
Startup idea list - duck
Five years ago today this was the top item on HN (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=55974): <i>Post novel startup ideas as comments and see how many karma points it receives. Who knows, one might be developed and you can take credit for thinking of the idea first.</i>. It had some interesting ideas, some of which are solved or obsolete. Thought it might be fun to do this again.<p>(I run Wayback Letter, so that is how I know this odd bit of information - http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/daily/09-18-2012.html).
======
cryptoz
Here's a few I've been thinking about:

\- Remote aid delivery by drone: build and send small robotic aircraft to
remote areas and drop aid, preferably starting with medicine (lightweight and
very useful). Small helicopters (quadrotor drone copters as you see at
TED/MIT) could land and accept return packages if necessary. Trips could be
made to hazardous places where human-driven aid drops can't venture.
Additionally, all aid drops could be done cheaper and more efficiently. [The
drones should be solar-powered?]

\- Microwave oven with a solid, opaque door. On the door put a nice 1020p
screen and inside put video cameras. You could microwave food, see a
convincing video of it cook and not have to deal with harmful radiation or an
unpleasant grilled screen.

\- Pizza button. I had this idea about two years ago, someone in Dubai is
currently executing (I think). You order a button, a physical red button (or
an app with a big button, but that's not as cool). If you press the button, a
pizza arrives at your location (tracked either by smartphone or by pre-set
address). Default pizza arrives unless other instructions are set. I would
insist on extreme simplicity: no options, no choices. Just "press button to
receive pizza".

~~~
wpietri
My low-rent version of the drone delivery idea is the burrito cannon.

You order burritos via your phone. When they're ready, your phone tells you to
go stand outside. Once there's a solid GPS fix, a precise, high-powered
catapult throws the delivery package way up in the air. Like a smart bomb, it
uses tailfin guidance to home in on your phone, popping a 'chute at the end.

~~~
sstrudeau
One of my more outlandish fantasies is a point-to-point transit system built
out of enormous catapults & nets that operates similarly...

~~~
shard
That coincides with my vision of people traveling around the city in the air
in clear spheres arcing gracefully across the sky...

------
georgespencer
A service which allows me to upload a document (PDF, .doc, whatever), input an
address and then pay for it to be printed and sent to that address via mail
(courier optional).

I'd use this service so much:

1\. Printers are fast becoming a thing of the past. How often will people need
to use printers in five years time?

2\. Lots of government functions still require printed documents (heck, even
Twitter insisted that I fax them something a few years back).

3\. Post boxes, stamps and envelopes are a pain to get individually.

~~~
alainbryden
Large chains like FedEx could implement this really efficiently since they
already have offices all over the world. They can just print off at the
nearest location to the target and minimize their expense. Getting a printed
document hand delivered in an envelope can have a lot more impact over simply
sending an email or fax.

~~~
nhebb
They've been offering this service for several years:

<http://www.fedex.com/us/office/online-printing.html>

~~~
wpietri
Last I looked, though, they only deliver via FedEx, which really raises the
costs.

I wish the postal service did it. They send somebody by my house every day.
It'd be awesome if the actually dropped off something I wanted.

------
tocomment
Here's a simple idea I've been kicking around. I might just build it for fun.

I call it notifyme.when. Users put in things they want to be notified about
e.g., new book by Steven King released, Sequel to District 9 announced,
Mortgage rates fall below 3.5%, etc.

Then other users log in and review the requests and post updates to any of the
event they know have happened. You get points (like Stack Overflow) if you
legitimacy update someone else's request.

~~~
sabat
This is actually a compelling idea—I've been kicking around a similar idea for
a while, where you'd like to buy something (e.g. a 2TB SATA drive) but only
when it goes on sale below a certain price threshold. The problem is: what's
the business model (i.e. where does the money come from)?

~~~
aam1r
Have you checked out Priceonomics? They're a YC startup that gives you
analytics on the market price of a product and send you notifications when the
item is available for a good price.

~~~
sabat
I have not, but I am so not surprised that someone else had the idea, probably
made it better, and is in business.

------
eranation
YourMechanic for groceries.

I want to pay a flat recurring fee and have my fridge be filled with basic
food products (e.g. like a hotel's minibar) you chose from 3-5 preset packages
out of 3 pricing levels, setup how many people are in the house and you are
done

the service will calibrate (with your help) the content of the packages, e.g.
if you see you eat more bread than you drink milk and end up with too much
milk and too little bread, you can tweak it (larger bread package, smaller
milk bottle)

All products will be generically packaged and will have a very low price as
this startup will specialize in basic products (bread, milk, eggs, cheese,
basic meats, popular fish, soft drinks, water, core vegetables and fruits)

Having a massive buying power, the prices of these basic products will be
much, much cheaper than any grocery store

Having statistically well sized packages for most households types will ensure
optimal saving and minimal food waste.

you will never need to go grocery shopping again, never need to "remember the
milk" throw much less food, and spend so much less on groceries you won't know
what to do with the money you have left.

I would start this but it seems it needs a logistics / supply chain pro from a
large corporate to be able to pull this through

~~~
jstreebin
Instacart? The latest YC class has that

~~~
eranation
Yes, I've seen them, but not what I want, I want a food subscription service,
solve me the "I've ran out of X" problem, keep my fridge full. just like the
minibar in a hotel.

------
duck
Clickable links: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=55974> and
<http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/daily/09-18-2012.html>

------
monk_e_boy
Internet filter for things I don't want to know yet. If I miss the Formula 1,
I'd rather not know the result until I watch it. Currently this means not
listening to the radio, watching the news or going to any non-geek online
news.

I'd like to have something like AdBlock, but it blocks on key-phrases that are
F1 related (Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button etc)

The key-phrases come from a wiki. The censored bits of sites could show
adverts instead (to make some money)

The wiki could hold all the options, different sports key-phrases (football,
soccor, rugby .... you know, almost anything ... Dr Who, Eastenders (for those
of us who iPlayer a lot of things)

~~~
alainbryden
Yeah, just look at all the trouble they want you to go through on lifehacker:
[http://lifehacker.com/5887230/how-to-block-annoying-tech-
rum...](http://lifehacker.com/5887230/how-to-block-annoying-tech-rumors-and-
movie-spoilers-on-your-browser). Someone should definitely make something
simpler. It could even look at trending topics on various sites that advertise
trends to give you a quick list of things to spoilerfy.

------
drcongo
A system that lest me maintain my contact details in one place, that other
services can subscribe to for up-to-date info. Should also let me maintain who
can see which details. When I change job, or lose my phone, or whatever, I can
update my details, and my vCard in all my friends' address books gets updated
accordingly.

~~~
guayosr
Love this, and have been thinking about it for a while (after having moved
literally 10 times in 10 years). I picture something similar to OAuth
permissions, where at any point I can revoke access to all or specific pieces
of information to anyone.

As an extension (and this is potentially where the money is), I can think of
an intermediary service (a-la Google Voice call widgets) that allows entities
to contact me without ever giving away my phone/address/etc.

~~~
drcongo
Absolutely. Currently I have zero control over who has what contact details. I
have good friends that still email me on an eight year old gmail address that
I don't use. I need to be able to pull addresses, push new ones, have certain
details only available to certain friends and maybe, like you say, have ways
of letting people get in touch with me once without actually giving out my
details.

