An online-only bank (with ATM support of course) that lets you have as many "virtual" accounts as you want, and lets you set up programmatic rules for transferring money in between accounts on certain days/times, or triggered by events ("transfer $100 from B to A if account A goes below $100, and notify me by email"; "on overdraft from A, withdraw from B instead"). Then have a debit card that you can use to charge to any of your accounts, and an app that lets you configure which account it's drawing from.<p>This would make "budgeting" very easy. Have a "food" account, an "entertainment" account, etc. Do weekly or monthly budgets by transferring money into your mini-accounts, and denying transactions for each account when it goes over budget. (Or let the transaction go through from a backup account, but notify you that you went over budget.)<p>Also, have an API that anyone can write apps for.<p>Of course, I'll never do this because starting a bank is really hard.
Github for travel planning. You can collaborate with your co-travelers on creating an itinerary but then like github you can fork other peoples completed itineraries and make them your own.
Love this thread idea, had been considering posting one myself.<p>- Tablets for seniors: when the elderly population sees an iPad ad, they're not captivated or entranced; they're intimidated and disappointed that they're left behind by technology. I envision the "jitterbug for tablets" -- built on Android with big, tactile buttons; a 'never get lost, take me home' feature; remotely controlled functionality (IE turn on/off apps); etc. They wouldn't use much bandwidth, so you could build 3G right into the device and charge a significant monthly premium -- after all, it's a dramatic quality-of-life improvement for someone sitting in a retirement home.<p>GE and a few other companies are doing similar projects, but no one is really executing all that well IMO. Problems: would be super hard to get off the ground / defend, and the market is becoming increasingly obsolete.
Something that pipelines charitable donations through micro-financing. Say someone needs a payday loan, and Bill Gates is going to donate a billion dollars to some charity. Instead, that person gets the loan with no interest or penalties and sets up a payment plan with that charity for the amount. Should create more efficient spending patterns for low-income families, particular those that encounter short-term deficits, while still getting the charities the same amount of money in the long run.
Remote sysadmin service.<p>Percona has a remote DBA service that gives us 24/7 access to a team of proficient DBAs for a fraction of the cost of hiring one.<p>I'd like to see the same product for cloud sysadmins.
Uber for digitizing, storage and disposal.<p>I have boxes and boxes of tapes, disks, notebooks, books, and photos. All of which I'd prefer to have digital. Other physical things could be digitized with video, photographs, and scans. I would take them to my street corner and a driver would pick them up and deliver them to a digitizer. They could show up in the cloud a week later, or be delivered back to me in a hard drive.<p>Once the digital copies are received, the customer can request to have the goods responsibly disposed of. The service could also cover long term storage for customers who want the originals to remain intact. Possessions can be returned to the owner within a day or two's notice.<p>A service like this would allow people to minimize their physical existence while preserving the memories associated with physical possessions.
Uber for hiring a undocumented worker/day laborer. Sometimes I hire these guys[0,1] and I have to go pick them up [2], try to find one that speaks decent English, negotiate pricing, explain the job, and manage the quality of work[3].<p>There is actually a huge potential to improve the worker side of the current status quo. Right now, these guys have a ton of idle time[4] and there is a pricing opportunity[5]. There's a lot of other opportunities in this, I've been mulling it over for the past few years, I can build it just don't want to market/grow it[6]<p>[0] for projects that I don't necessarily need a contractor for
[1] or, work that a regular contractor doesn't do, like; my lawn guy doesn't clean gutters, my housekeeper doesn't clean windows
[2] taking them home is worse - they're probably dirty & sweaty and I don't that in my car
[3] can't have high expectations, these are generalists don't expect them to do high quality tile or carpentry
[4] they sit in front of hardware stores for hours just waiting, some days they have no work, there is never a guarantee of work
[5] they would take less money for guaranteed work, they could build a reputation and charge more for work, they could have their own transportation; saving the buyer the hassle of playing taxi service (often the buyer is a contractor, not a lone home owner like me)
[6] if you do, let's talk
A couple of years ago I proposed an idea for "AirBnB for self storage" on Quora: <a href="http://www.quora.com/Collaborative-Consumption/What-is-the-next-big-Airbnb-for-X-company-idea" rel="nofollow">http://www.quora.com/Collaborative-Consumption/What-is-the-n...</a><p>Still seems like a massive opportunity. $24 billion market in the US. Inconvenient locations (for many people). People have (collectively) a massive amount of under-utilized space. Not without its challenges but neither was AirBnB when it started.
