HN Explorer

Ask news.YC: Is your startup making the world a better place?

23 points by tkiley ↗ HN
Do you spend any time evaluating the possible effect your startup could have on society if you succeed? Have you ever adjusted your plans in order to have a more positive impact on the world?

It's easy to argue that any time you make a free-market profit, you've made the world a better place, but I'm not sure I'd ever be content to make a fortune in something like domain squatting. What do you think? Are you attempting to create value, or to acquire wealth?

23 comments

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nickb
YES! Absolutely! Personally, I've changed the focus of our startup to do some good in the world by first releasing a free product for the non-profit cause. I've been a huge fan of OLPC and we're developing a product for that market first. I don't think these two - making money and doing good - are mutually exclusive at all. Changing the world (for the better hopefully!) goes hand in hand with wealth and doing good can be highly lucrative. It's all about finding balance and being a good global citizen. Many companies have positioned themselves to be global leaders and also to have impeccable ethics and do good.

If you can afford to delay monetization to do some good in this messed up World, definitely do it! You will be rewarded for it.

tkiley
It's great to hear that!

Sometimes, it seems like the products that succeed in a free market are not necessarily the products that will make consumers happiest in the long run.

For instance: Facebook has a ludicrously high valuation, but is it actually creating that much value? I don't think so -- the monetary valuation of Facebook is mostly due to the fact that it is addictive and contagious, rather than due to any substantial consumer betterment created by the service.

(That general critique is also applicable to most of the facebook apps out there so far, I think)

jsb
I think it creates value in the ability to keep track of your personal social network. Its not entirely difficult to manage contacts on your own, but I think its nice that at the very least I can send a Facebook message to someone (if not gather their contact information via their profile if they choose to include it) if I'd like to ask them a question or catch up with them. In the past, you might have to ask a mutual friend or spend some energy figuring out how to reconnect with them.

But I agree that their revenue is generated mostly because most of their users have trouble limiting their time on the site, which can be considered a negative impact.

trekker7
This is my favorite post on News.YC so far... I'm really happy to see something like this here.

Anybody working on a "do-gooder" startup that they want to share here?

ratsbane
Me too. I don't think you have to focus on a "do-gooder" target to make the world a better place, though. You can make the world a better place if you: - Make it easier for people to do things they have to do so they can go home early and spend more time reading to their small children or whatever else they like. - Make information more available and clear so people can understand better how things work and what's really going on, particularly with things that affect them directly
thomasswift
Off the bat, my little startup is in no way better then something like OLPC, but with my startup I am trying to make the world a better place by providing a place to get unknown music tracks identified. Hopefully I will expand into other media.

I know for myself, how music has enhanced my life and it may sound lame, but I still think that if you discover a new band or some band you never knew of, you might go to a show, experience different music, meet new people or just learn something new.

Beside my awesome answer, I think this is a great question and want to hear others responses.

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pg
I think ours is.
Prabaker
I aim for one of mine to be. The aim is to build a tool/resource that will help scientists speed up there research, which, in turn, will help society. Obviously, I won't be shy if a bit of moola came my way!

My other start-up is an email client that will hopefully, once and for all, relieve me of the frustrations I have currently with every other email service out there.

The first one is my real 'baby' because I am a scientist by trade; the second one is one that I would like to cash in on.

marcus
Data sharing sites for scientists are desperately needed. Every time you set out to do some real research the real problem is gathering the data. You can spend more time on gathering the data than doing the research.

Maybe a social network with some points based on contributions/uploads. A license like creative commons where you have to release the data&paper of any work based on data licensed through the site...

Could be a great positive change in the world.

Prabaker
Indeed they are needed, but they are only the tip of the iceberg in my vision. For me the whole data gathering process has to be revised and has to become more efficient, and data is useless if it's not organised and put into context - that's what I aim to do. As a biochemist I only know how to program a VCR [retro], and so I need to find some hackers to help me out.
pchristensen
I'd be interested in hearing more about what you're doing. Send me an email or post back here.
Prabaker
What is your email?
pchristensen
peter at pchristensen dot com. It's in my profile too
robg
We're dedicated to profit and non-profit motives simultaneously. Great technology foments social change. But better for us to spur that ourselves, early and often, than hope that it will happen otherwise.

I simply don't understand the demonization of profit. Wikipedia and craigslist are so great that they didn't need to eschew monetization for fear of consequences. Even ads on one-tenth of their pages could produce enormous benefits in related non-profits.

To me, the true power of information is in the minds who shape it. Web companies can never go wrong in supporting educational initiatives. In growing brains, the interpipes will flourish. It's a learning medium through and through. Foster a diverse user base, and the technologies will continue to be revolutionary.

gibsonf1
Yes - we are reducing the time needed to get things done by a large margin.
helptheworld
Just put up a few social networking sites around climate change, poverty, peace and wildlife. They're gathered on http://www.bippr.com.

Good to see what else is going on.

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joeguilmette
i see a lot of people mentioning that they are releasing not-for-profit iterations so that they can make the world a better place.

you dont need to hold off monetizing a product so you can do some good :)

if you align your product and your revenue with your target audience (ie, the world), then you're golden.

if your product really does make the world such a better place, then making money off of it should be easy!

brlewis
I know most of the people using ourdoings.com, and it's definitely doing good for them. Relationships are being strengthened by photos that would never have seen the light of day if conventional photo-sharing sites were all that was available.
shayan
is it making the world a better place as a side-effect or is its main objective make the world better?

I guess in theory as long as you are not making the world a worst place, you must be adding values either directly or indirectly. If your company is successful then it must be satisfying a need, and that need could balance things out in the world, and either directly or indirectly make the world a better place. So in a way many of us are making the world a better place.

But if you ask how important is it to your startup to make the world a better place, or how much emphasis you give it, or is that one of your main goals, then you would probably find some interesting results, and I guess a lot of NOs (if people are honest!)

joe24pack
Actually, yes I do. We're aiming to take software development past the next productivity hurdle. Right now we are researching some of the core ideas involved. If we succeed with software, our approach has applicability to other design related activities. Our first laughably trivial proof of concept might be ready within six months, we're not really sure yet. There is also the quite real possibility that may run into insurmountable difficulties, practical or theoretical.
mikesabat
Besides the overall mission of the startup, it is also relevant to have an ethical workplace. Of course the two go hand in hand, but it is so important to stress sound business practices - the ends and the means.