------
Quizz
A pre-owned diamond exchange platform. Inspired by this article recently on
HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4535611>

During these hard times, give people a platform to sell their existing
diamonds at a higher price than what jewelry stores are willing to pay.
Disrupt the "estate jewelry" market specifically in the diamond space by
bringing forth a dedicated Ebay type site that also includes appraisals
(automatic/electronic?) as a separate fee. This would encourage people to sell
all those diamonds that's been stored in safe deposit boxes waiting to be
sold.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I'd thought about this as well, turns out there is actually a thriving
marketplace for pre-owned diamonds on Craigslist. It kind of blew my mind that
at any given point people are selling ten thousand dollar diamond rings on
Craigslist.

------
etandel
A github-like service for musicians that would allow:

1\. Version control of compositions; 2\. Forks of other musicians'
"repositories" / compositions; 3\. Contributions to other musicians' songs;
4\. Possibly play the songs online; 5\. Private / public repos; 6\. Individual
/ band / group / organization repos. 7\. ???

~~~
daralthus
this is something similar: <http://www.ohmstudio.com/>

~~~
etandel
What I have in mind is more focused on the composition part of music creation,
rather then recording / editing. But this is a very cool project! And of
course collaborative sound editing would be awesome for an idea such as mine.

------
bravura
[meta: Basically, a site that powers this sort of thread, except with the
requirement that it must be something you'd _pay_ for, not an idea you just
came up with.]

A website to help you find services that you have a burning need for, and
would _pay_ for.

It also helps you find initial customers for services that you're building.

You post: "I would pay for this technology." Other people upvote if they would
pay for it too.

Participants can post an answer and say: "That already exists. Here."

If no good solution exists, you can pay a small amount of money to contact
everyone on the thread, and say: "I'm building this. Here."

~~~
arafalov
You mean like HalfBakery and friends (<http://www.halfbakery.com/> , see also
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbakery>)

------
TamDenholm
HR and Recruitment software for high turnover, low skill companies like call
centers.

Implement a number of systems like patio11's appointment reminder, CRM and
helpdesk type software for communication, something to handle all paperwork
electronically, posting adverts, information gathering etc etc.

Basically, a family friend used to run the HR and recruitment department for a
huge call center, she headed a staff of 10+ people that all day advertised for
positions, looked through application forms, gave aptitude tests, did phone
interviews, arranged face to face interviews, did the paperwork to get them
hired, did inductions and put them into training, and thats just hiring and
doesnt include liasing with payroll and firing etc.

I told her about that idea, she mentioned it to her boss (basically the guy
that looked after the entire call center) and he apprently loved the idea.
Problem is, while i could do the techy bit, i'm lacking other things to be
able to make it happen so its on the back burner for now.

~~~
dgunn
If you have a potential client, pre-sell him on it to get funds to supply the
other things you're "lacking". Treat it like a free-lance development gig at
first and then turn toward a saas model after you've developed it.

------
xhrpost
I feel like I have tons of ideas but nowhere near the time to pursue even a
fraction of them. I like a lot of these ideas and wish at least someone would
pick one up and run with it so that I could take advantage of the
product/service. I'd like a site where I could post such ideas. Allow for
someone to post an idea with an explanation. Other users can discuss and tweak
the idea and eventually, if there is enough support, form a team and actually
work on it. Sort of a crowsourced incubator. Name ideas: StealMyIdea,
lightbul.bs.

~~~
pfives
I think <http://www.quirky.com> does exactly this

~~~
xhrpost
I was recently informed of Quirky. From my understanding, ideas are posted and
the community votes on them and then the Quirky development team builds it.
Sounds great but I still think my idea above would be serving a different
goal. Any idea could be worked on regardless of votes (though the more popular
ones would naturally see more work) and teams would be formed from anyone who
wants to join in and is accepted by that team.

------
tocomment
Ok, I have no idea how to do this startup but it seems very profitable. Have
you ever noticed how anyone under 40 believes with 100% certainty that social
security won't be around for them when they retire.

Well I think it probably will be around. Most big (popular?) government
programs aren't going away no matter what the media says.

So how about selling social security insurance. Buyers pay a premium each
month to buy the insurance. And if social security isn't around when they
retire the insurance pays out what they would have gotten from social
security.

\---- Edit ---

People don't think the insurance idea is viable so let's turn this idea on its
head. The company goes out and buys the future social security benefits (or
some portion thereof) from individuals ands pays them say 10 cents on the
dollar. People who don't think SS will be around think they're getting free
money, and the company makes a bundle if SS stays around.

Heck, could the US government could be doing this to fix social security?

~~~
hp
Insurance can't work if either all or none of your customers are going to file
a claim, because the premise of insurance is that those who don't file claims
pay for those who do. This insurance would have to charge a premium that would
cover the "everyone files a claim" case, which means people would be paying N
dollars in order to have a chance of getting their N dollars back. Not a good
deal ;-)

~~~
tocomment
Right, unless the insurance company can hedge their bets. At it's simplest
they could insure themselves with a re-insurance company.

They could also figure out financial consequences of social security going
away and place long term bets on that. If they are able to hedge properly,
they're basically reselling that hedge.

~~~
saraid216
I... honestly am not qualified to say that this _is_ what it is, but I would
strongly suggest taking a look at the details of how we entered this
recession. It sounds extremely familiar.

------
brynjar
A streetmap I can easily draw on top of, add links and annotations etc. and
send to a friend. Downloadable mobile version too. Lots of other potential
add-ons.

A friend of mine is visiting London, a city I know well, so I wanted to give
some tips for things to see: most of the existing services I found have a bad
UI, lousy performance, buggy etc.

This was the best one I found and this took _ages_ to create; yet should be
simple:

<http://quikmaps.com/show/216340>

------
yatsyk
Service that stores all your measurements for prefect clothing sizes matching.
If you decide to purchase something you allow clothing store to access your
profile on that service, same way as you allow some site to access your
facebook details. Your order will be sent to tailor in China after payment.
More advanced idea would be to use 3d model of customer. After that it's
possible to show me clothing ads with me as model while I browse ecommerce
site.

~~~
n1c
I run a little "waywt" site and we were thinking of doing this. Maybe there's
more of an audience than I first thought!

------
arafalov
I have a whole (Google) Drive of ideas, each with a hook, strategy, and
business plan. Some of them, I have seen startups to independently try. I will
post a bunch as individual sub-comments, see if anybody wants to make a
startup of them. If somebody does, I will be happy to share most of the rest
of details, in exchange for free accounts, recognition, etc.

Ok, I posted about 10% of what I have (most here, one was stray on its own
thread). But it started to look like HN spam even to myself, so I stopped. But
yes, there is more. And there are some with a lot more dots connected. Contact
me if you are ever stuck for ideas. :-)

~~~
arafalov
1-800-Sustainable Allow people to SMS/text (or IM) fish name and get
information on whether it is sustainable.

Parse multiple names/synonyms. Provide bit.ly links for full information for
those with smart phones.

Use geolocation to differentiate between fish names.

Could be paid by a grant from a nature oriented foundation, add-on service or
charge eco-concious users by using premium instead of 1800 numbers.

