
Free Startup Ideas - vladmk
https://docs.google.com/a/thekronos.com/document/d/1q-gn4Vs50BfZ_OKeES38JNlfHdkyOtAgITE3sDdzXHg/edit
======
DigitalSea
I hate to hijack this submission, but not so long ago I tried submitting some
free startup ideas of my own on Github here: [https://github.com/Vheissu/Free-
Ideas](https://github.com/Vheissu/Free-Ideas) — because I'm not a Hacker News
power-user and don't live in a popular time zone (I'm from Aus) it was largely
ignored.

Ideas are very much in the execution, but I think you need a good idea to
execute upon in the first place and this Google Doc and the likes of my
repository of ideas are perfect ways to find an idea or perhaps add to an
existing idea.

~~~
billen
Hey I posted a comment below...but I was just wondering if you could add these
ideas to the following site.

It would make it easier than having to go to a github page or read a google
doc.

[http://ideas.ozonebit.com/](http://ideas.ozonebit.com/)

~~~
j21
I was thinking of setting up a site similar to yours. I even got a domain and
set up a launchrock page [1].

But after a couple of months (still haven't started it), I'm finding that
putting up a google doc/hackpad/blog post is a lot less friction. The nice
thing about having a centralized place like yours (and the one I intended to
build), is that the ideas wouldn't be fragmented into different sites/docs.

If anyone's interested in using the domain (unused.me) for an idea site, let
me know, I'd gladly give it up :)

[1] [http://signup.unused.me/](http://signup.unused.me/)

~~~
billen
Oh wow! This is awesome! Yours looks so much better. I went with the
simplicity approach. I had the same belief, having them in one place allows
people to go to ONE hub of ideas.

Thanks!

------
mtct
I don't think build a business is as easy as choose from a list.

You sure can implement every problem reported in that list but if you don't
know/have the problem in first person, how good can your solution be?

~~~
davidw
I heard about a small business that makes bingo cards for non-technical
(putting it mildly in some cases) mostly US-based elementary school teachers,
created by some guy in Japan.

I don't think that having the problem yourself is necessarily good. I think
it's better in many cases to go solve a problem for "real people" \- those
that are currently using, say, an Excel sheet in place of what your solution
offers, or something like that.

~~~
nl
The replies to this post show there is no market for humor on HN, even if some
seem to lack that exact thing :(

~~~
vladmk
Oh there is a market just a small one. :-)

------
tbrake
83 intrigues me.

Even with the move by many sites of having to pay to message, there is still a
huge problem with the experience for women dating online. Very few of my
female friends even want to try it, given the horror stories they've gotten
from others. A Sadie Hawkins approach would be interesting.

And yeah fellas, I know it's not all of us that send unbidden wang pics or do
those overly aggressive creepy PMs and then flip out when someone has the
audacity to exercise their free will and say no. But there's enough that do
that it poisons the whole experience. And if you think the problem is
exaggerated, read any of the numerous articles done by guys who also doubted
how bad it was who posed as women on dating sites - it's revolting.

~~~
emixam
83 already exists in France. It's called "Adopte un mec" (translation: adopt a
guy) and it's very successful
([http://www.adopteunmec.com](http://www.adopteunmec.com)). It ysed to target
a yound adult crowd with some funky design but the UX and design god much
better over the years so they may be moving up.

~~~
kpapke
I used to work with an office full of females, and a French woman was showing
this site to the others. They were reading it and laughing about it, and I
remember feeling uncomfortable then. I was imagining how a woman would feel if
a room full of men went onto a website and laughed about picking out their
ideal woman. A bit of a double standard because it's funny if girls are doing
it, but if guys did that it would be sexual harassment. But I'm sure it was
all in good fun and it was done in a classier way than men would have done.

------
NickHolt
At the risk of sounding negative, I thought the majority of these ideas were
absolutely awful. Even if one of these did inspire someone to put the work in,
I doubt it would get them very far.

~~~
impostervt
You get what you pay for.

~~~
vladmk
Precisely, way to complain about free stuff geez, so you want me to execute
them, pivot and mail the money? :-)

~~~
russell
Sounds like a great business to me, better than I've managed to do by myself.
Sign me up.

~~~
vladmk
I think that one will go bankrupt and we'll have to pivot.

------
Toenex
Spotted: Find me in every available internet picture. Ohh look a wedding in
Munich, there's me walking past.

~~~
wingerlang
I'd pay some good money for this service!

------
mehrdada
If only non-technical people cold emailing programmers suggesting 50-50
cofounder partnerships knew such a list existed.

Precious ideas! Not one, but MANY!

