anything indexed in the last week with
the word "Italy" would show up, or "monarch butterflies", or "garden". But not
in social networks (esp. not Pinterest), and not in websites with a bunch of
ads.

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freediver
Check if you like this as a concept first
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21209358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21209358)