~~~
mapster
great app idea overall. Let's make a prototype and shop it around. It could be
fish, plants, poaching, shellfish, etc. PM me.

~~~
arafalov
Hi,

I am glad you liked my idea, but I am actually quite busy right now working on
a different one. Not one of this list. :-) But if that does not work out, I'll
get in touch. In a meanwhile, if there is somebody else you can interest in
it, I would be happy to share the rest of the notes directly.

------
benrequena
Here's an app idea. Show notifications when the device is within a certain
distance from the location of a past historical event. ...or past Crime ...or
a message another app user has left.

~~~
mikeevans
Here's a Parse sample app that does something very similar:
<https://parse.com/anywall>

------
covercash
TI-8x calculator resale program - graduating and have no need for that
calculator anymore? We buy it and the resell it to incoming students at half
the price TI charges!

Emergency mode for smartphones - when you dial 911, the phone goes into a
locked down, power saving mode that records audio (maybe video too), transmits
your location and attempts to connect you with emergency services. Recorded
audio is also transmitted to secure servers for later use by law enforcement
in case phone gets destroyed.

~~~
dgunn
I like the TI resale program. I know it would have been very easy to get my
TI89 off me after college for a steal. The difficulty comes from the fact that
anyone who doesn't need that calculator anymore is almost certainly no longer
around people who do. I didn't have the foresight to pre-sell it to a freshman
prior to graduating. Good money says almost no one does. Great idea!

[edit] This could also spin into a rental program.

------
mtoddh
It would be nice to have a dumb computer for your kitchen that is basically
just for displaying recipes from the internet (eg allrecipes.com). It would be
thin like an ipad and I could hang it on the wall/fridge/cupboard/above the
counter while I am preparing food. It would be easy to clean and sturdy and
would keep working even I spilled sauce on it, dropped it on the counter, etc.

~~~
crisnoble
What about an iPad case that is built to hang off the fridge or cabinets?
Optionally include a protective layer for ease of cleaning.

~~~
mtoddh
That would work too - something where I wouldn't have to worry if I touched
the screen/device even if my hands were covered in batter/sauce/etc.

------
mtoddh
A service that syncs your resume with companies' Applicant Tracking Systems
(ATS).

The problem: you're applying for jobs at three different companies. Each
company uses their own Applicant Tracking System (eg. Taleo, Kenexa,
PeopleAdmin). That means you get to fill out your resume three different
times, which is tedious and error prone. It would be nice to have a service
where you input your resume once and then it just automagically syncs your
resume to the ATS of the companies you're interested in.

I know that LinkedIn and Indeed have "Apply with LinkedIn/Indeed" to address
this pain point. But I can tell you as someone who's working on a job search
engine as a side project, there are many, many jobs where the only way to
apply is to fill out an ATS. And if you want to apply to multiple jobs you
have to go through the same process again and again.

~~~
jemka
100% agree. I'd love to be a part of this solution.

A centralized point where people can store different versions of resumes,
cover letters, and application information. This point also can parse and pre-
fill out any application of your choice for any company. It presents the user
only with questions it can't answer from the information it has on file. A
summary is given to the user for review before submission.

I've applied to several different positions where one resume or one set of
application answers didn't fit all. It would have been nice to have a service
to keep a record of my various resumes & application information.
Additionally, perhaps you have a varied background you might want to provide a
resume or application answers that better highlighted the relevant part of
your background. It would be nice if the service could be told to utilize one
set of application answers over another.

Anyway, just bouncing around the idea. But I like it.

~~~
joeshaw
You might be interested in this job posting from the "Who's hiring" thread
from August:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323765>

TalentDrive is essentially working on this. (Note: I am affiliated with the
company in that my employer shares the same parent company as TalentDrive.)

------
benrequena
Here's another app idea. Create a catalog of map data based on years and let a
user see what their location looked like in years past. Users could see what
stores used to be there, how fast their city has sprawled, and could show
their kids what their house looked like before it became a strip mall.

------
chegra
Collectively purchase/own items. For instance, baxter[programmable android]
came out yesterday/today, and you would like to try it out, but the price
point of 22k is too much. A group of people, say 22, can collectively purchase
it and rotate the usage of baxter amongst themselves.

~~~
alainbryden
Are you familiar with Timeshare (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare>)? It
usually refers to property ownership, but can apply to pretty much anything.
Most people consider the middlemen in timeshare situations to be scammers, so
it would be tough to market.

~~~
Mutinix
I have a similar concern with this. It's too easy for a scammer to just walk
away with an object. Invest a small amount, run away with an object of far
greater value.

~~~
chegra
I'm counting on human honesty. If that can't be trusted then maybe a gps
tracker attached to the system.

~~~
saraid216
There are communities who do do this. I wish I had actual references to point
out, but stuff like only having one or two lawnmowers for a neighborhood does
happen. It's a cultural thing more than a business opportunity.

OTOH, what if you looked at this from the perspective of a dating site? The
goal isn't merely to collectively own a thing; it's to find and meet people
who you could get to know well enough to trust and participate in collective
ownership.

------
danielna
Haven't thought this through very much, but it'd address some frustrations
I've been having lately. If someone can come up with a means of getting around
domain squatters, that'd be amazing. Kind of like a redirect service for
legitimate businesses.

~~~
EwanToo
I've been learning about the domain squatting business recently, by basically
becoming a domain squatter. It's something I've been fascinated by for years,
I always wondered how profitable or easy it was.

I've learnt quite a bit, and will get round to blogging things sometime, but
the main lesson is - most domains earn nothing from adverts while on sedo or
other marketplaces, and a decent offer of $500+ should get you almost any
domain you want.

If it's a domain that's worth much more than that (e.g. insure.com sold for
$16 million), then it would have been bought long ago regardless of domain
squatters. It would just have been used by some other business, so you didn't
really lose out.

~~~
richoakley
Would be really interested in a blog about this. Please drop me a mail if you
ever get around to posting one?

~~~
EwanToo
Will do - maybe this thread will make me get round to doing it!

~~~
brianfryer
Third! Please email me as well :-)

------
tocomment
How about a GPS car navigation unit that detects if you're going too fast for
an upcoming curve and warns you?

It seems like it already has all the data.

~~~
arbuge
Kind of already happening. Many gps units warn you if you're over the speed
limit, and limits are set with upcoming curves factored in.

~~~
lutusp
> Kind of already happening. Many gps units warn you if you're over the speed
> limit, and limits are set with upcoming curves factored in.

Here's a startup idea, but not for the faint of heart:

1\. The authorities put a QR code (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code>) on
all the speed-limit signs, a label that can be read from a great distance, and
one specially coded to be unambiguously a speed limit notification.

2\. An enterprising startup designs an Android app that (a) reads QR codes
through the windshield of a car, (b) compares the speed limit to the GPS-
derived velocity, and (c) alerts the driver that he's exceeding the locally
posted limit.

3\. Drivers plant their Android devices on the dashboard of their car and run
the app. The dashboard of a modern car happens to be a great place to get a
GPS fix.

This isn't meant to force people to drive the speed limit, but only to let
them know when they aren't.

