Ask HN: Holy Crap I need an Idea

What do you wish someone would start a startup to build for you?

  (what
     (wish you 
       (someone
           (start startup
              (build (lambda for you))))))

Why don't you ask the people in your team? They're more likely to give more to the project if the idea comes out of a discussion of theirs, rather than something you just present to them.

Not to sound negative, as I appreciate your situation, but you do realize that their are tens of thousands of people who do try and come up with startup ideas everyday; they call it work. I'm sorry, but I don't think you are going to get much here, especially just so you can skirt some classes. Best of luck though

I have a idea / project that has been psuedo designed about six months ago. There was also a good development push for about two months.

It is a music related (think dj / nightclub) suite, including a mobile app, web site, desktop app. Primary goal would initially be mobile app/desktop app.

Perhaps this is something we could get together on as my partner who was the lead tech for us is now far too busy to work on the project.

I live in Westminster CO. Maybe we could talk more about it if you have interest in helping each other... blairbryngelson@yahoo.com

Solve a problem. That's it. Make a solution that will put a salve on someones pain.

It sounds like all of your other ideas are trying to take advantage of a percieved hot space or were just "neat ideas".

Start making a list of all the problems you have observed and figure out how your proposal could help address them.

Get your team together and brainstorm.

I've always thought it would be fun to build a "ramen profit" tool suite.

I.E. a suite of tools for startups to see how close they're coming to achieving ramen profitability and what else they need to do to get there. Also some tools to help grow the startups. Working with partners like 37signals/lesseverything/and other startups.

The business model could be something like this: offer the tools to the startups at a freemium rate model, make commissions each time they sign up with different partners...

As I was hoping to build this some day (but will realistically never get around to it) - I will mention that I own the domain RamenProfit.com and would be more than willing to contribute my design skills to the project.

Let me know if you're interested. (email is in my profile)

Why don't you build an airbnb for Tools and Equipments. In winter, I'd pay to borrow someones snow blower once a week instead of buying it out-right.

People with specialized machinery will flock to your system if you manage the bookings and payment processing, and make it easy for locals/neighbours to meet each others needs.

That's something I would personally find value in, but it might not be so technologically challenging for a group of cs majors.

I'll shoot out more ideas if I think of any. You've got the ideal situation on your hands, get busy!

It takes some training to get to the state where you can sense and recognize when there's a problem where something sucks. I've thought banks really sucked for two decades, but never had the idea of doing something like simplebank.

The best ideas are ones where there is pain you can relieve.

Here's one: Web development sucks profoundly. People actually write CSS and HTML by hand, using text editors. That is a complete indictment of the state of web development tools. We've got decent stuff for web apps, but nothing for html building. Cappucino and Sproutcore are starting to provide interface builder apps for javascript based apps. But still nothing that works.

I think an Interface Builder for the web would be revolutionary and profitable.

I'm tempted to say that if you don't have a bunch of ideas then you shouldn't be leading this thing-- but on the other hand, you have the presence of mind to recognize that those three ideas are all poor and that, my friend, is extremely valuable. So at this stage, pick the best idea from here or from the other people who will work on it and go for it.

For anything you do-- see if you can find 4-5 people who are not engineers who will honestly say "Yeah, if you could build that, I'd buy it for $X" or that their company would.

"find a small problem, and start with a smaller problem inside of it"

Also, dont make a product that helps you generate ideas.

Don't worry about the idea too much. If you find a good one, great, but this project will probably be an awesome experience whether or not you have a great idea. Taking charge of a project and executing on it, even if the idea is mediocre or down-right bad, will be incredibly educational and useful.

So... if you have have a choice between 1) doing the project with a bad idea, or 2) doing a project for industry, I would definitely pick #1.

Two things I would love to see:

1. Kayak.com for ground transportation. Trains, buses, ferries, etc. are a pain to compare prices and book right now. Admittedly there probably isn't as much of a business case for this.

2. A music site where I could collaborate on a playlist with my friends and listen to the music at the same time. Currently there are sites that let you share playlists, but not listen at the same time as other people.

Develop an alternative to TicketMaster that you can white label to MLB, NFL, etc. They could be making millions of extra dollars a year if they had their own system. Why not create the system for them and skim a portion off the top.

[I'm a designer and have no idea what would be involved in making this happen, or if it's feasible from a business perspective. I'm also in Denver, so...would love to hear what comes of your project]

I would try looking here (if you haven't already): http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html

I like the comedy website idea. If tracks or "bits" were tagged it would be even better.

"clean", "family", "kids" (for example)

And then I could hear Bill Cosby's cookie jar bit, or Bill Engvall's I.G.Joe bootcamp bit, I'd be in listening heaven.

HOWEVER, I know for a fact there used to be something out there similar to this. I think it was called "haha" or something like that. I don't know if it exists or went away, but I used to use it back in 2005 (I think).

How about a StackOverflow.com for Indie Game development?