~~~
NotTechnical
If only programmers beating their heads against a brick wall wondering why
their new "startup" isn't getting any traction knew the phrase "domain
expertise" and the word "sales".

~~~
saosebastiao
Most of the nontechnical people you meet who will claim domain expertise are
full of shit. The ones with real domain expertise are still technical, but of
a different type. For example, in my field, domain experts know programming,
but they do it with AMPL, AIMMS, BUGS, Stan, etc. The ones who run around
claiming domain expertise, however, are mostly commodities: MBAs that can only
accomplish something by hiring someone to do it for them.

------
collin128
There's a very well funded company in Vancouver (yes, really) that's working
on #38 a crunchbase for charities. So far they've linked up all Canadian
charities to their platform (US next) and are themselves a registered charity.

What's unique is that you can 'donate' to them anytime, get a tax receipt, &
decide which charity to give to at a later date.

They're called Chimp Fund (Chimp.net) - I've met the founders and contracted
for them before.

~~~
vladmk
interesting. There's also apparently a company going public that's also, tho
the doc is a bit crazy right now maybe once it cools down you can see that
comment.

------
shasta
Free as in sofa. (No cost, similar value)

------
logn
This post reminds me that I need to have more diversity in my life and reading
material. All of these ideas struck me as good, and then I realized they are
all basically targeted at people like me because that's the type of people who
created this list.

~~~
vladmk
Sure, we're just regular people. My small biz is making a few k right now and
I'm looking into testing new ideas this week for something bigger. If we're
similar lets connect:
[https://twitter.com/VladMkrtumyan](https://twitter.com/VladMkrtumyan)

------
roma1n
The dating website where only women can start a conversation has been tried
with success (AdopteUnMec in France).

I like the MTurk for cryptocurrency idea.

~~~
petersouth
I have a niche dating site that has had about 9 girls for every guy
consistently for years. I thought the problem would logically take care of
itself, but here is a real counterexample. As a guy with limited ladies-man
skills, it still boggles my mind to this day.

~~~
paul_f
It would be much easier to believe you if you provided a link. Might also help
to solve your ratio problem?

------
raldi
This might work better as a subreddit than a Google doc.

~~~
ycombasks
[http://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/](http://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/)

------
StandardFuture
I find lists like this to be rather naive. A lot of people think that
businesses are all about: good idea + great execution. Wrong! A business is
about: making money. Plain and simple. You don't need a fancy idea and the
latest execution 'methods' (e.g. agile, lean, etc.) to make money.

You need a market, hard work, smart decisions, and a bit of luck. There is way
too much conversation conflating the concepts of innovation and business. I
would say that in the case of innovation it IS about: good(novel) idea + great
execution.

I imagine many startups feel that they MUST innovate to be a 'worthy' company.
But, you really don't. To be a company you just have to make money. You do
whatever is necessary to do just that. Nokia sold rubber tires FFS [0]

[0] [http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/about-us/the-
nokia-s...](http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/about-us/the-nokia-story/)

~~~
arjie
I think you misunderstand. This isn't "just do this and you'll be rich". It's
obvious that it isn't because then why would they give out the ideas? This
document exists precisely _because_ ideas are cheap.

Since ideas are easy and execution is hard, it makes no sense to hoard ideas.

The things that you say are necessary and which are in your control (seeing if
you have a market, working hard, making smart decisions) are collectively what
people call execution.

~~~
StandardFuture
The title of the article is: Free STARTUP (Business) Ideas. NOT: Free Product
Ideas.

This concept still doesn't seem to phase people. You don't need novel ideas to
start a business. That's why I am trying to make it clear that it is incorrect
to conflate a startup (business) with some sort of invention (like the car or
lightbulb). The two are non-equivalent. Although, one can lead to the other.

This reduction of business to: idea + execution is not doing anyone any good.

>seeing if you have a market, working hard, making smart decisions) are
collectively what people call execution

This thinking can also be misleading as business ideas can actually be a sub-
component of smart decisions.

>ideas are easy and execution is hard

This is also an over-simplification that will do no one any good. And it seems
to be pervasive throughout the 'startup community'. Google started on a
research paper. Research papers are NOT easy. So, no, ideas are not always
easy.

Of course, you might argue that the research paper was part of the 'execution'
in which case you would be arguing my previous point: innovation is what has
the idea + execution phase. The end result of innovation is usually an
invention (whether it be fractional reserve banking or microprocessors).

The research paper was not a business and not part of a business. The
invention was eventually used to power a business. The same with the invention
of the lightbulb.

Anyways, I just wish people would stop oversimplifying things. It really does
no good.

~~~
vladmk
I think you have too much time on your hands...

------
deepak56
FWIW - I do a version of the Idea Validator mentioned there at
services.withstartups.com

I think the validation methods mentioned are pretty valid. The one major
problem I have found is that there is a very small/distinct set of people who
even understand what the validation is all about, and get the idea of
developing a quick MVP. And these people are usually savvy/skilled enough to
do a quick validation themselves. The opposite end of the spectrum are people
who cannot do this, but then they also do not understand that this is not a
quick & cheap website making service.

Still, you get to talk to a lot of people. So if you like to bounce ideas (I
do), it is an interesting business.

