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.<p>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.
Original post from almost three years ago:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974</a>
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).<p>Examples: Stripe for Norway, Twilio for New Zealand, etc.
Can't face the copy/paste, but I should add my 'idea dump' posts: <a href="http://willgrant.org/category/idea-dump/" rel="nofollow">http://willgrant.org/category/idea-dump/</a>
Phosphorus recovery is an important problem indeed, but there already exists a solution:<p><a href="http://www.grontmij.com/highlights/water-and-energy/Pages/pearl-phosphorus-recovery-waste-water.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.grontmij.com/highlights/water-and-energy/Pages/pe...</a><p>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.
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.<p>[1] http:://slant.co/<p>(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)
I like the "date someone with similar interests" idea, but I'd rather see an app to make new friends.<p>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.<p>The app would provide the perfect conversation opener, eg a recent news item about something you both like.
Glancing at a selection of these ideas, many have already been done.<p>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.<p>Some examples:<p>* "Share your wifi" - see <a href="http://www.btfon.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.btfon.com</a> - this started years ago and is back by a huge telecommunications company.<p>* Checking browser and O/S versions - <a href="https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html</a><p>* Anonymous email - <a href="http://www.sendanonymousemail.net" rel="nofollow">http://www.sendanonymousemail.net</a> etc.<p>* Online image editing... <a href="http://www.photoshop.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.photoshop.com</a> etc.<p>RS
I'm thinking this would work better in a stack exchange thread, then we all don't have to read crappy ideas like the pyramid scheme lotto and people could easily upvote and comment on each idea (one idea per post style).
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.<p>Mass-media conversion service:<p>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.<p>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.
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.
Fun to see this pop up again.<p>Original: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974</a> (almost 3 years ago)
How many of us that keep an ideas notebook have similar ideas to these?<p>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.
OP,<p>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.<p>It takes alot of courage and openness to share your list in this way. For this, you have earned my respect and appreciation.<p>Thanks.
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.<p>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! :)
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.<p>"Lock your savings into the housing market, so you don't get priced out!" - REIT
There is also <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis</a> which from reading these has at least some overlap.
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?
"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. "<p>Target market : "Socialists, Communists, Poor people "<p>WTF