A service for freelancers that automatically withdraws projected income tax and puts it into a safe money market fund so that they can make a little change on it (more in better times).
Order while you wait infrastructure at restaurants. Basically pull up the menu via wifi while waiting for your table to clear. Take the order, and maybe even pay ahead. Orchestrate the order so that the food is available shortly after you sit down.<p>This lets the restaurant increase their profits by serving more parties through their tables at peak times - maybe 10-15 min per table that uses the order system.<p>Some variant of this might also work for busy bars too.
A store-to-kitchen cart. I carry it in store, checkout items from within the cart - mos t current carts are clunky, heavy - one that you can push onto your car trunk and carry out into your pantry/kitchen. Basically the iPod of shopping carts. Would save billion of shopping bags, no more "paper or plastic?"
I started a site just for ideas like this, mostly for hackathons: <a href="http://www.freeideas.co" rel="nofollow">http://www.freeideas.co</a>
I had this random idea today, that I'd totally do if I had any free time. There may already be somebody doing this - I haven't looked. But here ya go:<p>An "eliza bot" like service that doles out Freudian dream analysis when you tell it about your dreams. Maybe even combine a logging service so you can log your dreams (ala the way some people keep dream journals).<p>I really have few ideas for monetizing the thing, I mostly just think it would be fun to do. But possibly you could do some cool targeted advertising based on the "discussions" you have with the dream-analysis-bot.
A specialst book store or lending library or archive in hard to find new and seconhand books. For some subjects, amazon and its secondhand book site Abe books (?) sucks if you delve into narrow neiches. They are enthuaists out there who crave a book which will teach them something. These books are published in areas which may not be as commercial as they once were.<p>The neiches are small. One for example is model engineering and related subjects. Books with plans, drawings etc. Construction methods.
Recipes based on the content of your pantry/fridge. The ideal solution would provide a db based on sensors/user input to know what ingredients and amount of those ingredients you have. Additionally, you can hook it into some calorie counter or diet tracking/fitness apps and it will make decisions based off of that.<p>Then you simply specify: "I want to make dinner, what can I cook?" The app links you to the recipe and any videos for making that recipe right to your device.
A sort of reverse kickstarter with combinations.<p>Instead of just makers saying what they can do it would be based more on what people say they want, and attach a value to say they'd pay a certain amount for it. You could also declare that given x, y and z you could do a, b or c and thus giant chains could be resolved.<p>All a bit GOSPLAN like though.<p>I've also considered Tinder crossed with auctions: bid according to how hot you think they are, with highest bids getting to meet (and pay!)
I thought of a math edu-game similar to CeeBot.<p>In CeeBot you learn programming concepts and whole languages by writing instructions for virtual robots. You can see how they move around and perform different tasks. (Actually Mehran Sahami from Stanford teaches the programming methodology course with a little virtual robot named Karel with exactly the same principle).<p>The player in my game would be a spacecraft captain. But unlike in other games, where you just press a button and the vessel goes to any direction, this ship had been hit by a meteoroid and its main computer is broken. Therefore all the commands have to be done manually and any computation is performed on a piece of paper and just put into the command line.<p>There could be no graphics at all. Just the roar of your enginges.<p>In the beginning the tasks are simple, but the more you play the more complicated the calculations become. It begins with simple arithmetics and trade. Later you need trigonometry to fire a "torpedo". It would be great if you could progress it even further, with advanced math and phisics, and also chemistry - you need to combine different substances in order to burn them as fuel or to produce oxygen to breathe or combine nitrogen and carbondiaxide in order to grow food in the farm.<p>It would be great if instead of taking tests the teacher would just say: "John, you are still on level 8, you should go to Alpha Centauri and fight with pirates. Play more!" - which would mean - learn to solve problems with two unknowns and calculate volume of spheres.<p>And imagine a multiplayer with students on the same level who have to make accurate calclulations fast because without it they would just float in the dark and cold outerspace.<p>I will never make it - I don't know math and programming that well - but I'd play the game!