~~~
eik3_de
Current cars (BMW, Mercedes-Benz) already have that. There's a camera that
recognizes signs and warns you if you're above the limit. See
[http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicles/3series/sedan/2011/sho...](http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicles/3series/sedan/2011/showroom/safety/traffic_sign_recognition.html#t=l)

~~~
lutusp
Oh, well, this won't be the first time I have suggested something that's
already been done. :)

------
eranation
A service that allows me get all my snail mail by email, I get a virtual
address, they scan / OCR etc (and spam filter)

~~~
impostervt
It exists. First one I found: <http://www.virtualpostmail.com/>

------
tocomment
Ok a couple more ideas; sorry to post so many :-(

A turn signal that produces the turn signal ticking sound really loudly
outside your car so the person in front of you is aware you want to turn.

Sell sterilized tape worms for weight loss. It seems like a great way to lose
weight but I'd be freaked out by the though of them reproducing inside of me.
If a tape worm harmlessly died after a few month I'd be up for it, especially
if the alternative were surgery or diabetes.

A device that can detect the sound of glass breaking and notify the police.
You could put them in neighborhoods everywhere.

~~~
lutusp
> Sell sterilized tape worms for weight loss. It seems like a great way to
> lose weight but I'd be freaked out by the though of them reproducing inside
> of me. If a tape worm harmlessly died ...

The tapeworms might not cooperate:

[http://gizmodo.com/5910770/brain-tapeworms-are-real-and-
they...](http://gizmodo.com/5910770/brain-tapeworms-are-real-and-theyre-
disgusting)

[http://www.inquisitr.com/240780/brain-tapeworms-are-a-
terrif...](http://www.inquisitr.com/240780/brain-tapeworms-are-a-terrifying-
hidden-epidemic/)

I personally don't want tapeworms in my brain -- there's already enough junk
living up there.

~~~
gadders
Although there seems to be potential in using intestinal worms to fix auto-
immune diseases of the bowel like Crohns Disease.

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=helminthic-...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=helminthic-
therapy-mucus)

------
lionel_lei
Here is an idea (rather ambitious) I am kicking around recently. It's not a
novel idea and many entities are pursuing it right now, however I think they
are going in the wrong direction. That is mobile wallet, the ecosystem the big
players are proposing have some weakness. This is what I propose: 1\. no
special hardware required for merchant to adopt. All you need is access to a
browser to begin accepting mobile wallet payment. 2\. no NFC needed, with
location and QR code, you could do what NFC can do. 3\. software could do a
lot of smart thing for security, such as tying the user account to a specific
device/location/time for authorized transactions. 4\. as for payment solution,
one could just use Amazon's payment service, so that you don't have to store
the user's financial information. 5\. value added service, such as analytics
for merchant, coupon, deals, loyalty, sharing, etc.

I know the mobile wallet space is very competitive and full of heavy weights,
but I don't think they are doing all of the above. i.e., google wallet require
merchant to have specialize NFC readers installed.

To implement all of these is not that difficult technically, but I am not sure
how challenge it is in terms of meeting certain regulatory requirements. Is
mobiel wallet platform subject to FDIC, EFT, and other financial regulation?

------
samzhao
Missed an important class/lecture/lab because you were sick or too busy taking
care of some more important stuff than attending class? Introducing a not-so-
innovative but pretty useful (and crowdsourced) course video/audio sharing
platform! Students can upload materials such as videos and audio of a class,
so people who missed the class can browse through the archive to see what
he/she missed.

I myself believe this is a good idea. Even if it fails to validate itself in a
certain market, I still want to build it because this is at least what I
desperately need. I only have an one hour class today, but it takes me around
an hour and a half to get to the campus and another hour and a half for me to
get back home. It's extremely tiring.

Concerns would be: 1\. What if recording a lecture is illegal in some places?
Or if it's against the rules of the university?

2\. I'm a student myself, so I don't have a lot of money to invest in content
storage if people start uploading a lot of videos and audios. I'll be hosting
the site on webfaction on the most basic plan, so the resource is fairly
limited. It would be great to have a service that I can direct all the upload
to their site via an API or some sort, so the users are uploading to the
service from my site.

YouTube Direct is great, but there's some problems associated with it: a. User
has to log in first, which is a hassle, especially when people don't
necessarily trust me, yet. I would totally accept anonymous uploads.

b. I want to make it as simple as possible. Having a YouTube widget to handle
this really doesn't feel right. It makes the process less intuitive.

That's it! Please give me some feedback.

------
upupdowndown
My 10 random Ideas (updated here for clarity)
(original:[http://decodedenote.tumblr.com/post/18942589572/10-random-
id...](http://decodedenote.tumblr.com/post/18942589572/10-random-ideas))

1\. A simple one tap add note app for android. All the ones Ive used till now
are shit.

2\. Peer to peer text and image browser. Torrent like? Why and what? Don’t
ask. Like diaspora.

3\. Original Color.com app done right.

4\. Karma styled instead of performance styled company employee review system.

5\. Personal interests and likes on Facebook change. Also circles of friends
change. New social thing utilizing this phenomenon for data mining.

6\. A real time crowd sourced transcription/fact checker for streaming video.
Handy during political debates.

7\. Course discussion Reddit like group. Can add equations as generated images
like web assign. Break topic into meaningful things.

8\. Make sexy furniture using trash. So much awesome stuff is thrown away each
year. I bet itll look better than shit at american outfitters.

9\. Webapp that sees who up voted who (in a reddit like system) and word cloud
into tags and interests.

10\. Calvin and Hobbes comic generator. Seriously. If I type anything, it
should generate a comic based on that and embed it. xkcd works too :)

------
klous
Trade your dead tree versions of books in for ebook versions + credit for more
ebooks when value of book exceeds ebook wholesale cost.

~~~
SammyGuergachi
Don't think this can be profitable in any way. What would you do with the dead
tree books?

~~~
crisnoble
Sell them?

~~~
danielweber
Old books have essentially no value. Cracked (of all places) did a story of
how hard libraries work to get rid of books, and all the problems that they
face just trying to even put them in the trash.

[http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-
anoth...](http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-another-book-
burning-period-in-history.html)

------
gfr2023
One that I can't get out of my mind - but it's more enterprise-y and not very
'sexy':

Enterprise software selection is a mess - often involving a team that doesn't
know much about technology, the landscape of vendors, how to go about actually
selecting the best vendor for the requirements, contract negotiations, etc.
I've run several of these for a bunch of organizations from Fortune 10 to
small non profits, and generally the steps are the same. Create a high level
scope, create a 'long list', gather and prioritize requirements, allow vendors
to respond, score and rank responses, demonstrations, short list,
negotiations, selection. The details may vary a bit, but to me that seems like
something that could be automated, with an app that would guide the team
through the process relatively easily. Over time you could even build a
library of requirements, vendors, and vendor responses (assuming you could
manage the ownership of these artifacts).

------
crisnoble
Crowd-sourced solar data.

Collect solar irradiance data (used to compute solar panel effectiveness) via
consumer devices (iphones or andoids that have light sensors).

Combine the collected data into an always updated, hyper local dataset, give
(sell?) data to solar development companies and municipalities.

This could greatly reduce time to research feasibility of solar farms in
cities.

------
jussy
1\. P2P travel insurance. Similar to kickstarter campaign, your friends insure
you for small claims <$5000. No claims, friends get money back. P2P company
holds money and profits on short term interest rates. Larger liability and
medical expenses would still need to be underwritten by normal insurance
companies. 2\. Smart Water Meters - Develop water flow meters on each
pipe/faucet to report flow information to an application. Should then be able
to detect leaking taps, validate water efficiency of appliances and remotely
shut off water to certain pipes for those in cold climates. 3\. Eventography -
Develop an event based photo sharing application to help people collaborate on
photos taken at an event, such as a wedding or concert, with one click.

