
Startup Ideas We'd Be Willing To Pay For - kapilkale
http://www.giftrocket.com/blog/startup-ideas-we-would-pay-for
======
edw519
_Have you had another idea you’d pay if existed?_

1\. A device that rings a bell or flashes the lights in any/all rooms of my
house if my cell phone is at home and rings. This way I don't have to carry it
with me everywhere in the house.

2\. A service which lets me know which restaurants have excess capacity and
will give me a discount if I come right now.

3\. A reasonably priced dependable on-line grocery service that delivers in
fly-over country.

4\. An email device for senior citizens as easy to use as an iPod.

5\. A device that lets you know whether the dishes in the dishwasher are dirty
or clean.

6\. An open source Windows clone that works.

7\. A device that automatically disables any cell phone in any car within 50
car lengths of me and heading in my direction.

[EDIT: Numbers 1 thru 5 were serious. #6 was a pipedream. #7 was a joke, but
like James Bond's Austin Martin, I can dream, can't I? You guys are giving me
what I deserve for mixing jokes in with the real stuff.]

~~~
rednaught
1\. I use a cordless phone at home with stations in every room. The base unit
has bluetooth which when paired with cellphone(s) is able to receive calls. I
drop the cell phone off at my charging station when I get home and never pick
it up again until I'm ready to leave the house.

4\. Isn't this the Peek(getpeek.com) device?

6\. Doesn't Windows have to work first before a working clone can even be
fathomed? I kid.

~~~
hugh3
1\. Neat. Just to clarify, this doesn't require a landline?

I keep my phone on vibrate all the time, which tends to mean that when I'm at
home I miss a lot of calls. I'd definitely pay for a thing that looks like a
regular landline phone but docks with my mobile phone.

~~~
egypturnash
Use location-awareness apps to set it to a ringtone when you're in the house.
If you're on Android, I've had good results with
[Locale]([https://market.android.com/details?id=com.twofortyfouram.loc...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.twofortyfouram.locale&hl=en)).
If you're on iOS or something else I have no idea.

~~~
hugh3
Interesting, and I am on Android. But the reason I keep it on vibrate is to
stop it making noise every time I get a low-priority notification. What I want
is for it to ring for calls and text messages, but only vibrate for emails and
facebook notifications.

There's probably some way of doing that, I guess.

~~~
egypturnash
Facebook: If you're using the official app, go to the main melu screen, menu
button, settings, and notification controls are pretty much the bulk of the
prefs.

Email:menu button pretty much anywhere, 'settings' (it's in the 'more' section
if you're looking at an e-mail, then if you have multiple email accounts you
tap on one. Though I don't see anything that explicitly says "make
noise/vibrate/notify in menu"; all I see is "Email notifications" which I have
turned on - and all I ever see is status bar notes and a trackball color
flash.

I'm using CyanogenMod 7.1 on a Nexus One, things may be different for you.
Especially if you're using a carrier or manufacturer branded ROM.

------
noelsequeira
If I've understood #1 correctly, this year's node knockout winner does exactly
this. <http://observer.no.de/features>

The demo appears to be buggy, but they seem to have something substantial in
the works. From the website:

 _Please note that Observer was build during the Node Knock Out, a 48 hour
coding competition. The commercial version currently in developement, this
free service will stay online as long as there are resources to support it._

update: ClickTale does this perfectly, down creating playable videos.
<http://www.clicktale.com/>

~~~
V1
Hi,

Could you describe was buggy about the demo? Did it load really slow or was it
something else :)?

I'm currently working really hard on the commercial version of Observer which
will be much more speedy less hacked up. So any feedback is still more than
welcome at this point :D

Thanks,

Arnout (developer of Observer :D)

------
mikepmalai
I'd pay for something that made it easier for me to remotely manage my
parent's life (documents, bills, schedules, appointments, insurance, money,
etc.). English isn't their first language so I end up being the go to for a
lot of things.

------
gkoberger
_1\. Software that shows videos of real visitors using our website_

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

 _3\. A wrapper around PayPal_

Why put lipstick on a pig? I'd rather use Stripe (not as full featured yet,
but getting there)

 _4\. An iPhone code editor with Github / Heroku integration_

Github lets you edit and commit tiny changes right from the site.

