We see everyday startups/projects pitches that explain what they do. There're often on hackernews lists the describe what the startups do.<p>But can you, in less than 140 characters, describe the <i>PROBLEM</i> your project/startup tries to resolve?
My startup: I want to make sure I don't lose my data if my hard drive dies. I also want to make sure the NSA doesn't get my data.<p>Tarsnap: <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tarsnap.com/</a><p>My side project: I want to run the world's best free OS on the world's best cloud computing environment.<p>FreeBSD/EC2: <a href="http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/" rel="nofollow">http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/</a><p>My hobby: I want to have fun while bringing classical music to my community.<p>West Coast Symphony Orchestra: <a href="http://www.westcoastsymphony.ca/" rel="nofollow">http://www.westcoastsymphony.ca/</a>
Amateur guitarists can't read sheet music, so they use tablature. But online tablature sucks.<p>Soundslice: <a href="http://www.soundslice.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.soundslice.com/</a>
I LOVE this question (and it's the first thing I usually ask to myself and to others) so:<p>- Study scientific papers by deconstructing them through a wiki-like interface.<p>- Filtering news feeds, automatically removing stories and tweets I don't care about.<p>- Keeping an updated journal for each of my projects in the fastest and least intrusive way.<p>- Learning languages by cutting and pasting single expressions from podcasts into a personal audio library.<p>- Aggregating my soundcloud, beatport, bandcamp, youtube and shoutcast 'likes' into a single cloud playlist.
It's not just about solving a problem, and I'll reiterate what Guy Kawasaki says (whereby solving a problem is 2):<p>1) "Increase the quality of life. Make people more productive or their lives easier or more enjoyable."<p>2) "Right a wrong. A variant on the above. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem."<p>3) "Prevent the end of something good. Preserve something classic or historical. Save the whales."<p>So it's more about creating a value proposition, in which solving a problem is only part of that proposition. Thus, building something people will use entails a carrot and stick: carrot for being used, and stick for not being used. Simply solving a problem can ignore other benefits.. ideally, it's about replacing the system that created the problem in the first place that needed to be resolved (thus solving a set of problems and potential problems). Solving 1 problem only is a good start, but having a vision to lay on top of that can provide extra inspiration.<p><a href="http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/guykawasaki.htm" rel="nofollow">http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/guykawasa...</a>
Many web apps need some kind of interactive diagramming, but making and perfecting that functionality from scratch can be costly.<p>We thought of everything for you: <a href="http://gojs.net" rel="nofollow">http://gojs.net</a><p>~~~<p>I think this is an interesting side topic to get into: my above pitch can be generalized for nearly any library. Fundamentally, selling a library is about selling <i>man-hours</i>. Either a programming team does everything themselves, or they do some of it get one or more libraries and pay some dollar cost and learning curve cost in return for getting literal packaged man-hours, in the form of the thought and features put into the library.<p>So my product, like all libraries, is there for people who don't want to re-re-re-re-reinvent (and importantly <i>re-re-re-re-retest</i>) Diagramming concepts like node-link relationships, layouts, grouping, undo managers, performant rendering, etc. Like any library, people are buying the man-hours we put in to perfecting a set of things, so they can get on with building the more nuanced parts of their app without running in to their own set of layout/undo-manager/what-have-you bugs.
How to ensure that the RPKI[1], which is designed to prevent BGP hijacks[2], can not be abused by trusted parties[3].<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Public_Key_Infrastructure" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Public_Key_Infrastruct...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/bgp-hijacking-belarus-iceland/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/bgp-hijacking-belar...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://ethanheilman.tumblr.com/post/64208098281/on-trusting-authorities-weighing-the-risks-of-the-rpki" rel="nofollow">http://ethanheilman.tumblr.com/post/64208098281/on-trusting-...</a>
Average amateur musicians love to make music with other people, but it is really hard to do as the whole thing involves getting together physically, practicing a lot to be decent together as a band, etc<p>While there has been quite a few attempts at online music collaboration, clearly the average amateur musician is not using any of them.<p>PROs use pro-music software to collaborate with other people, and some tech-oriented amateurs hang out in collaboration forums.<p>But all that is too hard/annoying for the average amateur musician.<p>BandHub "The Internet Music Studio" - makes it easy to make music with other people over the Internet.<p><a href="http://getbandhub.com" rel="nofollow">http://getbandhub.com</a>
140 characters? Probably not, but this is a relatively concise summary of the problem we're working on:<p>--<p><i>Knowledge workers spend too much time looking for information and knowledge[1] instead of, you know, thinking about problems. Organizations can be more effective when they provide tooling and processes to encourage and support knowledge sharing and transfer, and more efficient information retrieval.</i><p>---<p>[1]: according to some research, up to 50% of knowledge workers' time is spent just looking for stuff. But to be fair, other research puts the number as low as 17%. Still, we believe that facilitating more efficient knowledge use, transfer and creation, will benefit all organizations.
