
Free business ideas - looking for partners - jbrun
http://www.jonathanbrun.com/2010/05/free-business-ideas.html
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vishaldpatel
Some of these ideas are pretty cool.. here's my take if you care to read:

#1 is a great idea. Really really great idea. There are a couple of things to
consider (I'm sure you've already thought of them) - mainly even healthier
restaurants have unhealthy items and the reverse applies to unhealthier
restaurants. There ought to be a way for limitation and inclusion. Attemtping
a partnership with Yelp might be of some use interms of trying to keep partner
restaurants honest.

Also, like any association - the guidelines of this healthy-restaurant-coupon-
association will be public and under intense scrutiny - especially from the
big boys in the food industry.

#2 - This is a bit crowded right now.

#3 - I don't know if this is already being done and if so, in what capacity,
but.. there are many resources for building confidence, empowerment etc...
this will be a marketing-heavy project.

#4 - So now rich people have even more escape route incase they blow up the
world ten times over? :P. I think its a fantastic idea... fear sells. This is
a well-known fact.

#5 - Pretty cool. How about a cross-roads style exchange program built into a
basic-goods store instead? I bet someone like IKEA could probably run this
(not sure if it has already been pitched). This has cool written all over it.
One might even get away with running it like Netflix (order a care package...
it comes with a box that you can return the whole thing in).

#6 - Neato. I'll second that AirBnB can already do this with their existing
tech... but why would they want to? Unless they're really looking to expand
their business horizontally. On the other hand, craigslist could really do
this and they wouldn't be shifting focus at all (its just office space for
rent).

#7 - A way to "humanize" them isn't good enough. We're talking about putting
people's pictures and stories online - I mean, its bad enough that these
people have zero privacy. There have to be massive benefits for them to want
to do this... why should I, homeless Joe, tell you my story? Whats in it for
me? Whats in it for anyone?

There's a spreadsheet of people available to join a startup floating around on
HN. I'd highly recommend contacting some of them - there are some amazingly
talented people on it!

Anyone got the link? Anyone...? :)

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jbrun
Hey,

Thanks so much for the thoughtful response. I agree with you on most of your
points.

I think this is the document you are thinking of:

[http://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=t1_0CjyeF5QqMwgh6AFGtq...](http://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=t1_0CjyeF5QqMwgh6AFGtqA&toomany=true)

Thanks for your interest and time.

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quickpost
I like the airbnb.com for desks idea. I recently got myself a small office in
a co-op and I thought a website like that would be really useful.

The only question is - what's to stop AirBnb from simply re-purposing and
rebranding their technology to do this exact thing? That was my initial
concern when thinking about this idea.

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rguzman
What stops airbnb from re-purposing their tech? Nothing.

The technology to do this is relatively trivial compared to the task of
getting businesses to use the site.

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proexploit
I think the Health ticket one is great. With current rates of obesity, people
should be forced into eating healthier when they can't manage it themselves.

Here's a couple ideas of my own I've never had time to implement:

1) A solution for (web based) businesses that intelligently auto-detects and
flags suspected negative activity before it happens using behavioral analysis.
I've got pages and page of writing and diagrams on this. Originally developed
as a concept around Paypal security but applicable across most websites.

2) A Social Network related to the pay it forward concept promoting compassion
among people.

3) Google Voice has an app for Android and Blackberry, but not
iPhone/iPod/iPad. Voice may be very difficult, but just making a web interface
that looks and acts like a native application to send and receive SMS messages
on iPod touch or iPad would be huge.

4) Configurable status boards such as Panic's(
<http://www.panic.com/blog/2010/03/the-panic-status-board/>) or Cultured
Code's (<http://culturedcode.com/status/>) that mesh easily with popular
project management systems like Basecamp, etc.