~~~
saraid216
Re #3, Google Plus actually has this.

If you schedule an event, and then click into Party Mode, your pictures go
into an album shared with all the other attendees.

~~~
jussy
bah! sweet.

------
JunkDNA
Home 3D Printer for clothing and textiles.

Textile knitting machines have been digital for close to 100 years (old ones
used chains with risers that would change the gears of the machines to change
the knit). For simple garments, there's a completely automatable step that
makes the majority of the piece, but then there is often hand-sewing to
assemble the final product (e.g. sewing sleeves into T-shirts, seams into toes
of socks, etc…). Trick is developing the robotics to manipulate it so this can
be automated. It doesn't have to be fast (like a factory needs) if you're
making stuff for yourself. There's a whole ecosystem you could build around
downloadable designs, consumables, etc...

------
CKKim
A service which makes detailed and complete digital records of everything you
have, then disposes of the physical originals.

Dystopian version: It's done by a lot of hazmat-suited folks, possibly robots,
and you and your family are included in "everything you have".

------
calbear81
I'm kind of late to the game but here's what comes out of my mind/mouth at
lunch here:

Loser Trophies - What's more motivating than rewarding success? Reinforcing
the fear of absolute failure. Loser trophies are trophies for the people who
didn't place, a constant reminder that they should try harder next time.
Perfect for fun intramural leagues and the tiger mom in all of us, loser
trophies will feature models cast in defeated poses, slumped over and
humiliated.

Spider sucking vacuum attachment - A super long extension to suck up those
daddy long legs in the corner of your apartment. It'll be telescoping and
lined with something to kill the bug. [this is from my coworker typpo]

------
yatsyk
Hardware product idea: ~7 inch screen with keyboard for administration of
headless servers. It's very annoying to use large monitor and full keyboard
when all you need is change line in BIOS or press few buttons when OS stopped
to boot.

------
benrequena
A digital photo service that can identify duplicate photos and lets the user
delete duplicates easily.

I'd gladly hand over my wallet if <http://SnapJoy.com> had this feature.

------
mapster
Track your stuff for insurance loss. SaaS app that prints out small bar code
stickers. add these to your stuff. assign $ value and if you have receipt (can
email phone pic of receipt to app). If you are going on a trip, make video of
all bar code stickers and upload to app site. Site will parse video and
compile a list of your items that are going with you on your trip and assign a
replacement value. This app would be perfect for people with homeowners
insurance that replaces goods that are burned or stolen etc.

------
montyvan
This idea is very similar to Instagram, but with following tweaks : 1) It is
an instagram like application where you can take protographs using smartphone.
2) This will have a web interface. 3) This also accepts camara photos over the
web like Flickr or picasa. 4) Users can order photo prints at a very
economocal price. 5) Users have an option of selling their photos as
stockphotos(have a checkbox while just before uploading photo asking "Do you
want to enable this photo to be sold as stockphoto")?

Do you pay for this service?

------
Nowyouknow
I'd like to have a service that notifies me of deadlines. I input a
description of the task and the date, all my tasks are then ordered by how
close the deadline is. I can also set intervals for me to be reminded about
the deadline.

I can share this information with someone like my boss. She can view what I'm
working on and add tasks to it if need be, and every time she adds a task I
get a notification asking me to accept the task. In addition to being able to
accept the task, I have the ability to propose an alternative date too.

Simple.

------
g123g
I posted it on another thread. An app to help you decide on what to wear on a
given day. The app will get inputs from weather, day's schedule and the
clothes in your wardrobe etc. and will then suggest you what to wear. It can
take input regarding clothes in wardrobe using either a scan of the clothing
item or using a barcode. It can also suggest which new clothing items to buy
based on what is currently in the user's wardrobe and user's lifestyle. This
can cover the monetizing aspect of the app.

------
larsolefson
I've started a blog where I post an idea a day, both to help me remember, but
also to help train myself to think more creatively. A number of the ideas
could function as startups.

<http://blog.shopsimply.me/category/ideas/>

A lot of the ideas skew towards tech and software, but some of them are actual
products that could be built, and some are just half-baked ideas that might
incrementally useful for an existing product.

------
joering2
OK, here is the list of my ideas. "working" on it for years, never had balls
to start implementing, BUT I am computer programmer if you want to work on any
of those together, let me know. Otherwise take it, "steal it", and make it
big. And mention you heard it from joe :)

\- watches exchange club. you are doing as a middle man between watch lover. X
amount to signup + monthly fee gives your user base access to each other
watches. Users can exchange watches of similar value for X amount of time -
like 3, 6 months. After that need to return the watch. Of course there is user
verification system. Also each watch can be exchanged through a middle man
(you) that will double check the watch quality before passing it forward to
receiver (this would be at additional charge, something like Ebay Protect)

\- whereabouts mobile app. simple app, mostly used by companies to track emps,
but by parents as well. As simple as twitter, you just have access to someones
up to date GPS location, not their messages feed.

\- tldr (contacted tldr.com guy but never finished our talk). basically new
version of digg. Let anyone submit article BUT other people can summarize it
in X number of bullets and that's it. Nice feature -- other people can "fork
it" - take that and edit it make a better version (shorter or longer with more
info). Community votes on the best version. Articles/summarizes are linked
with other articles in a time period that creates a story (like a news story
that is developing).

\- drawing together app. similar to draw something, but lets parents and
children to use separate devices to draw together, or color cartoons, etc.

\- iPhone door opener with patented technology. Develop and patent technology
that creates a qr/barcode that opens the door (keys killer). that technology
will work with different doors and car doors, etc. Obviously since no
mechanical key is involved you can for example work for a company that uses
this technology and instead of giving you physical keys, they can manage
certain doors to be open with your phone.

\- perfumania. not too much IT related but this idea poped to my head while
working on fifth avenue. walking every morning millions of women pass me by.
now, you have soda/chips vending machines, you can rent movies via machine.
develop and patent machine to dispense either paper sticks or tiny containers
with perfumes. a client has access to a wall of 50 or more different
fragrances (perhaps some of a well established brands, but not only so client
can discover new fragrances). sell it real cheap so each day a women can get
sprayed with different fragrance.

\- impressed by this thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3748104> I
registered thumbkissing.com Any ideas for app? - contact me.

\- app for "display" shops. It was a nightmare to buy furniture for my new
place. went through plenty of places and been buried under phonebook-thick
catalogs. There must be better way. An app to browse shop offer via ipad.
Develop app. Start with furniture, there is only couple main companies that
shops get their supplies from. Upload entire offer; offer iPads cheap to shop
owners as a medium to browse their inventory. My impression - they will
quickly switch from thick catalogs that shows everything, not exactly what
each shop has or can have on stock/sell. Repeat for other stores: mattress
places, etc.

\- better hacker news :) this one is still on my todo list. DO NOT change
anything that currently is, just add more options: follow hackers (notified
when they type new comment), remove comments, branches from long commend
thread that you been reading, mark/hide read comments, notifier of number of
new comments since you read last time, etc. Lock the website to 1,000-5,000 HN
readers (registered users) not to kill/piss off PG that your boot is raping HN
server.

\- human protocol (I call it HAPI - Human Application Protocol Interface).
Basically reversed interned when people push the data instead of pull. Hard to
explain shortly here. Basically a stream where each task has its code and you
pushing "strings" of data where others can read them. no website, just plain
data. For example you want to sell a car? you push "status: 40 [selling],
location: 4903 [New York], var1: 3254 [Model of car]" etc. Then users build
receivers that treat this information accordingly, but stream on its own in
uncontrollable, something like uploaded torrent.

\- interests mailbox. I want to unsubscribe my personal email from all the
"Spam" I am getting and have one mailbox that I can select the offers I want
to receive. Imagine it the same way like when you changing your address usps
gives you all the offers of local stores. if im interested in gardening, I
want to be able to pickup "theme" gardening and signup for all the emails
related to the subject from all vendors out there.

\- twitter for businesses. same idea but you follow companies so the focus is
on the tools for a company to promote and sell their products. Twitter is not
the best platform for it; hasnt been designed for this purpose and does not
provide unified tools.

\- we are vacationing. I want a website where I can create our tour map that
looks cool and all our friends can check on it. where are we, what we doing,
where we been, of course uploading photos and videos on the way.

\- fanBooth. mostly for cute girls. website when you can take only one shoot a
day (or very limited number). of yourselves and other can "follow" you: put
comments, etc. you can tag that photo like #tryingnewclothes. others can vote
on the best for day/week/month in certain category.

\- mallHunter. you seen all those little booths at your local mall? provide
them with app when they can upload their items to sell: take photo and upload,
everything they have on sale/discount.

\- habitBreaker. website/app where I can mark the date that I quit
smoking/drinking/doping and see other people that did the same and compare how
many days I stay clean. Community can type message that keeps them away from
the habit, others can vote on it "helped me too" and then the top votes are
send via email blast or displayed on the website.

EDIT: vote up if you liked any of those :)

