Startup ideas spreadsheet(docs.google.com)
docs.google.com
Startup ideas spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag-R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWRkbjNyUGRxS2JIV3NxYVdiaXc
33 comments
Can't face the copy/paste, but I should add my 'idea dump' posts: http://willgrant.org/category/idea-dump/
I liked your "Git for everyone idea".
But thinking about it a bit more, this idea can be split into:
1. Collaborative editing - Google Docs already allows this to some extend.
2. Document history - Tools like MS Word already does this to some extend. There is still a lot of room for improvement.
3. Using Git as a document store - Is Git really needed for this? Even if the system was backed by Git, would not it be better if the whole Git related parts are hidden from the user? Even if the system uses Git as the store, in order to present changesets that are meaningful to the user, the system will have to process the Git changesets. So why use Git?
But thinking about it a bit more, this idea can be split into:
1. Collaborative editing - Google Docs already allows this to some extend.
2. Document history - Tools like MS Word already does this to some extend. There is still a lot of room for improvement.
3. Using Git as a document store - Is Git really needed for this? Even if the system was backed by Git, would not it be better if the whole Git related parts are hidden from the user? Even if the system uses Git as the store, in order to present changesets that are meaningful to the user, the system will have to process the Git changesets. So why use Git?
I took the liberty of submitting this list to /r/startupideas mentioned by realrocker [0] hoping this could bootstrap the subreddit, but it seems to be moderated and people here will forget about it before the moderator gets around to look at new submissions.
[0] - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4899874
[0] - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4899874
I was interested in the "Git for everyone". I made a quick example as a quick project awhile ago. I have the domain http://www.rubberdocky.com. I have not done anything on it in awhile but I think it could be neat. That builds off collaboration on things like Google docs and makes it more social/nice looking.
Are all of these recent or was this posted a long time ago before?
It must have some age on it, since I'm seeing some Google Wave URLs in there.
"Date a document" service that tries to understand when something on the internet was written according to slang popularity (like YOLO=recent), sites that have closed or lost popularity (like wave, digg). products mentioned and other heuristics.
Thanks. Just the process of reading a list and thinking about the reasons why things will/won't work & how is very helpful for starting to think of ideas. Also what makes these unique.
Original post from almost three years ago:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974
Having skimmed through the summaries, the general trend is they're trying to solve a non-existent problem, or a problem that isn't painful enough that people would be willing to pay to solve. I mean, who wants to pay for their Facebook statuses to be backed up? They're about as valuable as old voicemails and the threat of loss isn't palpable.
There's a lesson to be learned in all of this: don't think about ways to make money, but think about painful problems that you can solve for someone, and figure out whether a viable business can be created with that idea.
There's a lesson to be learned in all of this: don't think about ways to make money, but think about painful problems that you can solve for someone, and figure out whether a viable business can be created with that idea.
C'mon now, this is just a pool of ideas, no need to draw lessons here and put down all the ideas. I think it's a cool initiative regardless of their quality.
I didn't put down all the ideas, and in fact one of them I'm working on in a different form! (I'm not putting too much stock in it though; it's more to scratch my own itch than anything else.)
I made a broad and sweeping generalization that they're not especially high quality ideas. I honestly don't believe the market is really there for a lot of them, nor that they can be turned into decent businesses even if there is a market due to monetization issues. (Yes, I know, actually charging people's credit cards isn't as appealing as a sexy exit strategy.)
In any event, shouldn't we draw lessons wherever we can, regardless of the situation? After all, I'd rather look at a list like this and have it reinforce the tenets of a good business model. It's easy to get caught up in the "what-can-I-do-to-make-money" trap, rather than create something that delivers massive value to people with credit cards and painful problems.
I made a broad and sweeping generalization that they're not especially high quality ideas. I honestly don't believe the market is really there for a lot of them, nor that they can be turned into decent businesses even if there is a market due to monetization issues. (Yes, I know, actually charging people's credit cards isn't as appealing as a sexy exit strategy.)
In any event, shouldn't we draw lessons wherever we can, regardless of the situation? After all, I'd rather look at a list like this and have it reinforce the tenets of a good business model. It's easy to get caught up in the "what-can-I-do-to-make-money" trap, rather than create something that delivers massive value to people with credit cards and painful problems.
Which one are you "working on in a different form"? :)
I'll make sure to have a Show HN post when it's ready! :-)
I agree, most of the ideas listed either already exist in some shape, or have no market at all. One issue is not just identifying problems one has, but identifying problems a large group of people have AND that they're willing to pay money for the solution.
