
25 Startup Ideas for 2012 - judegomila
http://www.judegomila.com/2012/01/challengeyourself-in-2012-ivelisted.html
======
potatolicious
"Build a holodeck", "Read/write cells for under $1000", "biological satellite
that... deploys/builds itself", "build quantum gears"...

This seems more like 25 Startup Ideas for 2042.

~~~
judegomila
I added some fun ones in there as well...though OpenPCR have made really good
headway on the cheap desktop bio hardware front.

~~~
frisco
OpenPCR is totally different from "read/write cells" much less "read/write
cells for under $1000". A truly useful "BioCAD" isn't an engineering problem
yet: there's a very substantial amount of basic research required. Synthetic
gene circuits evolve rapidly, for one: let's say you designed and "CAD-tested"
your circuit, how will you keep it from mutating within a few days? Unsolved
research problem.

> Build a database for biology.

Better than Entrez/NCBI? They have a _ton_ of data. Yes, not _particularly_
user-friendly in the way the web community might be used to, but it has all of
the data and biologists know how to read it. What would you add? (Yes, there's
a lot to add -- but it's not a matter of a prettier UI, and NCBI does have an
API already that people find usable).

> Reading DNA in vitro

What does this mean? Sequencing DNA without extracting it from a cell? Why?
Sequencing is largely a solved problem now. Costs are dropping faster than
Moore's law, and there's literally a thousand vendors who will do it. Even
synthesis is advancing so fast that people are beginning to talk about not
doing subcloning anymore and just synthesizing the entire construct! (Note
that just because we can synthesize kbp oligos now doesn't mean that they're
biologically useful in much other than bacteria and yeast, though... pesky
things like epigenetic modifications and nucleosomes/genomic DNA packing...
among others.) Also, the extension of "writ[ing] DNA sequences into plasmids
using the capacitance of the cell wall via [a] nano tube" seems a bit far from
current technology.

That said, I think these are important problems and I'd _love love love_ to
see more people working on them versus more web and iphone apps! This was not
the list I expected to see, which is awesome. But the biology-related ideas
don't come across as being communicated with much sophistication.

~~~
judegomila
I would also love to see more startups in this area. It would be amazing to
open biology to every engineer on the planet. I'm thinking of a arduino like
revolution but for biology. Achieving read/write cells for under $1000 on the
desktop would open up biology to an entire new set of people. I'm not a
biologist, but I'm intrigued by what we can unlock in this field.

OpenPCR is a good example of frugal engineering applied to the space. I hope
to see more attempts at making this hardware cheaper and accessible.

Regarding the spec on the Database. User friendliness would be a start, can
you throw in what you would want to improve - I'm interested in your ideas?

The company "ion torrent" caught my eye regarding the in vitro DNA sequencing.
It disrupts Halcyon Molecular and could cut the cost down even quicker.

~~~
irollboozers
Why are you convinced you need to open biology up to engineers? Is that
currently not the case?

The fact is you really can't do much with a PCR machine. Sure, you can
identify your friends boogers. But it only reduces one tiny aspect of overall
cost. Add a centrifuge, a flow cytometer, a gel box, some incubators, and then
maybe you have a functional 'garage' lab.

But again, you don't achieve much by having immediate in vitro sequencing. Not
sure what the point is.

The real barrier then is literally funding and the capacity to do the
research. And that's exactly what my startup is doing.

~~~
jayunit
<https://www.breakoutlabs.org/about-us.html> looks like an interesting entrant
into funding early stage research outside academia. Any thoughts on them?

~~~
irollboozers
Without revealing too much of what I am doing, this doesn't really solve any
existing problems. Honestly, Intellectual Ventures is better than this in that
they get straight to the point. They will just buy your IP for some ridiculous
amount of money, whether it's from the university or your company.

If you ask a science researcher to be able to do the research outside of his
lab, the size of your potential audience falls to fingers on one hand.

At least Bill and Melinda Gates foundation does better in pushing a goal with
their own agendas. This seems like an unfocused attempt to throw money into
the pit, though money always helps.

So, as a researcher, I've learned that researchers are the best ones who can
dictate their own goals. That's freedom that hasn't been seen yet, and there's
a very simple solution. Just execution is very difficult.