Personal finance software isn't smart enough, and I'm lazy. I'm helping computers learn your spending habits, to save you money, pay off debts, and go on that holiday you want -- with as little effort from you as possible.
Meat is expensive to produce. Insect protein is cheaper and more efficient, but insect farming technology is still very basic. <a href="http://www.openbugfarm.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.openbugfarm.com</a>
Almost all project management apps have a monthly fee and are SaaS apps. This isn’t appropriate for all businesses.<p>Duet has a one time fee and is hosted on your own server.<p><a href="http://duetapp.com" rel="nofollow">http://duetapp.com</a>
I don't have a formal project nor start up for it, but many years and many environments have overwhelmingly been influenced by one factor: Noisy neighbors.<p>I see the solution at a combination of factors:<p>- Noise ordinances and advocacy for same.<p>- Understanding that we are not "all the same", and that some people have a legitimate need for and function much better in a quiet environment.<p>- Communities established with "noise control / quiet" as a principal item in their charter, and with the boundary and means to enforce it.<p>- Better building materials and standards. Construction that spends that 10% or whatever extra to build in effective noise suppression. Architectural plans also focused on this.<p>- Continuing work on effective, after-the-fact noise suppression. Although personally I don't want to be perpetually confined to such a "bubble", even if such becomes possible. I feel much healthier as a part of the "natural world", but a world not full of car stereos, straight pipes, non-stop blaring TV's, nor 20 coworkers ongoing conversations and phone calls.<p>P.S. Advocacy and education, so that people don't get "worn down" by noisy environments before they learn and find their way to better. That would include assisting one's escape before the negative feedback loop traps one, economically.
Provide an alternative solution for Web 3.0 as opposed to the Sematic Web with the real implementation.<p>The real problems people have are:<p>- Repeatedly search for the things they want but have no one place to save<p>- Have to sort out from millions of low quality search results<p>- Search engine is not intelligent to help people find things more efficiently online<p>- Businesses have problem to get their products/services listed for SEO marketing<p>The project description is available on Kickstarter right now at:<p><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1986902972/bingobo-build-your-private-web-tm" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1986902972/bingobo-build...</a><p>The beta announcement is here:<p><a href="http://bingobo.info/blog/bingobo/beta-release-announcement.jsp" rel="nofollow">http://bingobo.info/blog/bingobo/beta-release-announcement.j...</a>
I solve 3 problems;<p>1. Charities don't do software development because they can't afford it.<p>2. Programmers who want to volunteer end up using skills other than programming (like IT support).<p>3. New programmers cannot get real-world experience because they don't have the necessary real-world experience to land a job
Not a startup, more like a personal hacking project, but what I am trying to create a cross-platform backup solution that would allow me to do incremental encrypted back up a la Time Machine, for offsite backups. Currently I use duplicity, but the problem with it is I cannot remove arbitrary past back up as it will render backups based on it invalid. That makes it much harder to manage the space on backup disk.<p>I am aware of the solutions like Tarsnap and Spideroak and I even use some of them, but this is more about very cheap offsite backup of bulk rather infrequently changing data, measure in terabytes, that would be prohibitively expensive to store there.
I want a quick feeling for today's weather. But a pictogram is not enough.<p>Nice Weather : <a href="http://alexiscreuzot.com/apps/nice-weather-2/" rel="nofollow">http://alexiscreuzot.com/apps/nice-weather-2/</a>
Starting an Elasticsearch server is easy. Maintaining and scaling a production cluster is hard, but not optional. <a href="http://www.found.no/" rel="nofollow">http://www.found.no/</a>
Concerned about your image while Gossiping? Do you Have to think twice about what people will think about you, while posting anything in a group? Difficult to Pull out the desired conversations you are looking for? So here is the a gossiping platform for you which represents ‘behind-the-scene’ notorious world of gossiping about fun and crazy stuff in an amazingly new way: <a href="http://www.Areysun.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.Areysun.com</a>
I am lazy when it comes to reading feeds. Even with GReader, my inbox used to pile up like crazy. So, I wrote @updt_me[0] get feed updates delivered via DM to my twitter inbox.<p>These days, I usually read the feed updates as soon as they come in. Since I only get links in the DM, I also end up giving the authors the (mobile) page-views they deserve for their hard work. Win-win. :)<p>[0]: <a href="http://twitter.com/updt_me" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/updt_me</a>
Never miss another movie. Queue a movie and we'll let you know when they're showing.<p>(UK and US movie services, Cable TV, and movie theaters).<p>EDIT (Problem): Online movie streaming catalogs aren't great individually due to fragmentation of distribution across a huge amount of services. People tend to miss them. We tie all the services together, so you can be alerted when the movies you want to see are available in movie theaters, online streaming and cable TV.