Enjoy

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woodrow
3) Google beat you to it: [http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/google-
voice-for...](http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/google-voice-for-
iphone-and-palm-webos.html)

~~~
proexploit
I should have been more clear at first, but my idea is going beyond that.
Their web app is sad, perhaps in an attempt to make it work in too many arenas
at once. No push notifications, difficult UI, lumping messages together but
required scrolling through every message just to read the newest etc. I could
go on, but the point is made.

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TrevorBurnham
#5 and #6 are very good ideas.

On #5: Don't just aim for students. Anyone renting an unfurnished apartment
who doesn't want to fill it with stuff (e.g. because they're just there for
the summer) should be able to use the service. The domain Unfurnished.com
would be ideal (might be pricey, though).

Here's how I'd implement it: Sell the items, but offer a partial refund on
return. (Less risky than rental, for both parties—obviously for the seller,
but also for the buyer if they wind up needing the stuff for longer than
expected.) Specialize in light-weight, durable items that can be shipped
economically: air mattresses, plastic tableware, folding furniture. Include a
pre-printed shipping label in the box. The pitch: "Zappos for apartment
stuff." (Just checked, and ApartmentStuff.com is being parked on.) Ideally,
the stuff should be custom-branded.

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tansey
Devil's advocate here.

1\. Maybe this would work in European countries, but I just don't think it
would work in America. You're just going to cause your employees to become
more disgruntled as they will feel like you're taking away a fundamental
personal choice.

2\. Meetup.com. I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to organize
much faster than that.

3\. What is the recent obsession with stopping bullies? I don't have any real
thoughts on this other than it seems to be catering more toward the recent
media obsessions than anything real. People will always be bullied. Unless
your website allows kids to hire a huge, jacked guy to come beat the shit out
of their bully, it's not going to help.

4\. If there is a catastrophe, how will the rich people get to the bunker in
time? Won't the roads, planes, etc. all be out of service?

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lazyant
Regarding the doom bunker: it's very impracticle since in a doomsday scenario
it won't be easy to take a plane etc. A better idea would be a rescue/support
service that in case of a disaster like hurricane, earthquake or civil unrest
will come in helicopter and evacuate you (or drop supplies etc).

Related to the homeless page, we see in reddit sad stories of people in
desperate situations asking for help. Sometimes they are true and sometimes
they are fake, so an idea (non for profit) would be to have a network of
volunteers checking out the stories (with web, phone or even in person)

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jbrun
Interesting, can you point to any of these reddit stories?

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lazyant
See the comments in
[http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/btgz5/dear_reddi...](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/btgz5/dear_reddit_you_were_recently_asked_to_donate/)
or
[http://de.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/aglma/how_do_we_kn...](http://de.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/aglma/how_do_we_know_pdub_isnt_just_faking_it/)
for example

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dejb
I had an idea for something similar to EventChase but it would been a tool for
existing organised teams. The weekly task of checking to see who can turn up
to the match and possibly finding replacements could be largely automated and
it is actually a simpler problem than a pickup game. You'd basically just have
to sell the team organiser on this and they would enforce usage within their
team. No real need for 'network effects' for it to be useful. Once you had a
base of sports enthusiasts things like organising scratch games and even
'scratch tournaments would be possible.

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starkfist
The fightbullies and rich person's bunker are amazing ideas. I would run with
both of them and see if you can combine them somehow. If rich people feel
bullied, they can go into the bunker.

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oldgregg
The rich person bunker is particularly devious. Good luck getting a refund
when martial law is declared and the cloud of Gulfstream Vs descend on
Saskatchewan only to discover Auschwitz style accommodations run by a bunch of
high school jocks.

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jasonlbaptiste
1 and 6 have sincere potential. I'm an advocate of anything that involves
getting people healthy.

~~~
jbrun
thanks for the comment, i tend to agree.

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cmelbye
_4\. A Bunker for rich people during a catastrophe_

So, it would be like the arks in 2012? That turned out well for them,
especially that part where everyone was fighting each other to get onto the
boat.

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jacquesm
It worked a lot better for them than for the billions that drowned.

Besides that, it was only a movie. Maybe rich people should live in a bunker
all the time?

That way they won't waste time when the catastrophe hits.

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cmelbye
For the people that survived, of course it went well. And it is just a movie,
but you have to agree that some would likely resort to violence if they had to
save their family and there was a bunker that would allow them to do that.

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hooande
Just my two cents: I thought ideas #1 and #6 were really good. #1 seems like
it's "in" right now...the sooner you could do that, the better.

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jbrun
thanks for the comment, i tend to agree!

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tocomment
I left a comment on his blog but it seems to have been deleted FML.

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jbrun
Hi

Just replied to your comment on my blog, not sure which one you were. I had a
ton of spam to filter, sorry for the delay!

Jonathan