------
yurylifshits
Some other big problems:

    
    
        Prisons
        Retirement for not-so-rich people
        Government procurement
        Shipping (in developing countries)
        Customs (in developing countries)
        Utilities prices in Northern countries
        Digital democracy (removing corporate influence on elections)

~~~
tankenmate
There is a solution for retirement for not-so-rich people, it's called tax
free, mandatory, funded, and benefactor owned superannuation. It forces
everyone to contribute to their own retirement. It stops companies or
governments from dipping into the "pot". It's tax free and so allows proper
growth not only for the funds in question, but also allows for growth in the
economy. Obviously there are some corner cases but these can be accounted for
fairly easily. In short it is good for just about everybody.

The more countries that adopt this the better.

~~~
twelvechairs
The downside in Australia is that the great majority of less-financially-
oriented people put their money into 'super schemes' which are designed to
swindle you and on average give you a worse return for your money than just
leaving it in a bank (without even accounting for the excessive fees and
charges).

~~~
tankenmate
True, most managed funds are a rip off. I remember many eons ago in my first
job out of school, I worked at a factory. The company selected super fund sent
some peons out to brief us about our fund, but we just shredded them by asking
common sense questions. The peons were obviously PR people who had no idea
about investment and were hoping that some four colour glossies would keep us
happy.

------
stevenou
There's actually a lot of "AirBnB for Activities." Our company used to be
Skyara (<http://www.skyara.com>). We ended up pivoting to RAVN
(<http://ravn.com>), which is more of a "Amazon for Activities," per se. I
think we were definitely one of the first ones to try to enter the "AirBnB for
Activities" space but had a very hard time.

While in theory it sounds like a great concept, the key to realize is that no
"AirBnB for Activites" can ever be an "AirBnB for Activities." What I mean by
that is: the part of the "AirBnB for X" business model that makes it work is
the part where you have a very low marginal cost to renting out an existing
resource that, presumably, is getting very low utilization. I.e. a car sitting
in a garage, an empty couch. The marginal cost of renting those out... is
basically zero. However, with Activities, the resource at play is actually
time! A person needs to take two hours out of their day to offer a walking
tour, cooking class, etc.

Arguably, time is _the_ most scarce resource we have. People value their time
highly, which means the marginal cost (in this case the opportunity cost) of
them offering an activity is very high. Add to that the fact that individuals
do not benefit from any sort of economy of scale, and that most likely means
that they cannot compete with businesses on price (which is arguably where
AirBnB is winning in its biggest market, NYC).

So of course, I'm not saying an "AirBnB for Activities" is not possible, but
some fundamental problems make it significantly more difficult than one might
initially expect. Personally I think Vayable is doing a great job, but time
will tell...

Oh also, AirBnB took something that already was happening (sublets on
Craigslist) and just rebranded/made it better. Not much "Activities" activity
going on on Craigslist. It's mostly for services, like painting, plumbing, car
mechanics, etc. So you sometimes question if the demand actually even exists?

Anyway, I could write a loooong post-mortem on Skyara but you get my point.

~~~
daveambrose
Besides you guys, who else is doing something like this?

~~~
stevenou
Someone already posted some below: <http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3524864>

~~~
daveambrose
Thanks.

How are these sites overcoming the chicken and egg issue of attracting
interesting activities from locals? Gathering enough visitors to the site to
make transactions meaningful?

~~~
jasonshen
From building a marketplace at Ridejoy (YCS11), I can tell you that this early
market building is very unique to each team/product/market and also one of the
most valuable "secret sauces" for the company. Anyone who really knows
probably won't tell you, and most people who might write a response are mostly
guessing. At least that's what I think.

~~~
daveambrose
These marketplaces share a lot of core business similarities to that of the
daily deal market as early as four year ago, no? At scale (depending upon
which niche you choose for your site) will require money in to make "money
out". No one in this thread seems to be highlighting this with the exception
of those sites listed, little VC dollars have been invested thus far.

It's a serious question and one that's not secret sauce, I'd argue. The
execution of your business and that of any sticky viral hooks you can build in
will leave you at the winner's circle years from now.

------
jayzee
Often the path to a discovery is not direct. Facebook stumbled upon social
search several years after putting up college yearbook profiles online
first...

So I like 7, building a database of biology but to tackle that head on would
be impractical (financially). That is the end goal that we have at my startup,
but we are starting out by helping labs manage their reagent and chemical
inventories first. Sounds mundane but the eventual goal is to get to a crowd-
sourced global database for biology. Remains to be seen how it pans out.