A search platform that allows users to find stores that specialize in whatever it is they're looking for. For example, here in Austin we have a store that sells upholstery fabric, specifically, and another that sells just bookcases. I've also seen a disc golf store. If I were looking for any of the above, I wouldn't remember that those specialty stores existed and so would probably go to Michael's for fabric or Ikea for a bookcase or Dick's for a disc. If there were a way to show stores that could give me a better selection to suit my particular need/want, I'd much rather shop there. Maybe if I search "fabric" it would pull up a location-specific list of fabric stores further categorized?
A system to retrofit an appliance into a smart home.<p>Example: My AC has its own remote. With my device I can record the wireless signals it outputs, similar to a garage opener in a car. Then with my mobile app I can create my own interface to power on/off, set temp, etc. I now use just my smart phone to turn on my AC. I press power on the custom UI I created in the app, it will send a packet to the hardware in my LAN, and that hardware sends the matching wireless signal to the AC.<p>Some things might still need physical fittings and cannot always be wireless devices such as power switches. New power splitters with this functionality would also be a good way to control appliances that just need to power on and off.
I posted this before:<p>Popcorn Time for quality children's programming - Bill Nye, Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Avatar. Shows that are entertaining AND educational, none of that advertising filled, sassy attitude, Disney Channel crap.
"Music Finder"<p>You open an app. You're played three different pieces of music. You're asked which one you like best. The program branches and plays you three more pieces of music. Again they're different but from a more similar selection.<p>At each point you can highlight bits of music to go back to - to buy that music or to start the chain from that point.<p>One example would have this tightly connected to one particular publisher's catalogue.<p>It would eventually teach about music, giving comprehensive sleeve notes about the composer or the piece of music or the history or music theory or etc.
Something with the Oculus VR tech. I think there's massive, exciting options opening up with the Gear VR or similar, and anyone starting now will have a substantial first mover advantage.<p>I have two specific applications for VR: the metaverse, and really good porn. (These do not need to be combined though I suppose they could.)<p>I would argue that Second Life failed mostly due to execution issues. I'd love to see a virtual world where I can socialize, and where I can build cool spaces to hang out with my friends / hold meetings / work.
WeWillWalkYou - An online platform for volunteering to walk, visit, cook for, seniors. Trade time with a stranger's loved ones in your town, for the same for your folks back home.
Underground garbage disposal. In Tel Aviv, the garbage gets picked up every day (hot climate), and because of traffic this is done early morning (4-5am).<p>The system will have dedicated "containers" on corners or squares where you drop your garbage and an underground network of carts delivers it to a central point where it can be picked up. Or even to the dump if possible.<p>This can be fully automated and I think will save a lot of money in manpower and gas (for driving the garbage trucks through the whole city).
"Blind Lego Watchmaker" - lego biomorphs.<p>Dawkins' book "the Blind Watchmaker" introduced "biomorphs". These are intended to show the power of repeated random change and selection. He uses a small computer program to draw six images composed of lines. The user selects one and the program redraws another six images, making small changes based on the image the user choses. This is repeated many times.<p>The new version is pretty similar except it uses Lego pieces instead of lines.
Take your pick: <a href="http://startjumper.com" rel="nofollow">http://startjumper.com</a><p>It's kind of like a parking lot for business opportunities I didn't go through with.
Since all the scandals about security, I came up with a different approach, instead to increase cryptography, just build kind of a reverse surveillance. A place like gravatar that informs you who is accessing to your profiles on your social media. The idea is very simple, you provide a jpg that can send back a message every time it's being rendered by a client. It can be that it requires a new image standard that allows to send some info to the main servers.
