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Ask HN: If you had $50,000-$100,000, what startup idea would you do?

15 points by rootsudo ↗ HN
Cliche title, and I understand that if someone has the "next" big thing, why would they post it?

This topic is mostly just to open up discussion that many business ideas can be started with minimum liquid investment. I believe too many people feel committed/tied down to their work, has resources available to quit to commit a few years to starting a business.

Why? It can become a form of financial independence.

Feel free to suggest anything, from basic brick mortar with a tech twist, to whatever.

14 comments

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fratlas
I'm no network engineer so I'm not sure at all if this is even possible but: Mesh network in my city's CBD (aus) that costs just $10/mo for uncapped mobile access. I'm sick of paying for $40-60/mo for calls/sms and maybe 2GB data. I mostly use mobile data in the CBD, but I might be an edge case.
hanniabu
Not a startup idea, but more of an open source idea. If I had 50-100k, I would hands-down quit my job and begin testing/logging ideal seeding/growing techniques for hydroponic herbs.

There already exists a plethora of information in regards to this for soil farming, but nearly no information exists out there for hydroponics. The main reason is because there's so many variants in the process. I would like to break down these variants and list the proper growing conditions and techniques for each variation in seeding techniques in order to pave the way forward for future startups in this field. I have worked with 2 highly funded hydroponic startups, and in both a huge capital expense went towards this research since since it isn't currently available. This is sad because all capital is burnt stuck in the research phase before any real progress can be made past that. Once the ground-work in terms of germination and growth can be establish, it will allow for much innovation to occur through efficiency, density, and cost.

If by any chance there is somebody out there whom would like to sponsor this research, feel free to reach out for further discussion. My email is in my profile.

arikr
Seems like a good opportunity for a small business. I think you could do this with angel investors seeking small returns, you don't even have to wait for sponsors.
baccredited 

  90% VOO
  10% BND
Rebalance once a year. And keep investing every spare dollar you make.
id122015
I think a sure way to double the money would be to ask people to give you $2 for every dollar you burn in front of the camera and put on youtube. Those disbeliebers would watch mortified.
PrimalPlasma
Are you trying to steal people's ideas?
rootsudo
That was the plan, but it's foiled now.
bsvalley
Do you qualify as an accredited investor?

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/news-alerts/al...

If so and if you don't want to fully commit, simply register yourself as an accredited investor (= private business angel). Then browse around for early stage and promising startups working on a topic you care about. Go to angel.co or crunchbase. Contact them saying you'd like to invest $10-$15K in seed in exchange for some shares. Repeat until you get a fish. You'll get higher chances of success compared to putting all your eggs in one basket. That's what Tim Ferriss, Chris Sacca, etc. did when they started as investors...

The good part is that you'd become an advisor and would interact weekly/monthly with the co-founders to share your vision, etc.

ParameterOne
I will sell you my Pizza Rocket idea for 25K....or less with royalties. It has an expired provision patent, some marketing material and a huge market. The Pizza Rocket is a 12 inch frozen pizza that is rolled up into a 4 inch tube and then it unrolls itself in the over. It fits in the freezer door so you dont have to wrestle with it in the freezer. VIDEO HERE: https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/1304706/video-464332-h2...
mrits
You should make a flat version to save on freezer space.
RugnirViking
Surely a flat version of a rolled up pizza is a pizza?
v01d4lph4
Hey Rootsudo! While $100,000 is not a lot of money to start something (w/ brick mortar), I would buy a large piece of agriculture land and start a poultry farm.

There is a huge subsidy in my country right now for Agriculture start-ups and it is something which could be scaled very well using the modern poultry farming techniques.

It's kind of a retirement plan I have in the back of my mind, but given the right capital I would start with the execution of the same in no time. :)

jtraffic
My constraint isn't just money, it's also time. Here are my ideas: https://github.com/jjasonbell/Ideas/blob/master/Ideas.pdf

I think if you forced me to choose now, I'd probably do the third one: "Sabbaticals for non-Academics". I haven't gone through this list for a while though.

Since I am the audience for the list, it's probably weird to read, but I think you can see the gist for any of them. Hopefully there is nothing too personal/embarrassing.