My point is that such lists of top X ideas can be useful but often the biggest
challenge is plotting the trajectory. And often the path is not a straight
line.

~~~
dkural
We're working on idea 7 as well, but a completely different angle compared to
your company, check out <http://www.sbgenomics.com> \-- instead of all of bio,
we start with genomics, and also emphasize computation. Sounds like we're
compatible pieces of the puzzle!

~~~
irollboozers
I just signed up for an invite, along with an extra message! I want to learn
more about this.

Also, I've been meaning to contact those guys at Quartzy too. Can I also get
in on the strategic partnering?

~~~
jayzee
Cool! I can be reached at jayant /at/ quartzy.com

------
mitakas
Am I the only one who has realized, that all you startup people are scared of
science? Are the ideas on the list really that hard to fund?

We have some very real problems in this world, but all you seem to care are
iPhone/Android apps and stupid websites (copied from one another I guess).

~~~
potatolicious
Yes, these "science" ideas (actually, traditional engineering) really are that
hard to fund.

One thing software people _always_ forget is how expensive it is to perform
R&D on real, physical things. Software is practically free to produce in
comparison - your big campus of 1000 engineers, with free lunch and masseuses,
is practically free in comparison to say, the cost of developing a new drug,
or introducing a revolutionary new jet engine.

I don't think it's necessarily true that VCs only care about iPhone/Android
apps, but they honestly cannot afford to invest in "real" engineering. The
risks are just as great, and the stakes are far, far higher, beyond the deep
pockets of many angels and VCs.

------
agilebyte
>> Build the database of biology

We are running a biological data warehouse, with a clean API in 4 languages.
The problem is that the source data are incredibly messy and you have a lot of
"blank" values. People then do not know if data are missing or if there really
are no data to begin with. Who does the curation?

~~~
irollboozers
Is that because you have lots of variation over different values? I've tried
using websites like Bionumbers, but can't tell if it's curated or not, and is
basically now useless. How is yours different?

~~~
agilebyte
Ours is not curated either (our sources should be). We take data from the
likes of Flybase, Ensembl, UniProt, BioGRID and really anything you want and
make a more coherent picture using various graphs and widgets.

------
jhancock
Good brain dump.

This though: Bitcoin - "Let the IRS/FEDs be involved and stick to the law."
You need to file under _Things that will never happen_. The U.S. will not
permit a _rogue currency_.

~~~
tomjen3
Who is to say they will have a choice?

I am not being cute here, but the power of any government is their monopoly on
violence. That assumes, however, that the government knows whom they are up
against.

What if the next generation cryptocurrency was truly anonymous? Then you
wouldn't be able to stop it, even if you wanted to.

~~~
jhancock
perhaps. I enjoy watching the evolution of bitcoin. But I don't see the U.S.
gov playing along.

------
rayhano
The biggest problem is this:

We spend our lives accumulating valuable knowledge and relationships. Then we
allow our elders to just die and let that knowledge and their relationships
die with them. Why are youngsters forced into teaching jobs, when they have no
life experience to novate to kids?

Find a mechanism for achieving a solid transfer of knowledge from the elderly
to the young (the caveat being the young need to be taught to reason for
themselves and filter out the less useful bits)

For the record: sending kids to school does not equal them being educated or
learned.

~~~
code_pockets
Great point.

Though you may have not thought of something: wisdom (which is what you seem
to be referring to) works something like this:

wisdom = knowledge(experience(actions(decisions * time) * time) * time) * time
//why do I always end up writing lisp?

We spend our whole lives developing our wisdom, but we also spend our whole
lives learning how to acquire it, and how to understand it.

How do we transfer something that strictly depends on time and discipline
(when time is undefined for all, and discipline is lacking)?

~~~
rayhano
Is not some of the best learning those things we don't appreciate at first but
then we encounter an example and that pearl of wisdom someone imparted on us
years ago flashes up and all in the world makes sense? :)

I love the lisp... can I post it on twitter? What's your twitter handle?

~~~
code_pockets
Thank you for the nice comment.

I do not use twitter, but you can feel free to tweet it. Just send the profits
of the tweet to the FSF. =)

------
Joeboy
It's, er, interesting to see Wonga listed as something to emulate. The only
context I've heard of them in before is people wishing fiery death upon them
for exploiting the desperate.

~~~
freyfogle
That and articles about investors piling ever more money in because it's a
cash machine.