 _5\. Zerocater for startup swag_

Lots have tried; nobody wants to pay for swag it seems. [Edit: I misread this
one, they want their own swag.]

<http://www.schwa.gd/>

[http://techcrunch.com/2006/05/04/get-web-20-schwag-from-
vall...](http://techcrunch.com/2006/05/04/get-web-20-schwag-from-
valleyschwag/) (closed)

<http://www.startupschwag.com/> (closed)

~~~
derefr
> _Why put lipstick on a pig? I'd rather use Stripe (not as full featured yet,
> but getting there)_

Because that pig lets me use it as a non-US citizen.

~~~
gkoberger
This is a wish list. They're wishing for a PayPal wrapper when they should be
wishing for a PayPal competitor that does stuff like international payments.
(Side note: Stripe doesn't currently but promises international support is
coming soon.)

------
bdr
Congrats to ZeroCater on their first "X for Y" appearance

~~~
massarog
#5 - Startupthreads.com is doing this

------
forrestthewoods
"2. Yelp for business services"

Take it three steps further. I want to know what tools of all types other
developers are using. I'm a game developer want to browse what other studios
are actually using and sort based on developer size, time, and more.

For example what do people use for Source Control? Small devs probably use Git
or SVN. Show a time trend and SVN likely trends down and Git way way up. Large
devs will almost exclusively use Perforce. I want to see this data for
EVERYTHING. Text editors, modeling packing, memory managers, build tools,
databases, profilers, and so so much more. There are dozens of amazing,
wonderful tools/middleware/things out there that I don't even know exist.

This can naturally be expanded outside of software development, but I'm greedy
and want to use it for myself first and foremost. :)

~~~
kapilkale
Yes, this would be awesome, particularly the time plot.

~~~
forrestthewoods
So many amazing things could be done. The ideal situation is one in which
users can quickly and efficiently mark all tools they use and also get them to
update that list every ~6 months. It would integrate nicely with Stack
Exchange network I think.

~~~
kooshball
<http://osx.iusethis.com/> is somewhat like this. you can see the most popular
tools in different categories. they dont have a timeline view.

appfresh also has integration with this, where you can check the tools you
need and also update them.

------
pg
B2BRev is working on number 2.

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/yc-backed-b2brev-aims-to-
be...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/yc-backed-b2brev-aims-to-be-the-yelp-
for-b2b-services/)

~~~
dforeman
I think it's interesting how the Yelp model might work for business services,
but breaks down for service providers. We're not doing lawyers, but I think
lawyers are a good example of why the Yelp UX model is wrong for the
"relationship" business services market.

\- First, reviews are the wrong content. You won't get them, first of all,
because customers of businesses who see 10-20 engagements per year will never
leave lukewarm or negative reviews. Secondly, even if you only allow
recommendations (like LinkedIn) and not open reviews, it's still the wrong
content to describe a complex business service. The managing partner of WSGR
has tons of recommendations on LI. Does one of them come close to capturing
how he thinks about business or his potential value? No.

\- Second, stars or any other standard comparison ranking system is the wrong
discovery method. Stars help people discover who is good, but not who is good
at what.

\- Third, participation. LawPivot, who was able to raise several million
dollars, lets lawyers generate business through a private Q&A site. Well, the
most successful lawyers have no reason to use this service- they are already
oversubscribed. Any service discovery/review tool dependent on active
participation by the service providers leaves out the best players. This is
less of a concern for the B2Brevs of the world, but describes why Guru.com and
Elance became talent slums.

I probably shouldn't say anything, but we're launching (and applied YCW12)
with something designed to fill a number 2 role for an often overlooked class
of business services.

------
amandalim89
#5 definitely!!! I think the ladies working in startups will definitely
appreciate it! Startup schwag rarely fit me properly :( and most of them are
just a logo slapped onto a T-shirt. Would be great for team morale! Plus, nice
swag like rovio's angry birds plush toys, t-shirts etc are selling like
hotcakes [http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/SF2011/2011/09/12/angry-
birds-...](http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/SF2011/2011/09/12/angry-birds-the-
brand-rovio-sells-1m-t-shirts-and-1m-plush-toys-per-month/\)So) there's
definitely market validation for that idea! I definitely believe in investing
in gd schwag and who knows that might even become a source of income for a
bootstrapping startup :)

~~~
frankdenbow
Swag can be pretty big. It is a difficult industry since margins are really
thin, but I think people are willing to focus on a service that helps them to
outsource some of their swag needs in order to focus on other aspects of their
business.