The secret behind a great idea is actually the hours of research that go with it. You need to research the market very thoroughly, your costs and such and then suddenly it's an idea that's viable. Of course then comes the execution. But a an idea is not just good because it sounds good.
I think this table is missing some important columns. Consider adding these: - market size (in $) - time and cost for acquiring a customer - margin per customer ($ range)
The secret behind a great idea is actually the hours of research that go with it. You need to research the market very thoroughly, your costs and such and then suddenly it's an idea that's viable. Of course then comes the execution. But a an idea is not just good because it sounds good.
I think this table is missing some important columns. Consider adding these: - market size (in $) - time and cost for acquiring a customer - margin per customer ($ range)
eye of the beholder.
These actually seem pretty good to me. Obviously none of them contains enough information to tell if its a good idea because not enough of the idea is expressed in this format. But in the context of the format, it seems like a good list.
eg "Basecamp for travel planning" sounds plausible, but it doesn't tell you a huge amount about the service. If this was being taken on by people who know UI and have a interesting take on how travel planning could be simplified, I would not dismiss it.
These actually seem pretty good to me. Obviously none of them contains enough information to tell if its a good idea because not enough of the idea is expressed in this format. But in the context of the format, it seems like a good list.
eg "Basecamp for travel planning" sounds plausible, but it doesn't tell you a huge amount about the service. If this was being taken on by people who know UI and have a interesting take on how travel planning could be simplified, I would not dismiss it.
Well, if you have the time, expertise, and inclination, make me wrong! I love seeing people succeed, even if it means my judgement was wrong (and it often is).
This is something I'm very interested in and would be keen in helping make this come to fruition.
If that's so, make it happen and I look forward to seeing your Show HN post!
Maybe a "painful problems" spreadsheet would be more appropriate.
This reminds me of something Paul Graham called "sitcom startup ideas" in a recent post.
This reminds me of something Paul Graham called "sitcom startup ideas" in a recent post.
I'm not necessarily sure why anybody in their right mind would create such a thing and share it! Ideas are less valuable than execution, but ideas are valuable nonetheless!
People should really be solving their own painful problems anyway (always better to be your own customer!) whose solutions can in some way be successfully and profitably exchanged for money.
People should really be solving their own painful problems anyway (always better to be your own customer!) whose solutions can in some way be successfully and profitably exchanged for money.
> I'm not necessarily sure why anybody in their right mind would create such a thing and share it!
Best startup ideas are about solving real problems. Some people care about problems getting solved, whether or not they are the ones doing the solving. Keep in mind that no one has enough time to try and solve all the problems at once. So if you see something wrong that needs to be fixed, and you don't have time to do it yourself (because you're busy fixing something else), why not just share it with people, so that someone else might work on it, thus helping to make our world a better place?
Best startup ideas are about solving real problems. Some people care about problems getting solved, whether or not they are the ones doing the solving. Keep in mind that no one has enough time to try and solve all the problems at once. So if you see something wrong that needs to be fixed, and you don't have time to do it yourself (because you're busy fixing something else), why not just share it with people, so that someone else might work on it, thus helping to make our world a better place?
That's reasonable however I've always been of the opinion that it's better to solve a problem when you have the problem and are feeling the pain, rather than implementing someone's idea in the abstract. It always seems that the people who are really solving their own painful problems capture a market.
Maybe other people are better at implementing someone else's idea than me and I'm just viewing the world through Matt-colored glasses.
Maybe other people are better at implementing someone else's idea than me and I'm just viewing the world through Matt-colored glasses.
Some exercises work better collaboratively.
I highly support something like that. At some point I even wanted to create a listing website where people can submit "pain points" for others to solve. A "Pain Point Directory".
conspiracy theory
What if this is the writers of that new Silicon Valley comedy show soliciting ideas for their characters w/o having to pay writers!?
What if this is the writers of that new Silicon Valley comedy show soliciting ideas for their characters w/o having to pay writers!?
If they are not behind it, we should still send them this link. They could certainly make use of some of those ideas, maybe with a little bit of twist here and there to make them more comic. I doubt writers could get better startup ideas than actual SV people and SV-wannabies :).
In the original thread I made the joke that they don't really need writers, just a bot that reads popular HN blogspam all day.
Sad thing is it's true.
Sad thing is it's true.
I used to pay for services to backup my FB status & tweets - Backupify and TweetSaver. There was a market, once! But now FB lets you download your updates for free, and TweetNest lets you archive your tweets for free.
Sometimes the problem isn't identifying the pain point, but identifying the competitors that are already solving it.