~~~
jvanderwal
UniKey is doing the "iPhone door opener" idea. Very cool tech - can't wait
until it's available.

<http://www.unikeytech.com/>

~~~
mortalkastor
I read that as UnlikelyTech.com

------
slig
A Chrome extension that solves CAPTCHAs with a click. Charge me 1 USD for 10
credits and then outsource the solving to some of those shady sites for $0.001
each.

~~~
dougbarrett
Why not just have an option on a site to bypass CAPTCHA on a site by paying
$0.10 via PayPal or some other method?

~~~
slig
It'd be hard to convince people running sites that they should accept 0.10 to
let me bypass the captcha. It'd be easier to solve this on my side and for
every site at the same time.

~~~
dougbarrett
There's an "If I got 10 cents everytime someone complained about using
CAPTCHA..." joke in there somewhere, I just know it.

I could honestly see this working. Your site enrolls to the program, people
can put money in $1, $5, $10 dollars at a time. Site owners get $0.05 per
signup through the service and can collect for every 1k users signed up (paid
in $50 increments).

~~~
slig
Agreed. Might be tough to get over the "chicken and egg" problem. This is a
startup idea, mine was more like a weekend project. I hope someone solves this
thing.

------
anujkk
Some ideas that I shared on my blog post
([http://blog.anujkumar.com/post/27913522655/please-steal-
my-s...](http://blog.anujkumar.com/post/27913522655/please-steal-my-startup-
ideas)) :

1\. Emosic : A music discovery service that lets you discover music/music
videos according to emotion tags, artists, band, album, genre etc. It should
let users organize music they like in easy to use playlists and share
playlists/music with friends on facebook or other social networks.

2\. Hangout : A web/mobile app to let users discover interesting places to
visit, events to attend and fun activities to do together in their city with
their friends, family and may be a prospective date. It should let users
create hangout plans/wishes that their friends can discover and join. After
all, real life happens offline and not on facebook.

3\. TalentHunt : An online competition where upcoming artists can participate
by submitting their music/videos on website. Audience votes on their videos
for a specific period. Top N number of artists are invited for face-to-face
audition/competition where judges decide the winner. This can be broadcasted
live online or on any T.V. channel. Winner gets some cash prize or an
opportunity to get his first album recorded.

4\. CyberModels : An online service to connect small business/startups (that
needs fresh faces for pics/videos on their site) with people who are
interested in modeling for a small fees. It can be an alternative to stock
photos.

5\. Udacity for music : A site similar to udacity that offers quality courses
on music like - Music Theory, Learn Piano, Learn Guitar, Vocals, etc. You can
charge for the courses.

6\. Music Marketplace : A one-stop music marketplace where anyone (artist or
record labels) can legally sell music/video online. Also, it should have a
good referral program and REST API.

and the one I need (not sure if it can be a startup but it can be a useful
service) :

7\. HN Knowledge Explorer : It should let me find best articles/posts/comments
posted on HN for a particular topic and sort it by points, number of comments,
date etc. For example topics like "Python", "Machine Learning", "SEO" etc. I
don’t know if it is possible but it would be nice if it can also provide a way
to sort these on basis of their google rank for given search term. Once it is
done try adding more sources like Reddit, Google+ etc.

~~~
Yadi
@anjukk For 1: you have 8tracks now adays

------
kordless
Flip Craigslist on its head. Post things you want to buy, the service fills in
questions and details on them using a combination of Mechanical Turk workers
and social crowd sourcing. Looks like Reddit, with comments even, has Buy
Local™ and category browsing options. Emails/SMSs you when it finds things
that match your 'buys'.

Subset idea: comments on Craigslist postings. "Went and saw this couch. It's
huge and hideous in person."

------
tocomment
Problem: Customers ask for a cup for water in restaurants with selve serve
soda fountains and proceed to fill the cup with soda. (Is this a big problem?)

Solution: QR codes (or something else) printed on the inside bottom of each
cup intended for soda. (water cups would be normal cups.) Then the machine
would only dispense soda if it sees the QR code. (Or same idea with RFID)

~~~
krallja
The QR codes could also be used to gather data about your customers - what's
their favorite drink? How much do they drink per visit? What size drink do
they prefer?

~~~
crisnoble
I think you could get this data by tracking (1) How many people came in,
potentially via number of meals sold (2) How many times you have to re-order
each type of drink. It wouldn't be real time but the data presumably already
exists. Plus nowadays I see those fancy electronic dispensers with touch
screens and would be very surprised if they didn't have built in metrics.

------
mapster
Why not jump into ecommerce feet first and buy a turnkey store selling 3,200+
digital downloadable products?

[https://flippa.com/2817900-turnkey-3200-digital-download-
pro...](https://flippa.com/2817900-turnkey-3200-digital-download-products-
ecommerce-site)

You can easily spend 10k building an app no one wants, or buy an existing
brand and inventory.

------
urish
Endless personalized (/-able) photo&image stream.

I want my screen full of an endless stream of images, which I can customize
both by "liking" or narrow by keywords, such as "now I want to see artsy
black&white photos" or "show me men's fashion". I expect the images shown both
in general and in specific cases to cater to my taste.

