

Is your startup something other than a web app? - rokhayakebe

This post is inspired by http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=207590 where one member ask advices about a possible venture that is not web related. It is always refreshing to find startups that are working anything other than a web app. Even desktop application would do.
Thank you.
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BenS
I'm trying to make micro-organisms that make fuel and drugs.

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rms
Think you'll beat Craig Venter? Am curious if you are NIH funded,
independently wealthy, etc.

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BenS
You're right, The competition is definitely stiff - aside from craig, there's
ls9, amyris, sapphire and a dozen other solid companies. On the upside, the
market is very big, and the problem is certainly worth solving.

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rms
If you solve it, do you think you'll get and accept an offer you can't refuse
from the oil companies? Craig Venter seems to have already taken an offer that
he couldn't refuse from said companies.

Do you think anyone in the field is brave enough to go around the oil
companies or is their distribution infrastructure too much to ignore?

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BenS
I think the goal is to create a new source of renewable energy. I think the
right oil company could be part of the process...all that said, 'if you solve
it' is a pretty big if :)

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krschultz
It's not "my" startup, but I work at Bug Labs (buglabs.net), we are trying to
make an open source mobile hardware platform.

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lowkey
Our startup, www.Arkalumen.com, aims to bring the benefits of full-spectrum
solid-state lighting to everyone. My technical co-founder has developed
proprietary technology as good as the best on the market (microcontroller
programming, integrated circuit layout, heatsink, and a unique wireless user-
interface) which we are now in the process of commercializing.

Our technology is most certainly not a web app! (note: My background is very
web2.0 - Director of Product Management for a venture-backed niche social-
network and community site, among other things)

Honestly, I find it somewhat refreshing to be working wth real customers to
develop tangible products again.

We are in the process of taking our prototype from the spare bedroom to the
spotlight and are currently working on our frst web site. Expect to hear more
from us soon.

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menloparkbum
I create and license software-based artwork to events, museums, corporations
with fancy offices, etc.

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neilc
It's not "my" startup, but I work for a startup that makes a database system
for stream processing -- i.e. it lets you run SQL over live streams of data,
to understand data as it changes rather than waiting for it to hit disk.

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hbien
I quit my full time job last week to work on a desktop application. It's a Mac
GTD app.

As much as I like web programming, I didn't think SaaS would work well for
consumer products.

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tlrobinson
"As much as I like web programming, I didn't think SaaS would work well for
consumer products."

I'm curious why you think that. Is there something inherent about SaaS, or is
the technology lacking, or something else?

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boris
We do a compiler in C++. Probably as far from Web 2.0 as you can get (in this
industry).

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schtog
cool. but how will you make money from it? not saying one shouldnt write C++
compilers just wondering how you will make a business out of it.

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lbrandy
People will pay alot of money for a good compiler.

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mudge
Why would they pay when there are perfectly good compilers already available
for free, such as GCC?

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lbrandy
There are a million reasons but let me give you a simple one: if it can
produce faster code.

Giving 10% performance improvement in some fields (games?) is worth a metric
buttload of money.

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oditogre
3% in games would be worth a metric buttload of money, where the difference in
'playable on N Ghz CPU' and 'playable on N - 0.2 Ghz CPU' could double your
potential buyers.

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cperciva
Yes: Tarsnap (<http://www.tarsnap.com/>) is a combination of client software
(which generates and encrypts backups) and online service (which stores the
backups).

Ok, there's a very small web component -- users will be able to sign up and
view their bills online. But that makes tarsnap about as "web related" as my
bank account, my credit card, or an airline company.

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smanek
I don't think I'd call mine a startup yet (more like a weekend project that
will hopefully evolve into a startup after I graduate ...).

But, anyways, it's a centralized physical security application (think
automated video monitoring on steroids).

I'm still playing with getting a proof-of-concept off the ground at this point
- the math involved is pretty challenging for me.

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tx
This industry is _loaded_ with cash, they're transitioning from traditional
analog video to IP-centric solutions and have no expertise. They all are
looking for good software companies to buy. Drop me a line if you have a demo
or something, I may pass it along.

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oditogre
>This industry is loaded with cash, they're transitioning from traditional
analog video to IP-centric solutions and have no expertise.