Sometimes the problem isn't identifying the pain point, but identifying the competitors that are already solving it.
I'm really curious: why would you pay to back up ephemeral thoughts? Did you plan on re-reading them, or did they hold some other kind of value?
The thoughts I posted to Facebook, and the tweets I tweeted were fairly low-value content. I deactivated my FB account and stopped tweeting from my personal twitter account; if I never saw those tweets or status updates again I don't think I'd be worse off.
The thoughts I posted to Facebook, and the tweets I tweeted were fairly low-value content. I deactivated my FB account and stopped tweeting from my personal twitter account; if I never saw those tweets or status updates again I don't think I'd be worse off.
People with kids usually post a significant amount of anecdotes, observations and photos about their kids. I can totally see that people could pay to get these backed up, formatted nicely and provided as a separate web service, a slideshow or a physical book that they could give to their kids later.
> They're about as valuable as old voicemails and the threat of loss isn't palpable.
The value of old voicemails goes way up when the people that made them are no longer around.
The value of old voicemails goes way up when the people that made them are no longer around.
There are always the exceptions and I have voicemails, photos, emails, IMs, etc from people who are no longer around. If I lost those things (and indeed I have), I still have the memory of that person and that's far stronger and more meaningful.
Everyone's different though. Perhaps there is a market for automated "life" backups but I'm not part of that market.
Everyone's different though. Perhaps there is a market for automated "life" backups but I'm not part of that market.
Where can we vote and comment ?
Make a website to list, vote and discuss business idea should be first on the document. :)
Make a website to list, vote and discuss business idea should be first on the document. :)
It has a field for Community Feedback. I'm not sure what would be the purpose of voting, though.
Sorting by "relevancy"
Maybe we can take LaunchSky.com there :)
It wants me log in with a Google account that I don't have. Can remove this requirement?
Had one yesterday: provide/sell cheaper/"fixed price" dollars on the fly for foreigners buying stuff in USD, just-in-time.
Phosphorus recovery is an important problem indeed, but there already exists a solution:
http://www.grontmij.com/highlights/water-and-energy/Pages/pe...
The main problem at the moment is a lack of incentives to use it at waste water treatment plants, but I guess this will come with increasing Phosphorus prices. Still it would be beneficial to start recovering more Phosphorus already now but this is a political issue rather than an Engineering issue in my opinion.
http://www.grontmij.com/highlights/water-and-energy/Pages/pe...
The main problem at the moment is a lack of incentives to use it at waste water treatment plants, but I guess this will come with increasing Phosphorus prices. Still it would be beneficial to start recovering more Phosphorus already now but this is a political issue rather than an Engineering issue in my opinion.
"Viewing in simple list mode due to high traffic to this document." - HN traffic can stress even Google? :)
Glancing at a selection of these ideas, many have already been done.
A big part of starting a business is ensuring that you do your market research right, know your competitors and identify what need you are fulfilling.
Some examples:
* "Share your wifi" - see http://www.btfon.com - this started years ago and is back by a huge telecommunications company.
* Checking browser and O/S versions - https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html
* Anonymous email - http://www.sendanonymousemail.net etc.
* Online image editing... http://www.photoshop.com etc.
RS
A big part of starting a business is ensuring that you do your market research right, know your competitors and identify what need you are fulfilling.
Some examples:
* "Share your wifi" - see http://www.btfon.com - this started years ago and is back by a huge telecommunications company.
* Checking browser and O/S versions - https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html
* Anonymous email - http://www.sendanonymousemail.net etc.
* Online image editing... http://www.photoshop.com etc.
RS
surprise, surprise hacker news is a great place to crowdsource market research. I had a fun time looking through the list but I can't edit the comments on the Google Doc.
And since I can't edit: "Crowd-sourced shipping" has been done. http://www.uship.com in Austin has been doing this for 5+ years.
And since I can't edit: "Crowd-sourced shipping" has been done. http://www.uship.com in Austin has been doing this for 5+ years.
Fun to see this pop up again.
Original: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974 (almost 3 years ago)
Original: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974 (almost 3 years ago)
"We provide a lottery where you get just as much back as you put in (on average), as long as you're willing to wait a while. "
Target market : "Socialists, Communists, Poor people "
WTF
Target market : "Socialists, Communists, Poor people "
WTF
This is actually already a thing. Rather than lottery pools, companies have a collection where people can contribute every week, and at regular intervals it 'pays out' to one person in the pool. Everyone wins in turn, it's effectively gamifying saving money, combined with the pooling aspect of corporate lottery buying. It's much more profitable than buying lotto tickets on average, because there's no outflow. In addition, the money can be stored in a short-term security, like a monthly rotation of one-year GICs. This requires more overhead to get started, but then you actually turn a small profit.
