Bored with no ideas for next startup

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126981

by bored_dev • 18 years ago

19 87 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

After exiting my first startup and coming out on top ($60K), I feel like I can't think of any more ideas for my next startup. I've read all of PG (yes, even the ideas one), analyzed other startups, but am sick of seeing the same ol' stuff... Can someone help me out with what to do next?

Anon for now.

mixmax10• 18 years ago

I have way more ideas than I can handle myself...

Write a bit about what are you looking for? Embedded, web, applications? Any particular fields that you like ?

bored_dev• 18 years ago

i'm a web dev with lots of time on my hands... problem is, no ideas to apply to it!

joe24pack3• 18 years ago

Find a good way to have an asynchronous feed back from a web server to a web client, a true general purpose "push" protocol as an extension of HTTP. Hey you can even call it HTTP2W or HTTP2HTTP. Of course you'll have to come up with not only the protocol definition but also a reference implementation for both the client and the server. Sounds like fun, eh?

mixmax10• 18 years ago

Sounds like it will be impossible to make money.

joe24pack3• 18 years ago

Hey, I like to make a buck just like the next guy, but it still sounds like a neat thing to work on. I'm sure you could find a way to charge someone something after developing this.

technoguyrob• 18 years ago

Already exists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_%28programming%29

joe24pack3• 18 years ago

Thanks, I'm aware of Comet. Not exactly what I meant, in Comet the connection stays open after being initiated by the client. I'm looking for something where the interaction is first client-to-server, then client registers a "callback" address and port that it will listen to. This would be followed by a server-to-client call where the server will send updates/events to client as they happen, the client then decides what to do with those events. I want to avoid a persistent connection, and either the "heartbeat" client requests or other forms of polling by the client. The interaction that I'm looking for is more akin to a P2P sort of model.

xirium• 18 years ago

I believe that YCombinator also declined to fund this idea ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=95931 ), which demonstrates how hard it is to have a good idea.

twak3• 18 years ago

here's one: user generated content is hot. games are fun. turn a game into content creation or content creation into a game.

twak3• 18 years ago

Bundled startup companies. Offer a Limited company with matching domain name and web-2.0-ey logo/trademark on the holding page. Your customers will get an instant web presence they can start coding into. Perhaps having an operational online payment system in that companies name would be good value for money.

twak3• 18 years ago

is there an interactive-computer-help system going already? Punters pay per minute of help. They are matched with a nerd somewhere who can view their screen, offer advice (voip) or help using a remote desktop.

sohail2• 18 years ago

A good way to come up with new ideas is live outside the tech world. Get a non-tech job in a totally different field. Haven't tried that myself, but I'd bet you'd come up with some good ideas that way.

NSX229• 18 years ago

Careful there! That implies that the best way to come up with solutions to a problem in an industry would be to get outside of it so you can get an external, top-down perspective on emerging trends and unmet needs. Then if you get an idea, you'll get a bug to implement it. But everybody will just laugh at you and scoff, "Pssst - what would you know about that? You don't even work in that field! You're not credible!"

sohail2• 18 years ago

I don't know if I was vague but I was specifically saying that you should immerse yourself in an industry you are interested in and then use technology to solve their problems.

run4yourlives2• 18 years ago

>But everybody will just laugh at you and scoff, "Pssst - what would you know about that? You don't even work in that field! You're not credible!"

Which would put you in pretty good company.

picnichouse• 18 years ago

Where do you live?

edw519• 18 years ago

I was wondering the same thing. If he was near me, I could turn him on to about 8 years worth of code that needs to be done in the next 3 months.

13 hours later, he hasn't answered. Either he's not serious, he got hit by a bus, or your question got buried in the noise in this thread.

pg3• 18 years ago

What do you wish someone else would build for you?

NSX229• 18 years ago

IN GENERAL this is a great frame of mind to come up with ideas for a non-programming mind; I think, however, that as a developer such a perspective would lead to technically interesting stuff that few people would use / pay for. As time remains constant and life becomes more complicated, I suspect people will become more selective and use more of the kinds of services they would actually bother paying for and limiting their interactions with things that are interesting, but not enough if they actually cost something. That said, most non-programmers usually start the "what would I want built for me" process from the perspective of "that would be so useful that I might even consider paying for it" whereas, from my experience with programmers (trying to recruit for my own startup efforts), most programmers start the "what would I wish someone built" process from the perspective of "that I would respect this guy's technical ability a lot."

Case in point: there are tons of ideas that can become good, useful, practical valuable services based on standard, already existing technology reconfigured in different ways. But most programmers, if they're anything like the ones I've come across, would consider that "below them" and instead favor a startup working on some obscure problem that 6 people on the planet could understand and appreciate.

Google aside, that rarely translates into "great business".

pg3• 18 years ago

Google aside, that rarely translates into "great business".

I think you mean Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo aside.

mixmax10• 18 years ago

I think you have a good point there.

I've met a lot of developers that would think that something wasn't worth doing because it was easy to do. But hard doesn't mean that more people will want it. Look at all the dating sites out there: Simple to do, but absolutely something people want.

johnrob• 18 years ago

Could we have a permanent thread dedicated to this question?

NSX229• 18 years ago

It would be empty. The second somebody with technical ability came up with an idea, they'd think, "Hey, why don't I just build that myself?"

If someone without the ability to develop the idea had a good idea, they'd wonder why they should do the idea-thinking for programmers who'll then dismiss the idea-generation with some VC-inspired platitude about how "it's all about the execution" or something.