Oh and we'll have women's sizing too :-)

~~~
amandalim89
Cool! do you guys make schwag? send me a link to your website :)

------
notlisted
1\. Software that shows videos of real visitors using our website

Forget ClickTale. Check out Mouseflow. Love it and _much_ more affordable.
<http://mouseflow.com/demo>

Useful for debugging purposes too _and_ they have a "live" version.

------
jprobert
With regards to #2 on your list "Yelp for Business Services" there is a
company called Contact Karma <http://www.contactkarma.com/> which aims to do
something along the lines of what you're looking for. My company will also
eventually be in the space and allow you to search and discover
recommendations through friends and friends of friends in your social
networks. For the most part we're restaurants, entertainment, and services for
now while we perfect the data but you can see if you're connected in anyway by
checking out <http://www.cliqsearch.com>

~~~
oniTony
> recommendations through friends and friends of friends

So kind of like <http://www.gigpark.com/> (which is arguably something like
"Yelp for (Business and other types of) Services").

------
kloncks
For #3 wrapper around paypal

Thought that's by far not all we do, my startup ( <http://www.kout.me> ) has
the ability for people to do that. A lot of interesting problems in this
space.

------
sthatipamala
Hey guys, great post. I just wanted to let you know that you should add left
padding to your post content. The text runs right at the edge of my screen on
my phone.

~~~
kapilkale
Thanks, we'll look into it.

~~~
kapilkale
Should be fixed.

------
rhizome
How does AngiesList not satisfy #2?

Seems to me that this article could be a little less manna-from-heaven and
more inclusive of the unmentioned-but-existent.

~~~
onwardly
True, though I think this thread has done a great job of bringing some of the
unmentioned-but-existent apps to light, more so than a few hours of research
by the authors. Something of a side-effect, and one of the reasons I click on
"comments" for many HN stories.

~~~
rhizome
It doesn't speak very well of the credibility of the investors who wrote the
post to say they'll pay for something without any apparent knowledge of
existing solutions, nor any critiques of why they're deficient. It's like
saying, "someone should invent a good car."

------
Schultzy
_2\. Yelp for business services_

Take a look at:

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

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

and

<http://web.appstorm.net/>

In addition to the already mentioned <http://www.bestvendor.com> (which I look
forward to checking out).

------
theseanstewart
I think it would be awesome if there was a "Google Voice" for Snail Mail. You
would give out one address and it would follow you everywhere. This would be
especially great for those 18 - 25 that are going off to college and will end
up living in multiple places over a short period of time before settling down.

~~~
LogicX
earthclassmail.com - one address; they scan in your mail so you can check it
online from anywhere.

------
lukejduncan
It's kind of sad for PayPal that people NEED a wrapper around their UI for the
reasons stated.

------
bemmu
Here's two I would use, but making them seems to require everyone in the world
to agree to some reporting API.

\- Software that automatically finds receipts for all my account activity. So
that if I give it my bank account statement that had a charge for Dropbox, it
would automatically create dropbox.png which is a screenshot of the receipt
from dropbox. This would save about an hour every month finding these
manually.

\- Mac OS X widget that adds all daily revenue from all different ad networks
(adsense, cubics, lifestreet etc.) and displays the sum for yesterday and
today in the menu bar.

------
kevt
Great idea for posting up a wishlist for services, until I remembered the old
saying of how people are terrible at predicting future behavior. Hence, never
to ask potential customers the question, "would you buy/use this". I realize
that this is in reverse (the writer is asking for it), and that they are not
being lead by an interviewer, but shouldnt the same theory (that people cannot
predict future behavior) still apply?

------
incomethax
Doppler for Heroku (<http://dopplerapp.com/>) works like a charm for having a
quick rails console on your iPhone. It also allows you to provision your app
and run rake tasks as well.

I'd be interested in something that also allowed code editing with github
integration for the iPhone if any exist.

------
myared
#1 - doesn't Clicktale do exactly this?

I secretly love watching the thought process of people as they fill out a
form.

------
Toenex
I'd like someone to start a service that _guarantees_ I get the best deal on
my utilities every month (gas, electricity, broadband etc). They would get
paid an amount based on the saving they made for me.

