

Tell HN: Steal my ideas #2 - pbj

A while back I submitted a thread with ideas that I had but likely would never use. It got a decent response so I'm back with more free ideas for you to steal. Again I apologize if some of these already exist. If you've got your own, why not share them below?<p>Idea #1) Kickstarter in a box<p>It seems like every day I see a new story or blog post about X new product that was funded on Kickstarter. But what do the projects that get funded have in common? Usually they tend to have high quality videos, great photos of their prototypes, good rewards, clear and effective copy, etc.<p>However, the people with neat projects may not know much about video production, they aren't photographers, they may not have a website for their product, they may not be great writers, may not know marketing, etc. So the idea is to have a consulting firm that would offer a full service Kickstarter package. You'd get the creator with a great product a website, a high quality video, good donor incentives, great copy, high quality photographs, help marketing etc. In exchange you could take a % of their funding if successful, just like Kickstarter does.<p>Idea #2) A YC/Techstars consulting firm<p>The basic idea is that they'd obviously be a prior team or group of individuals that participated in YC/TS who would help hopeful applicants refine their applications, prepare pitches, interview practice, investment advice, etc.<p>Idea #3) Freelancer deals<p>The basic gist is that the site would sell the services of freelance designers, developers, writers, marketers, etc, Groupon style. Say you're a good designer but you're looking for work. You normally charge $60/hr. You could offer a special to this site to do 2 hours of work for X people for $20 instead. This would probably be enough time to make a decent logo/layout for someone. Although the designer may be doing work for far below their normal rate, their portfolio would be featured to everyone visiting the site. In addition they'd have the chance of recurring work at their normal rate from anyone who bought their deal. This also gives the buyer a chance to try someone temporarily at a minimal expense before making a bigger commitment.<p>Idea #4) Teach me<p>One on one live video music/gaming/etc lessons. Education related startups seem to be a really hot market right now so maybe some of these already exist. The basic idea is that you'd pick a niche and have a site of professionals in that niche. Say musicians for example. You'd be able to pick a guitar player that you like the style of and the site would allow you to take live streaming video lessons for $X/hr. The instructor would be able to give you immediate and instant feedback, etc. You could do this for a lot of industries I'd imagine.<p>Idea #5) Codecademy for investing<p>Many people are somewhat clueless about investing and saving for retirement. This site could help teach you on a basic khan academy level about the fundamentals of investing, guide you on the right types of investments for you based on info you provide, help you sort the different packages by various investment firms, etc.
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srconstantin
Idea #1) Safemap Pull crime blotter data, and deliver the least dangerous
route between two locations. Offer a "danger score" for locations.

Idea #2) Health Tracker with Correlations There are a lot of self-tracking
apps out there; few to none of them do what the actual point of a self-
tracking app is, which is to identify correlations between what you're
tracking. (e.g. are you unhappier when you get less sleep?)

Idea #3) International Video Pen Pals Practice learning the language of your
choice by being paired with a native speaker for video chat.

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tazzy531
#3: <http://verbling.com/>

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willpower101
I'm working on #5 as well. Including videos and tools. People simply don't
know enough about this. But others are right, it's being done on blogs a lot -
the catch is doing it with interaction. I think that will break the mold.

I'm also doing #5 with college financial aid, tuition, etc. People don't know
enough about this when entering. It took me years, but I know some amazing
tricks now. Time to share.

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mingfu
#4 sounds like an awesome idea. who's with me? finding the right balance
between how much people are willing to pay based on the quality of the
teachers and making it worth while for quality teachers to spend their time
would be a challenge I'd imagine among other things but I really do like the
premise.

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jiganti
<http://snapclass.com> is very close to this.

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snapclass
My name is Scott Mandel, I'm the Co-Founder of Snapclass. You are right we are
similar to this idea. Snapclass connects teachers and students live via to
exchange knowledge. Anyone can be a teacher and host classes for free or for a
fee. Students can choose their teacher based reputation (reviews and rating),
profile and availability.

We're launching in the next two weeks and we are looking for talented people.

\- Talented backend developers in ruby on rails

\- Java developers with experience in real-time video conferencing

Contact me at scott@snapclass.com.

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cd34
Idea #4 is done pretty well with <http://liveninja.com/>

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dreadsword
Looks very nice, but definitely room for competition; i.e. some of the ninja
categories are pretty sparse, few ninjas seem to have been rated, etc. Not a
household name - yet.

Also seems to be geared towards consulting - i.e.: the design implicitly
suggests that you'd be hiring someone for a block of hours, as opposed to
signing up for a recurring lesson stream.

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cd34
They launched Feb 28th at Superconf.net so, they haven't been open for very
long. I do know they have multiple monetization systems for people, but, I
think most of their early beta testers are doing the per minute/per half
hour/block of time.

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bazookaBen
#2 *might spoil the market for YC applications. I'd assume the consultants
would be YC Alumni, who will essentially charge money for proof-reading future
applications. It boils down to paying money to increase the odds of being
accepted. Sounds very college-like to me.

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dan2k3k4
I just noticed this thread... normally I always browse the 'top' articles on
HackerNews and only ventured into 'new' to find my own thread.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3869427>

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rcoleb
There are a few places doing #5 as well. <http://wealthlift.com> for example.