Personally, for that type of time/budget size, I would probably start a company that make mobile (android) widgets. I would like to see full screen ones made with more to offer than the ones that are out there.

Things like niche news portals (gaming, restaurants, real estate, music industry, auto news, etc...), stock trading info, local offline shopping sales, etc...

Basically, the stuff that has been done in this area is pretty crappy imo and you could take it quite a bit further. The development for something like this shouldn't be too tough either compared to making normal mobile apps because you're mostly just aggregating existing data.

One idea I've had that I'll never get around to actually doing anything with is playing with Amazon's Spot Instances. I think that the cheap cloud computing they offer can open up some new possibilities and also just save people money.

I think the best idea that I've had come out of it is some kind of spot instance guide where someone could say "I need this job done by 10am Monday. It'll take ~5 hours on 10 large instances. Get it done for me as cheaply as possible while still having a 95% chance that it gets done in time." You would know enough about the patterns of spot instance pricing that you could instantly estimate the cost for them, and they could play around with the confidence that they want of it finishing as they see the price vs. chance that it doesn't get done trade-off.

Now, there are definitely some issues with that idea. It may be a terrible idea. But I think there are opportunities to build businesses like that that exploit the cheap computing that spot instances offer.

How about a website for people who want to lose weight? I know this kind of thing already exists, but there are still lots of overweight people out there. I figure the existing ones don't attract all the target population, or they don't work for whatever users they can attract.

Incidentally you will be helping people to get laid.

I've got a startup that's just starting to gain traction (~$4,000 in SAAS license sales, pipeline of more customer prospects). I've taken a tiny amount of angel funding, with a larger angel round pending more product validation. I'm a single, non-technical founder looking for a techie or two who can help build out features. I'm also just to the North of you in Nebraska, well within driving distance. Email if you'd like to chat.

I think the benefit to you is a real-life business that has a business driver (me) with business connections and already has some market validation. I've got a completed business plan that you can pull from to create a great case study. My technical advisor can also give you guidance from someone who's "been there and done that" (and will prevent me from making requests that are technically unsound). Instead of starting from scratch, you have a base to build on.

Two free ideas that I just pulled out of my list:

1. Promoter Marketplace - A site where people can buy/sell product promotional services for local areas. Examples include a club promoter who gets paid based on the number of people at the club on a certain night, or an energy drink promoter that gets paid to hand out cans on exam week. Allow for people to list their rates and let past clients review them.

2. User Manual Creator - A site that lets people easily create user manuals for their products. Most manuals seem to follow the same set of steps: list parts, show numbered steps with pictures, provide alternate language text, etc. Let users upload pictures/text for each step and then you create a printable manual that can be folded up and neatly placed inside a product box.

They aren't my A-list ideas, but you get what you pay for. :)

First of all congrats on convincing your univ to go with you on this.

Here's the biggest problem/asset I see with your scenario - the five seniors. If you really want to do something of significance, you better be damn well organized with your timeline. Another problem I've seen with school projects (yes, I speak from personal experience in the recent past :) is that it doesn't matter if you're willing in to put in the extra mile, but your teammates may not. If it's a grade they're going to be after, be careful, because that's all the finished product would look like. Seriously, your idea isn't so much important as getting along with your teammates.

Also, forget about a technical challenge as a sole basis for the project. Instead, focus on what pg says - what do you wish a startup would do scratch an itch of yours so well that you won't hit the back button :) Remember, your customers don't have to sit through your final project presentation, they can hit the back button anytime!

Alright, the ideas: 1) Look into the higher ed space. I am willing to bet that your univ is already spending boatloads of money on crappy enterprise software. I just walked out of lunch with a friend in the higher ed realm confessing about YC funding amount of money spent on calendaring software alone. Per Year! I am sure with six months time, you could rewrite iCal in javascript.

2) Well, put on walking shoes and talk to your friends about what's missing in their lives? But, really ask yourself what someone could build for you?

Here's a couple:

TV chat system - used to find (local?) people watching the same show you are watching and form a chat channel (on mobile phone?)

Personalized news site - kind of like YC or digg but using netflix style machine learning algorithms to customize

A free version of 'vault.com' (reviews on employers, salary surveys)

Find a haircut (paste your picture, sort of photoshop different hair on it)

Underserved search terms: find some way to figure out what terms have a lot of search traffic but very few good results

Easy quotes for local business (eg, find a plumber). Enter in "my pipe is broken" and get a bunch of emails with quotes.

And one meta idea: a website for people to share startup ideas and form startups

just curious: are there any intellectual property risks (with CU-Boulder)?

Two things.

1. Don't worry about the idea. They tend to change a lot. Pick something that interests you, roll along with it, and if you don't like just move on to a different idea.

2. I'm a college student too. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is IP and the University. Talk to your professor about this carefully to make sure that your IP is yours and the University doesn't get any claim, just to alleviate headaches from happening later. In some schools, if you use the college's money or resources to create something they legally can claim a piece of it. Make sure you know about these details before embarking on any business venture.