So there you go. Progress halted by the best of the human condition: arrogance, greed and suspicion of the "other."

On the other hand I've always thought that if you get people who normally would never talk to each other in everyday society together and got them drunk, tons of good exchanges would occur resulting in who knows how many great new companies.

Sigh ... dreams ...

NSX229• 18 years ago

BTW ... let's say you get the help you want. Do you offer anything in return?

NSX229• 18 years ago

This is sooo funny. Almost every week there's a "Ask YC" type of post where a business idea is seeking programming talent, and almost all the time the response is, "Why should I partner with you? What will you do for the startup while I code?"

And here we have a "bored software developer" just soliciting free business ideas and the mere suggestion that he should offer something in return seems to be unpopular.

Have you ever considered that the person who you seek ideas from may have developed the idea over months ... or even years of thinking, unpaid research, trial-and-error, awkward conversations with potential users, constant analysis of other things on the market, etc.?

Perhaps you may consider that from their perspective it would be something like, "Why should I share the insights of months/years of thinking about the problem? What were you doing while I was investing the time to investigate the feasibility?"

And yet the very question of what value the idea giver can expect meets scorn.

aquateen• 18 years ago

This is news.yc... have you read any of PG's thoughts on the value of ideas?

Here's an idea for bored_dev: Apparently, some people have a bizarre habit of highlighting the text as they read. Write a script that checks whether a user reads the entire text of, say, an EULA, or maybe an essay...

Kaizyn• 18 years ago

It sounds like you're in a mental rut at the moment. To get out of it, you will need to put aside the problem of 'finding your next startup' and focus your attention on other things for a while. Teaching yourself a new technology or working for someone else's startup for a while might give you enough of a different perspective to make more progress on finding a startup idea.

thingsilearned• 18 years ago

Join another startup for a while? I think its almost a huge strength to want to work on startups but to not currently have an idea. There are tons of guys out there with good ideas needing co-founders. A few people in the current batch of YC included.

NSX229• 18 years ago

I know how you can get an idea for your next startup. Call your favorite VC firm and ask them, "You know how VCs are always lamenting that great business ideas are a dime a dozen? I can't think of any ideas for now - but I have 30 cents! Can you please write down 3 dozen ideas you think are great so I can develop them?"

Problem solved ... for a mere 30 cents.

Keep me updated on any progress.

mdemare• 18 years ago

They'll say ideas are a dime a dozen but their time is charged at $500/hour.

NSX229• 18 years ago

That's ok. Just tell them that you have an awesome "ability to execute" dime-a-dozen ideas. According to their theories, that, the capital they would subsequently invest and their "value-added" should help you all become multi-billionaires. Surely they believe their own talk, so in theory they should gladly put aside their pittance of $500 an hour to share ideas you can execute for them.

Don't forget little people like me when you guys hit the big time.

ldambra• 18 years ago

Why would you come up "anonymously for now" ? If you have an already successful start-up experience, why not talking about it and tell us a bit about you ? What are the risks in doing so ?

I'm a bit cautious by nature and I'm just curious about it. If I had an already successful experience and were in your situation I'd rather talk about it and introduce myself a bit. It helps to gain trust from other people and would make your request more appealing.

NSX229• 18 years ago

Anonymous = I don't have to tip my hat to people who can come up with ideas / admit that good business ideas are not as easy as everyone says they are / share any resulting credit/profits from application of ideas because nobody knows who I am.

I could be wrong. But I can't think of any possible other reasons.

dualogy• 18 years ago

"but am sick of seeing the same ol' stuff..." That's just the spirit you need.

"Can someone help me out with what to do next?" That's not.

zenlinux• 18 years ago

Aren't there idea repositories out on the web that are publicly accessible? Something along the lines of huge brainstorming sessions done by people who don't have the time or inclination to implement the ideas?

Here's the closest thing I'm aware of - the Global Ideas Bank: http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/

Anyone know of anything else along this line?

NSX229• 18 years ago

Well, I just went to the link you provided and aside from 90% of the ideas being well-intentioned but half-baked, I can't help but notice there are no business ideas. So, to answer your question, no, there aren't. Why would anybody waste time documenting an idea they don't have the inclination to implement? Why don't they have the inclination? Because there's no motivation. Why? Because they realize they can't make money off of it. Hence the only ideas you'll find for "free" on the internet are ideas nobody can figure out how to make any money off of. If they could figure that out, then they would have the inclination and thus, logic indicates that they'd MAKE the time. And keep the idea to themselves, not post it up for all to see and profit off of.

trevelyan• 18 years ago

I want a way to use Paypal to pay for Google Adwords and/or other sites that don't accept it.

paul4• 18 years ago

Randomly select three words, then think about what they mean together and how to turn that into a business. Repeat.

comatose_kid• 18 years ago

Jump To Conclusions

I can envision a fun 'mat based' game for all ages here... Score!

bootload• 18 years ago

"... After exiting my first startup and coming out on top ($60K), I feel like I can't think of any more ideas for my next startup. I've read all of PG (yes, even the ideas one), analyzed other startups, but am sick of seeing the same ol' stuff... Can someone help me out with what to do next? ..."

There are some good resources for the "no-ideas" problem. Listen to this [0], then read this [1]. See how you go. If you still have trouble you are probably not determined enough.

[0] http://wiki.ycombinator.com.nyud.net:8090/presentations/Paul...

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

run4yourlives2• 18 years ago

Ask your non-hacker friends what irks them about work... develop from there...(yes, it will take a while... but you were bored anyway)

Bored with no ideas for next startup

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