------
gadders
Take the fuzzy logic and intelligence in commercial-grade data cleansing
programs, and create a version that will fit on a mobile and de-dupe my
contacts.

It shouldn't just present them as one contact on the phone, but actually
update the record on Google Contacts or wherever to reflect the "merged"
identity.

~~~
MadQA
Something similar was offered by connex.io but unfortunately they've closed
recently.

------
GaryRowe
Solve the Time Problem. As in "I'm a developer with a great idea but no time
to do it".

Perhaps if someone has a bit of spare cash left over from the day job they
could pay someone else to build their project for them (subject to stringent
code review). Sort of like Rentacoder but more fine grained.

------
arafalov
FirstLesson.com - product reviews for language learning websites.

Do a screencast of language learning website (first lesson for each). Allows
people to see for themselves which of the sites better fit their needs.

Make money from affiliate joining fees for the reviewed sites.

------
atlantageek
A yelp type app for long trips. When Im on the interstate for a 6 hour drive.
I prefer a starbucks 10 miles away right off the the exit than a starbucks 3
miles away but 2.5 miles from the interstate.

~~~
conductr
<http://www.roadninja.mobi/>

Best I've seen

------
WilliamHurst
As with most hackers here, a job, a family and an attempt not to burn out has
left me with plenty of ideas but with very little to show.

The most audacious one rolling around in my head right now is Notifyway.com.
The basic concept is allowing the end user to control how and when they
receive communication from a sender (could be an app, your washing machine or
Facebook).

The process would be as follows: 1\. The customer (lets call him Bob) signs up
with Notifyway.com and downloads any apps they want to use (iOs, Android,
Windows, Growl plugin, whatever). 2\. Bob registers each app as a "receiver"
with Notifyway.com using OAuth. This allows push notifications to be sent to
each "receiver" 3\. Bob signs up with AwesomeService.com which lets him know
when there are friends nearby. 4\. AwesomeService.com connects to
Notifyway.com and Bob authenticates the connection using OAuth. 5\.
AwesomeService.com finds a friend nearby and connects to the Notifyway.com API
with a short and long message for Bob. 6\. Bob has decided that
AwesomeService.com should send him a text message for each notification if it
comes through on weekend. However, during the week, Bob would like all
notifications to be sent to Growl on his Mac (if it is during work hours) as
he is at his desk all day long. After hours, a Tweet can be sent or a
notification on his iPhone. If it is a long message, it should be sent to
Bob's personal email as it is likely a marketing message or some other time
insensitive update. 7\. Bob is able to make decisions on how to receive his
notifications using plugins that provide outgoing services (like ifttt) 7\.
AwesomeService.com have integrated into a single service with a single API for
all their communications with Bob, safe in the knowledge that he will get the
notification as he wants to get them. 8\. Bob is able to disconnect
AwesomeService.com if he ever feels they are not providing any value and he is
guaranteed no more communication (Bob never even gave his email to
AwesomeService.com because it wasn't necessary).

The concept lives and dies on very high volume and would need to have fairly
low margins to entice services to pay to communicate with their customers.
This would probably need to be driven by customers who would demand
integration.

There are services that do something similar things (e.g. Boxcar, Pushover &
Notifo) but I don't think they are aligned in the same way. I am hoping to
make this an "open service" so the protocol is open, 3rd party apps would be
welcome and community contribution acknowledged.

If anyone is interested, I'm starting a design document to discuss the
possibilities and opportunities that this service might create.

------
gbog
A service that aggregate, index and archive all the content you produce on the
web. Aggregation could be done manually with ifttt.com but the storage part do
not seem to exist yet.

------
gunshor
A service that enables you to never have to attach a file to an email again.
(Or at least one that teaches my parents how to retain this information.)

------
gbog
A real media browser in the browser. I think current browsers have horrible
interface to the local filesystem and it should be easy to improve.

~~~
ionforce
Browsers typically rely on the operating system to provide file system
browsing/navigation. So the onus on the the operating system makers, not the
browser makers.

------
lightyoruichi
Version controlling for Powerpoint. Seriously. I do lots of Powerpoint and
keep replacing them with wrong ones sometimes.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Do you share these over email? I had an idea to create a Gmail based file
browser _just_ for attachments because of similar problems working with people
that refused to use Dropbox or Github.

~~~
lightyoruichi
Sometimes. But most of the times is sharing via USB/Network

------
ALee
Here is my list of ideas:

1\. Problem: Difficult to implement shipping for any business, website, store,
etc. You only have UPS/FedEx

    
    
       Solution: Kayak for Shipping - Developer implements shipping API, which enables back end to do a rate shopping engine for shipping, which taps into APIs for FedEx, USPS, UPS, and allows local shippers to qualify for the program, including PostMates and any other Joe Schmo interested in shipping...
    

2\. Problem: I can't play paintball with my friends. Solution: Ender's Game -
Computers v. Humans

3\. Problem: People die because they can't get organ donations. Solution:
Create a co-op where people join a market for organ donations.

4\. Problem: Scheduling things with friends is really hard, there is too much
back and forth over SMS and email Solution: Set up a centralized service
through your phone that schedules for you, but is totally automated, no human
beings, just machines, so that virtual assistants don't have to waste time
scheduling

5\. Problem: There are no parking spots in the city Solution: Price out
illegal parking zones by multiplying the probability of ticket * ticket cost.
Using a mobile app, a user pays for parking insurance at differing rates, but
allows them to find a parking spot where there previously wasn't one

6\. Problem: why is it that you can only bookmark pages or urls Solution:
delicious 2.0 - be able to micro-bookmark. i should be able to save things at
the sub page level and consume that content later: a post in a block, a
newsfeed post on facebook, a photo in a webpage, a section of an article. etc

7\. Problem: Sending direct mail is hard - you need good lists, need to
process with mailhouses, and you don't know whether the mail you send is
reaching the right audience Solution: Create a digital application to send
mail as easily as email, complete with analytics of the funnel, and the
ability to unsubscribe from the mail you're sent. Make mail, like e-mail.

8\. Problem: Animated GIFs are the new LolCat, where can I find the best
animated GIFs? Solution: Use animated gifs as a medium for snipping video that
you can easily see over your mobile phone

9\. Problem: What happens to all my digital stuff when I die? Or when I want
something killed... Solution: future me, death switch - go through with my
credentials and find usernames and passwords and have ways to kill the
accounts.

10\. Problem: I can't listen to radio broadcasts, etc. with my friends
Solution: Social listening with friends. Suggestions from friends of articles
or things to listen to with their commentary in their words.

11\. Problem: Mobile data sucks sucks sucks. I want to watch something on
demand or download a movie. Solution: BitTorrent for mobile. Allow the sharing
of mobile data amongst subscribers, but you have leech and seed at the same
time...

12\. Problem: Keeping in touch with people is REALLY hard. Solution: Create
retention method of keeping in touch with people that uses a computer to help
you keep in touch with people who matter.

13\. Problem: Buying billboard ads sucks Solution: Create billboard ad
marketplace

13\. Problem: Retail locations have captive audiences and it's hard enough to
monetize the location. Why doesn't everything turn into a Times Square?
Solution: Give them a TV, stream over the internet, and do ads. You can break
up with television advertising model by guaranteeing the location and zip
code.