I can confirm on this one. It's amazing how much money I've seen shelled out
for utter crap surveillance / software combined systems, where the individual
components are relatively inexpensive commodity stuff; the majority of the
price is for simply having a passable bit of software that ties it together in
a way that is useful from a surveillance standpoint.

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pkaler
Smartful Studios. Working on games for the iPhone.

But really that is just the first beachhead since all of my experience is as a
programmer in the video game industry. The blue-sky plan is a media brand.
Non-profit, fashion, beverages, events, Formula 1 team, etc. Think Virgin, Red
Bull, etc.

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h34t
We're designing/building/marketing wellness tech products to consumers..
opening a retail shop this fall, web store, then expand nationally. Designing
& mfg'ing some of our own and OEM'ing the rest. We've hit (nearly) every
product roadblock you can think of, too. Now battling with electrical
certification (much more stringent north of the border) and steeply rising
shipping costs from asia. I personally spent almost a year in China starting a
product dev engineering office & chasing dead-end manufacturer leads (now
we're mfg'ing in Canada) culminating in a massive burnout
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=69097>) but after some R&R and soul-
searching, have been able to re-join the fray. :)

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truebosko
Where I currently work I guess you could call us a retail startup? Small
retail store that has one team (me) focused on building an online presence
while the rest focus on the out-the-door. I don't know if retail can be
considered a startup though?

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keizo
yes, I make things out of carbon fiber and epoxy.

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mixmax
I'm currently looking into making molds by using an industrial robot to carve
it out of foam from a 3D file.

Maybe we should talk? My mail is in my profile.

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krschultz
Hmm, that is already done extensively in the marine and aerospace industry?
Maybe since you are talking about the mold itself rather than the plug it is
new, but take a look. This is hardly an authoritative link, just something I
saw about an hour ago, but that is basically the way all boats are made today.
<http://www.49er.org/images/stories/pdf/49erforward.pdf>

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mixmax
Thanks for the link. I'm not necessarily looking for cutting-edge technology,
simply something I can use and experiment with for a weekend project. I live
on a boat and have been perplexed by how badly designed the interior of most
boats and yachts are, so just for fun I drew one up in 3ds max, and I'm
thinking about building it. So I'm basically just looking for the best and
cheapest way of doing it. If it works out well it might end up being a
business but for now it's just a weekend project.

Some (early stage) renderings here: <http://www.maximise.dk/yacht/>

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krschultz
I spent the last 20 years spending 3 months a year living on a boat, I feel
you - some of them are poorly done. I have seen many ship yards from the
inside, from Sea Ray to Frers, and the higher end stuff is all done this way -
but by high end we are talking $200,000+ for a dinghy and millions to make the
mold for a full size boat. Bring that price down and cool things will happen.
If you want to talk about it more email me at kevinsch@udel.edu, I'm very
interested

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keizo
That makes 3 of us that have lived on boats a lot.

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pjackson
Mine is an MVNO that sells mobile phones to kids. There are web application
components, but there's a lot more to it than that.

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dhimes
Educational software--desktop apps so far.

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davidw
I have some ideas about doing a food business (not a restaurant!). I'm not
sure I'd really call it a startup, though.

Hecl is more mobile than web: <http://www.hecl.org>

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thorax
Part of our service is our search engine (a web app), but we also develop
desktop-integrated tools, command-line utilities, and language libraries to
help capture and share error message workarounds.

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Tamerlin
What I'm working on is fine-art photography, and the web site that I am
designing is primarily intended as aa marketing tool, though I do plan to sell
from it.

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ujj
ours is a startup thats a webapp that integrates with the real world very
closely. Almost all our revenue actions happen off line. The business is very
people dependent with the web providing us platform to showcase our
capabilities and reaching out users.

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Mistone
how about this we are doing an e-commerce retail apparel startup. While its
100% web - we sell physical goods (i.e hoodies)

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Mistone
we started off a while back on a small business marketing web app but have hit
about every roadblock imaginable, so we regrouped and went in a entirely
different direction.

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signa11
fixed-mobile-convergence

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stats101
My non-web app startup: <http://www.insidedesi.com/>

:)

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SA
Ours is a web app that helps you explore interesting and famous websites
across a huge collection of categories. It's a nice way to discover the
websites that you are not aware of. It is member recommended and the websites
are genuine. It even allows you to bookmark your favorite websites for quick
access in the future. You should check it out at <http://www.hitlinkz.com>