~~~
logicallee
>I do a version of the Idea Validator... >I _think_ the validation methods
mentioned are pretty valid

Emphasis added :)

------
cottonseed
> Problem: people think ideas are really valuable. > Solution: a marketplace
> to sell IP

Haha. If only there was a place where nobody would buy their ideas, they'd
realize how worthless they are.

~~~
ycaspirant
Most people who are delusional about the value of their ideas would refuse to
put it up on such a website / share it with anybody unless the other person
signed a non disclosure agreement.

I wonder if there's some way to capitalize on that...

~~~
hayksaakian
We could have a site-wide NDA

------
mattverick
I personally research Twitter and message boards the way you described it for
"blogdia". But I don't think there would be people / wantrepreneurs willing to
pay for such an app.

Instead, why not doing a private / paid newsletter for that? Or a site where
wantrepreneurs can buy your market research about a specific idea. And only a
limited number of each idea can be sold in order to increase the perceived
value of it.

~~~
vladmk
Interesting. I left me twitter at the beginning of the doc feel free to reach
out and we can talk it through.

------
andy_ppp
Wow this is great... Now all that remains to do is years of hard graft,
hustling and a massive truck of luck and you might be successful! Amazing!

------
rocco
OMG please improve typograpy. One font size/weight for introduction, one for
list and another for your service promotion.

------
apoz
Someone made this spreadsheet back in the day (I don't know when I got it, but
it's in my google drive)

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWRkbjNyUGRxS2JIV3NxYVdiaXc&usp=drive_web#gid=2)

------
mgkimsal
"There are tons of contracting jobs that are easy to do, but people think only
‘real programmers’ can solve valuable problems."

I see more the opposite - non-programmers attempting to solve problems (easy
or hard) and making a huge mess of things. The video series might help people
avoid these problems.

~~~
hayksaakian
That too! One of the most common contracting jobs is to fix somsone's mess.

Maybe the video series will be: Top 10 Code Fails and How to Fix them

------
billen
Just a quick website to add the ideas and vote on them. Check it out!

We can add all the ideas in this post and then the community can upvote /
downvote the most popular ones.

[http://ideas.ozonebit.com/](http://ideas.ozonebit.com/)

~~~
servercobra
Why can I vote multiple times on the same idea as a single user? I just gave 5
votes to the top one.

------
mgkimsal
" Video Only Job Board "

Have seen this attempted before, but the issues about potential discrimination
always crops up. Hard to say you didn't pass over someone because of their
appearance when the entire process is video-based.

~~~
cottonseed
I agree. In fact, I think the opposite is quite interesting: a jobs board
where applications are sanitized of race, gender and age information.

------
srikarg
Thanks for compiling these ideas @vladmk. However, I wonder if there's a web
application that functions similarly (i.e. provide startup ideas and enable
the users to vote for the most popular ones).

~~~
vladmk
It would be cool build. :-) My pleasure.

------
rkda
Mirrored it in HackPad :)

[https://freestartupideas.hackpad.com/Free-Startup-Ideas-
Oy39...](https://freestartupideas.hackpad.com/Free-Startup-Ideas-Oy39lrxvXmM)

------
enscr
"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration"

The list takes care of 1% part. Perspiration is fueled by passion. As long as
one can strike the right mix, why not.

~~~
beagle3
If Edison spent more time thinking, he wouldn't have to perspire as much.
(Paraphrasing Tesla[0])

[0] [http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1010603-if-he-thomas-
edison-...](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1010603-if-he-thomas-edison-had-a-
needle-to-find-in)

~~~
enscr
Touché

------
hayksaakian
Lessons learned and takeaways from this experience:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7454441](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7454441)

------
sgy
[http://www.googlesciencefair.com/springboard/en/](http://www.googlesciencefair.com/springboard/en/)

------
coinspotting
Some ideas on firespotting are good candidates. But of late there are more
completed products than ideas there.

------
jrlocke
Good startup ideas are surprisingly cheap, execution is where fortunes are
made.

------
pcrh
Please let's not have another ideas versus execution debate, thanks!

------
intellent
Wow, this document totally overtaxes my perception ability.

------
Apane
You get for what you pay for here...

------
thejosh
free startup vomit

~~~
vladmk
:-) pivot. I wanna see your golden patented idea ;)

------
xwowsersx
This whole thing is an early April Fools' right?

"44 Trademark exchange I like that we build lots of IP Problem: people think
ideas are really valuable. Solution: a marketplace to sell IP"

~~~
vladmk
your life is an early April fools :P couldn't resist.

------
blktiger
To quote John Gruber, "Ideas are worthless". It's the implentation that
matters. So the idea about an idea generating website isn't all that good. :P

------
notindexed
Heh, had this idea some while ago. Anyway i can contribute? I got a bunch of
great startupideas but i'm busy with other stuff and i don't mind sharing em.
Someone register startupleech

~~~
vladmk
Sure, just give me your email address here on or on twitter or request it on
the doc if it ever settles down.
[https://twitter.com/VladMkrtumyan](https://twitter.com/VladMkrtumyan)