I'll describe you my latest project.<p><i>Paying outdoor writers and photographers competitive prices for their works and delivering users amazing stories in well designed, modern, web pages, only online, no print.</i><p>Link to a sample article ("real" ones will have better writing then this): <a href="http://acivitillo.com/articles/2013/vistula" rel="nofollow">http://acivitillo.com/articles/2013/vistula</a>
Amazon is awesome, but not very fun.<p>Solution? Svpply/Pinterest for Amazon.<p><a href="http://www.gemsinthejungle.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.gemsinthejungle.com</a>
Three problems, one solution:<p>Problem 1: First-year university-level math and physics textbooks are too long, too expensive, and too boring.<p>Problem 2: Many adults lack basic mathematical skills. Few good books exist for teaching high school math to adults.<p>Problem 2 prime: Many parents lack the basic knowledge of mathematics required to help their children with their schoolwork.<p>Solution: A math textbook for adults.
Problem: If you don't do anything. JavaScript errors on you sebsite are just lost. Your website can be completely malfunctioning maybe for 10% of your users on a specific browser and you will simply not know.<p>Solution: <a href="http://muscula.com" rel="nofollow">http://muscula.com</a>
It is difficult for people with no technical background, who don't know any strong programmers, to learn how to program.<p>I'm working on an open resource for teaching and learning Python: <a href="http://introtopython.org" rel="nofollow">http://introtopython.org</a>.
Facebook monetize their platform by posting ads on yours and your friends timelines, but you get nothing out of it. I am trying to fix this with <a href="http://paidso.com" rel="nofollow">http://paidso.com</a> where you will be allowed to do paid posts.
It's not really a startup, but Dealer Wizard uses data from a car dealer's DMS[1] to help them sell cars to previous customers.<p>[1]Dealership management system, where the dealer stores information about car deals, repair orders, and inventory.
People don't have much places online to express their opinions and take part in deep discussions.<p>Interestin: <a href="http://interestin.co" rel="nofollow">http://interestin.co</a> (provides "follow-up essays" as well)
We can't find enough A Players to hire/work with because we are limited to our own networks. <a href="http://unbouncepages.com/a-players/" rel="nofollow">http://unbouncepages.com/a-players/</a>
Building a promotion isn't easy. ViralSweep helps businesses quickly and easily launch a giveaway to grow their audience: <a href="http://www.viralsweep.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.viralsweep.com</a>
Endurance athletes, mainly triathletes, find it difficult to find one place to find races to participate in. (<a href="https://www.competehub.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.competehub.com/</a>)
Enterprise apps are complex and holistic. Configuration drift breaks apps. Find configuration inconsistencies across different systems.<p><a href="http://www.baqbeat.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.baqbeat.com</a>
Create content for your social media accounts in just a few clicks. Because creating content is time-consuming but we all need to do it!<p><a href="http://beatrixapp.com" rel="nofollow">http://beatrixapp.com</a>
Data has gravity, and too much of it makes migrating or backing up cloud storage very hard. Mover (<a href="https://mover.io" rel="nofollow">https://mover.io</a>) helps SMEs move their data.
It's difficult to learn and practice biblical hebrew without a rabbi or mentor. <a href="http://www.hebrewgenius.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hebrewgenius.com/</a>
Traditional help desks are over-complicated & hide your team behind "the desk" ..<p>We solve both - <a href="http://www.supportfu.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.supportfu.com</a>
Linking the decentralization of Email with the convenience of Social Networking in an extremely flexible package.<p><a href="http://www.airdispat.ch" rel="nofollow">http://www.airdispat.ch</a>
I would note that not everything necessarily falls into this model. I don't think Angry Birds solves an all-caps PROBLEM in my life, but I think Rovio is doing ok.
I'll describe a problem I wish I could solve: Successful social media platforms inevitably violate their users' privacy and exploit their data.
I'm solving how to aggregate many different input streams of data:<p>- market data,<p>- order streams,<p>-news,<p>- predictive models,<p>- pricing models<p>and push out the appropriate buy and sell orders.<p>Tonnes of data must be processed as fast and efficiently as possible.
Providing way more information to college applicants.<p><a href="http://www.collegeanswerz.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.collegeanswerz.com/</a>
I'm solving the problem of collaborating on hardware projects online.<p><a href="https://cubehero.com" rel="nofollow">https://cubehero.com</a>
CRM application:<p>- Converts English notes into organized data.<p>- Zero navigation interface: Everything on one page.<p>- Code in natural language: Make quick buttons for anything.
I'm solving weight and budget issues. Grocery application. Scan barcode of items you're buying in store. List is generated. Define units for each item (12 granolas in a box, 1 unit = 1 granola, etc).<p>When you log your calories, you can only choose from the foods that you bought and logged. When you use them, the quantity decrements.<p>You setup reminders for when X food is at Y stock, and get push notifications based on that, an automated grocery list application with a calorie counter to manage your spending on food and weight!<p>Lost 100lb so far on it.
Should I stay or should I go<p>Nah but really, I try to solve the music listening and artist compensation problem on my spare time. Without regard for copyright since Im not doing it to make money.