BTW - people are working on this in the US, though it moves more slowly due to
state by state regulations

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/former-google-cio-
raises-73...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/former-google-cio-
raises-73-million-to-reform-payday-loans-with-data-driven-startup-zestcash/)

------
itmag
_2\. Gamify learning core subjects: specially maths and physics to start. 3\.
Allow the community to make lessons and have voting systems for quality._

As someone who is itching to start an e-learning startup, what would be some
ways to implement this?

For the user-created lessons, maybe have an IDE-like enviroment with a domain-
specific "programming language" that enables non-coders to easily create
educational modules and upload them. Think SCUMM but for the e-learning
domain.

Thoughts, anyone?

~~~
japhyr
I think this hasn't been done well because it is more difficult than creating
something like wikipedia. One of the reasons wpedia works is because you can
enforce a non-redundancy policy. There can only be one article on any one
topic. In education, however, there are many ways to teach any one concept. So
you have to allow people to create different lessons on the same topic, but
also create a simple pathway through all these lessons. Khan academy has been
successful in this for math, but I think a good part of that is because there
is one person clearly running the show, an intensely productive man who spits
out several videos a day, for years. Crowdsourcing that work is an interesting
challenge.

As a teacher, I'd love to see this done well. But it seems most people who go
into these ventures either don't get education, or don't get technology. It
seems there is a pretty small group of people in the world who really get both
fields. It's also hard to put together a team of people who get both. And
finally, the profit motive kills a lot of education endeavors. Education is
fundamentally a human right, and profit motives tend to exaggerate the
achievement gap. There is plenty of room for new thinking in this area.

------
tezza
Wonga for USA: a lot ( and there are v many clones ) of these lending
companies are already US companies.

They have presences in USA, but have exploded in the UK because the Usury laws
are less restrictive.

[http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-are-payday-
loa...](http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-are-payday-loans-the-
cheapest-option) And that evenings Channel 4 news piece where the industry
spokesman talks about it.

~~~
dirtyaura
I don't get why Wonga specifically is so respected among VCs. Isn't there tons
of these kind of companies around? It's the old good business model of usury.

In Finland we have tens of companies offering short term cash loans based on
text messages. I know few of these guys. If well-executed, these companies are
money making machines, but they have very little of moat. You can enter this
industry easily, if you have enough cash for initial advertising.

------
jvdmeij
> 15\. Airbnb for Activities

See <http://www.gidsy.com>

~~~
dwynings
And <http://www.vayable.com/>

------
sneak
What sucks is that I completely built #1 on his list, tested it, but was
afraid to launch due to the combination of PATRIOT changes to the BSA and
FinCEN regs.

Long story short: I don't want to start a startup that sends me to jail or
regulatory hell if it becomes successful.

If anyone wants to buy coinpur.se, let me know. :)

~~~
judegomila
Launch it. Worst case scenario is that you become second place in modern
warfare 3 global rankings.

~~~
Alex3917
More like worst case is you become the second level in modern warfare 4.

------
irollboozers
You already realized why reading DNA in virto [sic] immediately is kind of
pointless, because you still can't immediately make it.

Current DNA logic gates can already do sequence recognition as sensors in vivo
but also provide flexible signals.

Also, there are already standardized part registries out there, like
BioBricks.

And lastly, a YC for biotech wouldn't work because of the time frame, but even
more so because of regulations. Anyone can build a device or drug, but it's
all proof of concept until you put it in a lab or clinical study.

Oops, also that there are a bunch of academic bioCAD programs. Tinkercell is
one that does extensive simulations.

Boom. Roasted.

------
SudarshanP
Reading DNA without taking it out of a cell sounds like such an awesome idea.
All you need is bunch of proteins to do that. All those proteins are just _DNA
sequences_. possibly even Biobricks. So all that translates to "Just introduce
a plasmid into a cell and the necessary woodoo happens inside the cell...
which sets off some kind of cascade which can be read out by say a CCD or
voltage detector." So the startup is all about just designing DNA sequences
for protein. And these days even novices have begun to design proteins. This
is just brilliant!!! Instead of 1000$ per genome how about 99 cents?? Of
course I have no clue how long it should take to reach there beyond
extrapolating on a log graph...

Someone here stated the moore's law for sequencing. Which while true needs
disruptive startups for each transition. Fortunately or unfortunately these
startups dont work like an intel doing similar drudgery year after year to
continue doubling... each major leap happens by a radical switch of strategy.
As he states the case of Ion Torrent, each step centers around an awesome
breaktrhough. But it also raises the question... Will the cost of computation
become a bottleneck for a 99 cent genome. Sequencing and synthesis are a lot
more useful than just medical diagnosis. Let us not undermine the value of a
99 cent genome or a 1 cent genome sequencing/synthesis capability.

------
macco
Are these really ideas for typical startups. The high tech ideas aren't very
well suited for startups. More for Universities and big corporation's side
projects.