~~~
arojahn
I was looking into something similar to this for the UK a while ago - tricky
part is the legal implications and the fact that you have to use post-fact
data to identify the "best" deal when the user behaviour might change the next
day.

------
fleitz
Regarding the swag idea, I was thinking of a service that would deliver swag
to users of a site.

eg. When you become King of Mayor of whatever on foursquare you get an actual
shirt type thing, or an iron on badge, etc.

~~~
frankdenbow
I like this. We hadn't thought of this for StartupThreads but at the core,
startups can use merch as an agent of appreciation for the loyalty and support
of their users. Finding creative ways to express this will help them retain
some of these power users.

------
ajaimk
The swag idea has some potential. Though there isn't much market for people
paying to get startup swag, I feel that many startups would love to outsource
the actual shipping out of their swag.

~~~
johns
HA. You would know ;) <http://www.swaglove.com/> Is the closest I've seen.

------
chrischen
4\. An iPhone code editor with Github / Heroku integration

Can kind of be solved by using iSSH or any other SSH client for the iphone. If
you've got a bluetooth keyboard then it's pretty handy.

~~~
akavi
That makes it _possible_ , but far from _easy/convenient enough to be
worthwhile_.

What I imagine is intended by this is a text editor tailor made for browsing
and editing code on a touch screen with limited real estate. A non-trivial
problem in my estimation.

~~~
chrischen
iSSH+vim for iphone has a usable interface. I've actually done emergency work
through it. But if you have a bluetooth keyboard it becomes even more usable.
I figure it's about as usable as you'll get with the iphone's tiny screen and
keyboard.

------
yolesaber
I'm surprised there isn't a company that fits #5 yet. That seems like it would
be a lot of fun.

startupswag.com and hackerswag.com are taken but aren't hosted yet.

~~~
frankdenbow
StartupThreads.com (my site) will do some of this. There are some others like
StartupSchwag.com that used to do it (Roddy actually gave me the
StartupThreads domain, awesome guy) along with SwagLove (they do fulfillment
for startup t-shirts).

------
GMali
Strange how nobody here has mentioned <http://clixpy.com>

Although it's more strange that the site's down atm.

------
johns
Swag as a service: <http://www.swaglove.com/> (Boulder-based startup)

------
jbondeson
#4 - Cloud9 seems to fit the bill <http://c9.io>

------
joshfraser
#1 - I believe tealeaf.com and atomiclabs.com provide that #5 - Check out
swaglove.com

------
freejack
wifi enabled thermostat with web-based controller at a reasonable price.

------
dudemanbro
2\. Yelp for business services

This is exactly what BestVendor is doing.

www.bestvendor.com

~~~
yonasb
Just signed up, and I don't know how I feel about it. On one hand I really
like the UI and sign up process, because it actually made me want to give them
information for some reason. On the other hand I feel like they just robbed me
because they didn't give me access to the site.

~~~
bestvendor
We feel you! We've gotten that feedback, so we're totally changing the sign-up
process and opening it up so you get access immediately. Give us a couple of
weeks; code takes time, but we're on it.

For now, we sent you an invite to the current alpha. Check your email. We're
making the whole product much better soon, so stay tuned.

------
swanson
#1 reminds me of a reverse Selenium test :)

------
kang
Every startup should do a list like this.

------
yonasb
I would pay for number one right now

------
savrajsingh
E-junkie is a PayPal wrapper.

------
diamondhead
Idea No. 4 is implemented by Cloud9 very well; <http://c9.io>