That said, I don't know if you could start a company around it. Most of the point is the social aspect of collecting the money and deciding who 'wins' for a given week ( I suppose you'd do a lottery from a pool where winners aren't re-entered)
That said, I don't know if you could start a company around it. Most of the point is the social aspect of collecting the money and deciding who 'wins' for a given week ( I suppose you'd do a lottery from a pool where winners aren't re-entered)
This idea has been floated before: http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-co...
Basically just taking all the interest from the loans, and splitting it up as payouts in a lottery among everybody who has money saved.
Basically just taking all the interest from the loans, and splitting it up as payouts in a lottery among everybody who has money saved.
I knew I read it from Levitt somewhere. For better or worse, most of my knowledge of economics derives from his blog and books. Of course, he describes it better than I did.
I believe this is what 'Premium Bonds' in the UK are, in a form.
It certainly sounds like it, I think Levitt (see above) modelled his solution off the British system. He proposed it as a way for the US government to encourage responsible saving over gambling.
Awhile ago I about the idea of creating a penny auction website that sells Certificates of Deposit. It would be just like the silly penny auction sites now, where you pay $.01 to make a bid, and each bid increases the length of the auction. When the auction finally expires whoever has the final bid pays that price and gets the CD. Thought it would be a way to get people to transfer more wealth to savings by committing to CDs while purchasing them at discounted rates.
What's WTF about that? Are socialist, communists and poor people not a valid market? I can't speak to the other two but there are rather large markets that target poor people almost exclusively (e.g. Pawn shops).
My favorite blindingly obvious business plan straight from HN discussions: (insert non-US country X here) clone of (insert successful US-only business that HNers constantly whine about not being in country X).
Examples: Stripe for Norway, Twilio for New Zealand, etc.
Examples: Stripe for Norway, Twilio for New Zealand, etc.
This is exactly how the Samwer brothers are making boatloads of money: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-29/the-germany-...
[deleted]
"Good artists copy, great artists steal"
The "double index stock fund" - The stock market doesn't sleep it just closes. It opens the next day at a different value than what it closed based on any new information.
"Lock your savings into the housing market, so you don't get priced out!" - REIT
"Lock your savings into the housing market, so you don't get priced out!" - REIT
http://www.reddit.com/r/startupideas/. Nothing is on it though. We can use it.
Seems to be moderated; I submitted a link but it's not there. My guess is people will forget about it before the moderator gets around to see new submissions, and thus the subreddit will remain abandoned.
If you're really dedicated, you can check the Admin's reddit activity and potentially usurp them as an admin. I know a few people who have taken Reddits by force.
edit: To clarify, there is a reddit dedicated to this; I think it's adminrequests. You can ask the admins to remove mods or close dormant reddits. It's standard procedure, no kneecapping or anything required.
edit: To clarify, there is a reddit dedicated to this; I think it's adminrequests. You can ask the admins to remove mods or close dormant reddits. It's standard procedure, no kneecapping or anything required.
Stone cold operators huh?
http://www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis is something close that is a little more active.
The traffic from this must have crashed Gmail
What do people think about the "Imaging REST API" idea? It seems all the needed infrastructure exists (AWS, etc), are there any services like this already?
Blitline is doing it: http://www.blitline.com/
This would be an excellent application of the Slant [1] concept. Basically create a topic which is the idea, with sub topics for the other columns and then debate them. Then layer on a searchable UX so that different concepts could be tagged and located and correlated. Boom, community curated web site of startup ideas with history.
[1] http:://slant.co/
(I personally have nothing to do with Slant just find it an interesting way to capture a debate like the ones in the spreadsheet into a more structured form)
[1] http:://slant.co/
(I personally have nothing to do with Slant just find it an interesting way to capture a debate like the ones in the spreadsheet into a more structured form)
Most of these "ideas" are neat apps, but i don't see how they are startup ideas. A startup is a business, has a LOT more to do with a productivity app.
Are these just nice, potentially open-source able apps? I would agree with that. I think the valley, is suffering in realizing the difference b/w apps and companies! :)
Are these just nice, potentially open-source able apps? I would agree with that. I think the valley, is suffering in realizing the difference b/w apps and companies! :)
I like the "date someone with similar interests" idea, but I'd rather see an app to make new friends.
Give your Twitter/FB/IMDb/last.fm usernames, and you'd see the list of people with common interests around you. You could disable this "social mode" when you don't want people bothering you.