TextMe - Too much texting apps started popping around.
Cactus - Photo sharing app with option to put a title on it. Had this a while ago, then whisper and others showed up.
Escape the Monster - iOS kids game, some creature have to avoi d obstacles to escape the monster. Lack of time.
Invoicer - Mac app for making invoices. Lack of time.
Donster - Texting using only recorded sounds. Lack of time.
Reading through this I came up with one: Tinder for jobs. Employers can look through a small CV of candidates that they might like, while potential employees can do the same for workplaces. Matches lead to interviews.<p>I can't really see myself ever doing this though because you'd got a chicken and egg problem, plus it'd probably only ever be used by tech companies unless there was an easy to use API.
Something a bit like Pocket app, except where the content is automatically summarized for you.<p>I've made a naive summarizer that seems to get the job done for the summaries part: <a href="http://breue.com/summarizer" rel="nofollow">http://breue.com/summarizer</a><p>I'm just not sure what the final product would look like or if there would be enough of a reason for people to prefer it over Pocket.
An insurance company who's policy covers anything you own against any kind of loss for any reason. House, car, boat, bike etc for flood, fire, theft etc. Basically, if you buy insurance you should simply be insured. Period. No fine print.<p>Yes, it would probably be more expensive than people's current policies.
What Dropbox did for storage, but for CPUs. The classic business example would be that you have to to process a large Excel doc and are willing to pay extra to speed it up. With fast internet connections and cheap online storage, it could be opened up to a growing number of tasks like video rendering.
Probably one of:<p>- a "Rap Genius" for crowd-translating doujin manga (kind of exists on danbooru but not quite)<p>- A collaborative gaming site for pen-and-paper RPG and boardgame players which would let you design and run your games as a virtual representation of the physical game (probably exists or else is a bad idea)
How about a kickstarter kickstarter?<p>It seems like you need a lot of money and experience to build a successful kickstarter?<p>What if there's a different service where a person can put up an idea with minimal cost and flare, and just raise enough funding to hire a video team, PR team, etc to then run a kickstarter campaign?
I am fed up with all those warranty cards I am getting with every equipment I buy like juicer,external HDD,etc. so thought what if I can make a smartphone app with open API which other manufacturers can use to link their warranty info.<p>Through the app, you can apply for warranty , see when it is expiring etc.
Another one is predicting price rises and optimal time to sell Magic the Gathering cards before rotation. Its like the stockmarket only unregulated Gambling. People, do invest in these cards and flip them. Not for the faint of heart but people love to buy into dreams...
GPS powered fast food inhibitor. e.g. You get a text coupon for a salad at "insert healthy restaurant" whenever you pull into the parking lot of a Mcdonalds.<p>The idea is to catch people and entice them to eat differently right before they make the decision to eat fast food.
Heroku for queue jobs. Pay by the minute.<p>Basically I hate maintaining an AWS instance that is idle most of the time. And Heroku will only get you so far.<p>It would probably be difficult to make profits on because you'd be charging slices of a penny at a time...
An on-demand "Uber for babysitters" ... most of you shot it down but I still think it's a good idea<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7356497" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7356497</a>
... thought about building a mobile femtocell attached to a helium baloon, so if you find yourself (playing Ingress) in a dead spot, perhaps the femtocell in the baloon 10 to 30 meters above you could help out?
A paper version of a sat nav.
Essentially its a book with a picture of all the roads. A reader will be able to use it on the go to see where they are trying to get to.
the missing B in AirBnB.
I really wish I can finish the work on this idea someday. I have tech MVP but I dont know how to move forward. The idea :
Basically, people can charge for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner at their places. There are people who like to cook and people who dont. Why not let former earn money and later save money while eating healthy meals and meeting new people.
shazam for face recognition? Sometime when you see a movie, you can't make out who stars in it. take a quick picture and shazam it away to get the actor / actress name!