14\. Problem: Shipping takes time. Solution: Establish network of 3D printers
to print things on demand for same-day shipping.

15\. Problem: People get stabbed in the Mission Solution: 1) Crowd-sourcing
police cameras, we pay people to stream live their local areas and videotape
people walking around. Instead of just letting police see it, everyone sees
what's going on, but the difference is that the owner and we hold the rights
to the content. Assumption that more cameras means less stabbings. 2) You
could even SMS a number and it would follow your location on your way home so
that you are recorded every step of the way. Kind of like a virtual sentry and
you could have an individual nearby to escort you if need be for a digital
amount. 3) Text Message app where if a crime has been committed. It texts me
that one has happened near me. Uses increasingly open government data apis and
police blotters.

16\. Problem: Where are all the hot people? How can we take the local tracking
phenomenon to an even deeper degree... Solution: Hot or Not of Local. People
take pics of other folks and they can rate those people relatively around
them.

17\. Problem: I can't have dinner with my family in Colorado, HK, etc.
Solution: Hack the Kinect to create the Farenheit 451 wall. We can actually
have real conversations with people. I somehow feel MSFT will do this with
Skype and Kinect, but whatevz.

18\. Problem: Receipts suck. Yet, we still need them. Solution: Make it easy
to create a hardware or software solution that takes receipts and mails them
in a way that is easy for Quickbooks, quicken, or whoever needs to keep track
of expenses. I hate Oracle.

19\. Problem: I want to watch movies with friends. Solution: Have a way to
watch a movie with a friend and have them put commentary on the movie and for
me to also enjoy watching the movie. Annotations and real social. Spotify
meets Netflix.

20\. Problem: Water is expensive for large utilities. Solution: Smart grid for
water utilities: OPower, but for water utilities. The issue here is that water
is cheap, but a very large industry, so where could I make the delivery of
water much more efficient.

21\. Problem: I hate buying new computer equipment Solution: Lease electronic
equipment - Apple products are uniquely suited to this. New ones are released
every 12 months, old ones have a high resale value, iCloud syncs all your
documents for when you buy a new device, and there's a large population of
people who always want to own the latest one. You could charge a flat monthly
rate to people who always want to have the newest iPad, then send them a new
one every 12 months with a prepaid box to return their old one. There's even a
3rd party warranty company that covers drops and spills for a reasonable rate
-- <http://www.squaretrade.com>.

22\. Problem: Payroll is DOMINATED by two guys - ADP and PayChex, they suck
Solution: Kill them. Do better with a product that values people as people.

23\. Problem: [w] why can't you buy something online and pick it up in a store
(this currently is verticalized) Solution: make product search -> purchase and
pickup in store easy. build the amazon for local pickup

24\. Problem: AirTime sucked because it didn't let you Hot or Not people
Solution: It would be awesome if you could... AirTime with HotOrNot... social
and virtual currency. Allowing pretty people to make money from their beauty.

~~~
shreyansj
I feel that Problem 3 is a more legal and socio-political issue than a
marketplace issue. How do you control organ trafficking from poor undeveloped
countries?

~~~
ALee
Ah, but that's where the best hacks can occur usually where legal or socio-
political issues keep the best solution from occuring. Unlike a real
marketplace, a co-op is an agreed marketplace, so it won't allow new entrants
unless they join. To fix the undeveloped country problem, you just limit to
the US first. The perspective should be that individuals who want to
contribute their organs to the co-op can, but are also allowed to partake in
it later as well.

~~~
shreyansj
I think another solution could be to link the Organ Donor programs together. I
think several US states have DMVs that register Organ Donation options. It
could be a good starting point to get Donors matched up with Recipients. On
similar lines, various blood donation program registries and bone marrow
registries can also be incorporated in this marketplace. At least we will be
sure that who ever is participating is doing so out of his/her own will.

------
mccon104
[go easy on the non-tech guy]

A couple I've thought up but never had the time or know how to make. If you
want to take any of these and run feel free, if you'd like to talk more about
any my email is in my profile:

-A dating app that more closely mimics real-world dating by bringing spontaneous discovery and subtle-interactions into play. Traditional dating apps require you to a) know what you want and b) know how to find that in a text-based profile. That's not how the real world works. In real life dating you either meet through a third party (friend, roommate, classmate) or you randomly meet this person in a bar, library, etc (serendipity). In the latter case you choose to interact or not based solely on a) attractiveness and b) very basic personal information (age, general personality, intelligence). This app would try to closely mimic that form of meeting. It would also control a major pain point with current dating apps where men send out hundreds of messages without hearing back and women tend to get buried in a sea of copy and paste messages. It would do this by first requiring the female (in hetero users) to indicate interest in the male (real life: raised eyebrow/come hither look). Men can say they are interested in a girl (real life: buy her a drink) but they cannot interact with them any further until the woman says she is interested. The idea would be to start this in colleges where the majority of users are of similar demographics and actively seeking casual dates/hookups.

-an online marketplace for premium artisan greeting cards. i've always thought there was a market for the $10-$20 greeting card as long as you can really bring something people want. You see it with Hallmark trying out fresh ink and with the rise of Papyrus. The idea is that you can find plenty of very good artists who are looking for a way to pad their income. Personally I'm family friends with a good number of cartoonists but a look in any liberal arts university could surely uncover 5-10 quality artists. So the idea would be to seed the site with numbered, limited runs of the best of these artists greeting cards. You would need to find a quality printer and make sure your packaging is worthwhile but if you could seed the site initially with 10-20 new/unique quality greeting cards it could turn into it's own machine. Especially if you allow artists outside those you "invited" initially to submit their entries and have the top 5-10 make it to print each month/quarter. After allowing for printing and shipping costs you could give the artists 60% and take 40% of the proceeds. If done right this could be a place for artists to get started/make extra money.

-and iphone app built to be a "personal assistants assistant". An app that can take a persons calendar (google, outlook, ios), travel plans (tripit), address book, etc and make common tasks for a personal assistant much easier to do.

-a site/app that makes it easier to find a workout partner. it's been shown that people work out harder and more consistently when they have a workout partner but finding one (especially in urban areas) is incredibly difficult.

------
Buzaga
!OVER-THE-TOP-ALERT In-browser/Facebook MMO PVP game

A browser game(not HTML5 magic.. those that function like RTS, for example)
that permitted all sort of harassment, apart from directly
competing/fighting(example.: click to send 10 thugs to attack other player
HQ), it would also possess other mechanics like slowban and hellban to fire at
other players, _Area of Effect_ stuff, scorching earth, looting, reputation,
karma

Other than fu#king with your enemies/friends by making their game slow or
making them silent without them knowing, there could be all kinds of creative
"bans"(that would be like curses, but since I haven't thought of a setting to
run this on top on I won't call them this way).. mess with the player
interface, steal/spy on resources, the more over the top, the better

the game would be designed to encourage everyone to harass everyone(or to
polarize harassers/good people, like in UO), with some additional mechanics
that would encourage different types of interaction too, like parties, guilds,
if you're teamed up, collaborating could mitigate a 'ban' that could make you
die easily... but betraying is game too

Monetizing through micro-transactions, with a big eye on balance(evade the
"pay-to-win" path to the max)