The app would provide the perfect conversation opener, eg a recent news item about something you both like.
Give your Twitter/FB/IMDb/last.fm usernames, and you'd see the list of people with common interests around you. You could disable this "social mode" when you don't want people bothering you.
The app would provide the perfect conversation opener, eg a recent news item about something you both like.
The high traffic is preventing me from entering an idea of mine. The problem is one I personally experience: I don't have time to archive and manage all of the content I want to have digitized.
Mass-media conversion service:
Send in DVDs, CDs, tapes, records, hard drives, iPods, photos, documents, books, (almost anything), to have digitized. Make all digitized content browsable on a web interface.
Allow multiple data export methods such as web availability, as well as hard-drive send-in/purchase. Make data as accessible as possible. Think of the service like Earth Class Mail for digital archives.
Mass-media conversion service:
Send in DVDs, CDs, tapes, records, hard drives, iPods, photos, documents, books, (almost anything), to have digitized. Make all digitized content browsable on a web interface.
Allow multiple data export methods such as web availability, as well as hard-drive send-in/purchase. Make data as accessible as possible. Think of the service like Earth Class Mail for digital archives.
How much do people want it? For people to use your new service, they would have to:
- find you online, shop around to find the best service
- trust an unknown startup with their data
- pay a fair price
- put their media in a box, put stamps on it, put it in the mail
- keep track of an account & password
Although you say you want it yourself, I gather you haven't even done step 1 (there are several such services already). So find out how many people really want this thing so badly that they'll do all the steps. If those people exist, they'll be doing some painful version of it today.
- find you online, shop around to find the best service
- trust an unknown startup with their data
- pay a fair price
- put their media in a box, put stamps on it, put it in the mail
- keep track of an account & password
Although you say you want it yourself, I gather you haven't even done step 1 (there are several such services already). So find out how many people really want this thing so badly that they'll do all the steps. If those people exist, they'll be doing some painful version of it today.
Yes, with all these barriers to entry, I think people will still want it. I would be happy to pack up my tapes and disks and put stamps on a package if I knew I would never see it again and my memories are safe.
What services are out there that do this? I can only find a handfull of conversion companies, but none which offer online access. These services seem to specialize on either video or audio, but what about both? What about documents or arbitrary digital media which I would like to consolidate?
And yes, I would trust a trendy startup with this task, much like I decided to trust Dropbox about 5 years ago. I doubt I am the only one who could be convinced with a nice website and a decent video.
What services are out there that do this? I can only find a handfull of conversion companies, but none which offer online access. These services seem to specialize on either video or audio, but what about both? What about documents or arbitrary digital media which I would like to consolidate?
And yes, I would trust a trendy startup with this task, much like I decided to trust Dropbox about 5 years ago. I doubt I am the only one who could be convinced with a nice website and a decent video.
That service already exists, look it up on Google.
Maybe I don't know how to use Google very well, because I can't find the one you seem to have in mind.
https://www.google.com/search?q=media%20storage%20service%20...
Let me know if this service actually exists
https://www.google.com/search?q=media%20storage%20service%20...
Let me know if this service actually exists
OP,
This is superb. I'm sure all of us have an Evernote notebook, spreadsheet, or text file with startup or app ideas (if you don't, you should) but most of us also keep these lists top-secret for fear that somebody else will steal billion dollar idea #1023 right out from under us.
It takes alot of courage and openness to share your list in this way. For this, you have earned my respect and appreciation.
Thanks.
This is superb. I'm sure all of us have an Evernote notebook, spreadsheet, or text file with startup or app ideas (if you don't, you should) but most of us also keep these lists top-secret for fear that somebody else will steal billion dollar idea #1023 right out from under us.
It takes alot of courage and openness to share your list in this way. For this, you have earned my respect and appreciation.
Thanks.
There is also http://www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis which from reading these has at least some overlap.
how does one add ideas to this spreadsheet?
How many of us that keep an ideas notebook have similar ideas to these?
I add to my idea notebook a couple of times a week without judgment of the idea itself. I do this as a bit of melon training, encouraging creative thinking. The fun part is reviewing these ideas. Finding an idea you had that resonates in someone else's successful startup is cool. More than anything else it reminds me that implementation is key, the idea is the catalyst.
I add to my idea notebook a couple of times a week without judgment of the idea itself. I do this as a bit of melon training, encouraging creative thinking. The fun part is reviewing these ideas. Finding an idea you had that resonates in someone else's successful startup is cool. More than anything else it reminds me that implementation is key, the idea is the catalyst.