~~~
philwelch
God forbid a technology startup actually have to develop new technology. No,
I'm sure another CRUD/mobile app that hooks a bunch of buzzwords up to
Facebook and Twitter with metaphorical bungie cords is a _much_ better idea.

~~~
joezydeco
Well, at least you would get a shit-ton of VC attention and funding.

Some of us are out here developing physical things and process technology and
nobody wants to give us a second look. Putting things in boxes isn't sexy
enough, unless you're Apple.

------
dave_sullivan
A market for IP isn't terrible. But there, volume isn't high enough and
transaction costs (ip lawyers in a room talking, are too high) The rest I'm
not so sure about.

A few are a ways out and even then are hard sells (even w/ holodecks, how
would you sell them? Home, arcades? Who's the market and how much money do
they have? Hardly a slam dunk) I'm thinking the 3do times 100 for holodeck
development/productization.

Yardsale isn't bad, but Craigslist is pretty close as is (my gf goes crazy
when she sees yard sale signs (instant, location based discovery) but she
checks craigslist too.

A bunch--I'm not sure what they mean. Even the education one is much harder
than it might seem, at least as a business. Im really rooting for codecademy
and the like, but they've got a tough road as its hard to get most people
interested in educating themselves, and even moreso to get them to pay.

How about starting with a market with money and a problem and working
backwards?

------
sakopov
I think it's a good list of ideas which sadly will not appeal to most
entrepreneurs. You may disagree, but I personally think that founders tend to
run away from scientific research and for good reasons. It's very hard to find
funding if the service you want to provide doesn't revolve around the generic
list of facebook/twitter mashups, mobile apps and SAAS services which solve
nonexistent problems. Think about it, you can spend 2 months building a
typical CRUD app, make money the first week and keep your investors happy. Or
spend years looking for the bright minds who share the same enthusiasm and
belief in your scientific research and them (maybe) find enough money to build
the final product. This is probably the reason why these things are worked out
in university labs, not startup incubators.

------
InclinedPlane
I don't know why, but I tried opening this site in 3 different mobile browsers
and couldn't get it to scroll.

~~~
irollboozers
Man, if anything this article proved to me that I should always be absolutely
terrified of pressure testing half-baked ideas on HN. And if I have the balls
to do so, at least make sure my blog works.

------
ig1
Isn't 2 pretty much Khan Academy ?

There are several Health focused YC-clones: Rockhealth, Healthbox, Blueprint,
etc.

Also it's not clear what "Etsy for IP" means, there are already stock photo
libraries, sites for selling code snippets, sites for selling brandnames, etc.
Is there a particular type of IP you're thinking about?

~~~
judegomila
I'm thinking more interactive than Khan Academy.

Health focused YC clones are out there, there are no bio tech focused ones
though.

On the Etsy for IP. I never felt much of a community with stock photo
websites. I suppose this site would pull together all forms of IP under the
platform.

In general, I think in the startup space, even subtle variation on the idea
and positioning (given great execution) can lead to a winning startup.

~~~
ig1
Have you tried the Khan Academy exercises (with hints, etc.) ?

------
thematt
Interesting list with some good ideas. At the moment, I have time and talents
but (surprisingly) no interesting ideas to work on. I was really hoping to see
something on there involving machine learning or NLP. Anybody have any needs
or ideas in that realm?

~~~
SuperChihuahua
Go through this collection of finished ideas:
<http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-ideas/#Finished>

------
apollo5
These are really good..and thought provoking

A couple of mine are:

\- Repurpose the top floors of parking garages to incorporate green space in
urban centers

\- Black Hole Taxi: Marketplace for on demand user video (eg - I pay you a fee
to walk around the grand canyon)

\- Open spaces that are free co-working CS learning centers for middle and
high schoolers (I'm working on one in Los Angeles)

\- Mixergy for the rest of business (eg. the BUSINESS of yoga, the BUSINESS of
real estate brokerage, the BUSINESS of photography) not just how to do 5 new
poses, hold a better open house, craft a better photo

~~~
lubujackson
How about reddit for businesses, so the subreddits are business categories
("gyms, restaurants, florists") trading tips and meeting each other.

------
jforman
"This satellite would self deploy/build itself at least partially to reduce
weight..."

...I'm pretty sure you're not going to save much mass by soaking in a year of
sunlight...

~~~
judegomila
You would need to take on some mass from space. The satellite would have a
post launch snack.

~~~
jforman
If that's the plan, I don't think you've reduced complexity by plotting a
zero-gravity rendezvous with a cheeseburger

~~~
judegomila
You could fire it at some of the older satellites?

------
tomgallard
One I'm looking at - Google Analytics for print/billboard ads.

Adwords/Analytics is great, because you can see exactly how much money you're
spending, and exactly how many sales/conversions/downloads you're getting for
that money.

In the print world, this becomes much harder to measure. I'm looking at easy
ways to make that happen

~~~
sbashyal
Are you looking for a solution or looking to work on it as a start-up idea? I
am interested in this domain and have few ideas.

~~~
dentonbros
Would love to group chat about this in detail. I'm toying with this niche as
well.

------
visegrip
The IFILB Project. I fell in the lifeboat Project staring Captain Francesco
Schettino. Prison dating network.

------
sycr
18\. A BankSimple for the payroll industry

I've thought about this one myself. Seems like an industry ripe for disruption
too: with complex, expensive systems from a monopoly player (ADP). Can anyone
offer some insight as to why we haven't seen startups in this space?

~~~
thinkcomp
Because few entrepreneurs or VCs are interested in reading the Internal
Revenue Code.

------
egypturnash
"Wonga for USA"

 _googles Wonga_

"Welcome to Wonga. We can deposit up to £400 in your bank account by 20:39
today. Representative APR ___4214%_ __."

Cost of implementing this idea: your soul, your self-respect. Even if you pour
all of the proceeds into "build a holodeck".

------
libria
I'm surprised someone hasn't built an ad supported Imgur clone yet, kind of
like a you-tube for images. They could determine context by tracking the
websites giving referrals, parsing comment content, scanning and analyzing the
images.

------
Mizza
Build a holodeck.

Yeah. Okay.

~~~
mindcrime
I'm actually kinda hoping this one doesn't happen. Well, sort of. _If_ we
actually had a holodeck, wouldn't that mean the end of all progress for
humanity? I mean, who would ever want to leave the damn thing?

~~~
jwegan
They said the same thing about the TV

~~~
jsankey
And I guess they were, to a disturbing degree, right?

~~~
prawn
And many who escaped TV have been scooped up by the net.

~~~
mindcrime
Good point. I knew a guy once who all but flunked out of college because of an
IRC addiction. He'd spend all his time in the lab, IRC'ing and not much more.
Weird.

------
spicyxtreme
hrm.. interesting.. nothing in there in music, games and online video.. i
personally think that there will be alotta innovation in these fields because
of copyright issues.

------
vantran
25\. Uber for food

We're working on that right now at munchery.com

~~~
nc
There's also HouseBites in the UK.

~~~
__alexs
Also Deliverance.

~~~
itmag
Is their slogan "Squeal if you'd like a porkchop"?

------
brooksamorgan
Etsy for IP = <http://www.ibridgenetwork.org/>

------
ianpurton
"1. Build a bitcoin bank the works"

<https://www.strongcoin.com>

~~~
rhizome
"No really, this time for sure!"

------
itmag
_11\. Build an Etsy for Intellectual property_

Sounds really intriguing. What would it look like?

------
prof_hobart
Anyone know what a "google voice" for credit cards is meant to mean?

~~~
__alexs
A proxy card that is actually backed by various real credit cards.
Automatically switching your balance across the optimum set of deals? This is
kind of like what Simple.com do, except with credit.

~~~
prof_hobart
That sounds pretty much like what most mobile wallet look like they're going
to offer, and I can't really imagine how it would work (or what the real
advantage would be) for non-mobile ones - such as the hassle of deciding in
advance which card you're using for which transaction.

BTW, from what I've read of Bank Simple, this isn't what their model is. From
their FAQ - "Can I use Simple with my current bank? No. Through your
relationship with Simple, your money is held in an FDIC-insured account at one
of our bank partners."

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TezzellEnt
Yes! Several of these ideas I do hope the start-up community can grab a hold
of and make into successful businesses. Like Elon Musk, I hope to eventually
change the world, and several of these ideas will do just that. That's for
compiling them.

------
frisco
Why is Stripe for ACH payments necessary? Why isn't that Stripe?

~~~
stevenou
As far as I know Stripe does _not_ do ACH? We've actually been looking _all_
over the place for an ACH processor with an API (aka a Stripe for ACH) and
have had absolutely no luck. And the one company we found, for some reason,
wouldn't take us on as a client (I guess we're considered high-risk). Anyway,
I wholeheartedly agree with the need for an "Stripe for ACH". If you actually
know of one _please_ let me know.

~~~
niallsmart
Steven – are you posting debit or credit txns? If crediting, would PayPal mass
payments work for you?

~~~
stevenou
Crediting. As far as I know PayPal Mass Payments requires the recipient to
have a PayPal account (in fact, we _do_ use Mass Payments for customers who
choose to be paid by PayPal). Crediting via ACH, on the other hand, merely
requires routing and bank account numbers - which is something everyone has!
The whole point, which neither PayPal nor Dwolla solve, is to use the
_existing_ financial network, not create a _new_ means of money exchange.

~~~
niallsmart
I'm interested in chatting in more detail with you about this. Would you drop
me an email if you would like to discuss further? My contact details are in my
profile.

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fasteddie31003
How can ultrasonic transducers be used to make a holodeck?

------
therandomguy
Trying to work in the second idea at classfrog.com

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mzuvella
I would pay for #16 right now.

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gbog
Maybe add "do blog page a that don't break on phones", hint, removing JS or
CSS tricks should be enough.

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indrax
26\. Get a cookie and do science to it.

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its_so_on
_NOTE: the following is a joke. or is it. Read to the end and decide for
yourself._

As a VC, I would never fund any of these. How about these twenty-five ideas
for starters.

1\. Combine local and real-time. (Google isn't)

2\. Combine the cloud with viral marketing (Amazon isn't)

3\. Disrupt green with crowd-sourcing. (Power companies aren't).

4\. Curate blogging (the "blogosphere" is so wide it becomes meaningless. Get
the stratosphere of the blogosphere).

5\. post-pc disruption. (Fingerpaint for iPhone - 1 guy, VC-ready company.
needed a mac to develop. give an Indian with no mac, no pc, nothing BUT an
iPhone enough tools to disrupt post-pc)

6\. scale photos. Flickr doesn't.

7\. the Google of Facebook. (G+ is the Facebook of Google. Where's the Google
of facebook?)

8\. empower html5. (Where's the Adobe of HTML 5?)

9\. the skype of documents. (Google Docs isn't it)

10\. the apple of automobiles. ("iPod integration"? Give me a 'brake').

11\. bring the cloud to ultramobiles. ("ultrabooks" are a joke, and the cloud
is too big. Find a way to make ultrabooks/macbook airs the macs of iOS)

12\. the reddit of shopping. (eBay is not it).

13\. disrupt ad platforms, virally. People are sick of signing in and getting
information collected (Google starting to suck)

14\. one word: Firefox. (Firefox isn't it).

15\. one word: Office. (Office isn't it).

16\. one word: ultramobile. (MacBook isn't).

17\. one word: ultralite mobile. (iOS isn't it)

18\. one word: TechCrunch (TechCrunch isn't it)

19\. one word: Banking (Banking isn't it)

20\. one word: Trending (Analytics isn't it)

21\. one word: Microblogging (Twitter isn't it)

22\. one word: Dating (plenty-of-fish isn't)

23\. one word: Family disruption, aka Whores. (craigslist isn't)

24\. one word: disrupt paradigms. (YC isn't).

25\. one word: cloud. (the cloud isn't.)

what is this, some kind of a joke? Can you even tell anymore. Disrupt this.

~~~
mahyarm
#10 is tesla

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marshallp
No mention of artificial intelligence.

Build an objection detection system for all 100,000 objects a human can
recognize.

Build a photo-realistic face generator.

Build a chatbot than can pass the turing test.

------
arguesalot
Please don't build a self-building satellite! The thing will expand until it
hides the sun from us!

There are already plenty of biology databases, it's just that people don't
know yet what to make out of that data.

 _Build an Etsy for Intellectual property_

They stole my idea! I think it's good time to build that

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PLejeck
Biological this, biological that.

How about ideas for those of us who aren't scientists?

