Ask HN: What startups and startup ideas ACTUALLY make a difference in the world?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7934978

by antjanus • 12 years ago

3 6 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Inspired by the recent noise about the application "Yo" and also the show Silicon Valley with its memorable quotes such as "Hooli ... is making the world a better place through minimal message-oriented transport layers", I wanted to know:

Beyond all these superficial applications, these 1st-world-problem-solving startups, what startups actually make a positive difference in the world? Not as a side-effect or afterthought.

I'd also like to hear some startup ideas for real world problem-solving. What issues do we face that need solving that a lone developer (or a small team of developers) can solve? How?

fananta• 12 years ago

I think Watsi is a great example of startup actually making an impact.

shawnreilly• 12 years ago

I'm a lone Designer / beginner Developer with an Infrastructure Engineering background, and I'm working on a project that I think will actually make a difference in the world. I agree with the OP's sentiment regarding the real world value of some of the Products (and relating investments) out there, but this was not the driving force behind the Project I'm working on. I recently moved to the Valley because one of my family members was given a certain amount of time to live. This has been hard on the family, especially considering how many we've lost over the past 4-5 years. Spending a large amount of time in hospitals and observing how medical technology works from an Engineering perspective has led me to some realizations (or at least hypothesis). I believe that there are opportunities in the health and healthcare industries from a technology standpoint. And I'm not implying monetary opportunities, I'm talking about opportunities to build something that can actually save lives. My Project is focused on building the technical foundation for a next-generation Emergency Room. Even without a background in medicine, it is apparent to me (likely from my background) that a large amount of inefficiencies exist relating to the interoperability of today's medical technology. The solution to this problem will represent a new approach towards utilizing medical technology, more specifically, medical data. The goal is to provide capabilities that greatly increase the awareness and effectiveness of medical staff operating a modern day Emergency Room. I'm currently communicating with medical staff from a few different Hospitals here in CA in an attempt to build a stronger Team. I'm also looking for Developers. I believe we can save lives.

Vomzor• 12 years ago

Scanadu, if they can make their vision of a tricorder a reality.

illini1232• 12 years ago

You are not alone in your sentiments. I have a theory on this, which is somewhat based on a comment Aaron Levie made about how young entrepreneurs don't want to go after enterprise and focus on consumer-only. I believe that some of the reasons we are seeing the prevalence of "Yo" and all of its ugly siblings include:

1) Computer science as a discipline teaches us about how to write and optimize elegant code, not necessarily apply it; my experience (although I didn't formally study CS) has always been that the schooling does a great job teaching theory and some practice, but tends to lag when it comes to applying it to "grand challenges." "Bootcamps" tend to go for small-scale consumer-oriented stuff, because you can't teach how to solve grand challenges in 9-16 weeks. It just won't happen.

2) Young adults have little working experience in specific industries for long enough to really be able to identify industry "pain points." Aaron Levie and others have argued this is why so many gravitate towards companies like "Yo" or Snapchat as opposed to addressing real-world problems.

3) Sales cycle. I've been a part of a health-tech startup before. The sales cycle is stressful. You spend months with one potential customer and might get nowhere. In consumer, it's a shotgun approach and you just go for as many in your target market as you can. You take no prisoners. When going after grand challenges, the amount of patience required generally doesn't seem to satisfy many investors who look at your burn rate (or the relative success of SnapChat over 18 months) and use those as their metrics.

4) Direct touch to consumer. This is the most "out there" of my points, but I'd argue that consumer-facing companies garner traction sooner because they also can appeal to the masses. The average person has heard of SnapChat. Can you say the same about Palantir (despite a successful track record)? How about Climate Corporation, which did data analytics for agriculture and sold for $1 billion to Monsanto)? These companies target enterprise. They don't have CEOs that are revered like Steve Jobs for inventing products that are "nice to have," not "need to have."

Tom Siebel from Siebel Systems came and spoke several years ago at my school (I went to the University of Illinois, where he was an alum). He talked about why he doesn't invest anymore in tech for the sake of technology. Instead, he postulates that the industry can and should be going after grand challenges in healthcare, water, energy, and food, arguably the most critical problems of the 21st century.

I've been working as the "business-oriented guy" on a startup concept for the last several months in data analytics for healthcare. I've found a niche within a healthcare subset that is lacking, and the competition is nascent at best. I was fortunate enough to spend a great deal of my time in health-tech during college and grad school, so I was able to actually go in and talk with industry leaders and get a grasp on how "bad" things were. I just finished venting about some similar frustrations on HN from the standpoint of expanding our team. If you're looking for a concept and business model that has 1) been vetted by prospective customers, and 2) actually addresses a real need in healthcare and isn't just an app, let me know. I'd love to talk more about it. I'm trying to find people to join me that want to do more for society than build disappearing messages.

antjanus• 12 years ago

Perfect write-up. My sentiments exactly. And thanks for expanding on the "how this happens".

I transitioned quickly from the startup-culture to enterprise and find it a better fit, but let's talk about what you're writing:

1. I think that the customer-facing stuff is what draws the crowds in, but outside of that, a lot of people just don't give "bigger stuff" a thought. They're not put in front of a problem, hell, most people don't even know what the "problem" is. Including me. Even if I wanted to help, I don't know where to start and how I could create a one-man operation to somehow contribute. I haven't seen, to my knowledge, any open source projects that dealt with "making a change" as opposed to creating a nice set of icons.

2. Identification is definitely an issue, as I've said. We just don't know what the problems are. As a young person (hopefully still classified as that), I see the problems right in front of me, the 1st-world problems of having trouble finding friends, not knowing how to get into specific hobbies, having trouble remembering my grocery list, budgeting, sending anon hot pics to some stranger etc. Basically stuff that's been solved, and reinvented (though not perfectly) by hundreds of companies. Having been in programming for the past 3 years, I see SOME problems worth solving, but I'm not sure how to approach them.

3. The thing about "meaningful" work is that, there must be a way to do it open source, have people take part in it, contribute and get together on it, and even do it quickly. Not just in the big leagues: healthcare, water etc. No single person can get in on that, and companies that are in it are in it for the long haul. As a developer, i wouldn't want to touch that. It's years of work with potentially no results. Customer-facing stuff can take off right away. My wish is to find a sweet spot.

4. Good point. No idea what those companies are whatsoever. I'd love to read about more companies like that though.

As far as healthcare. I feel like that's a ticking time bomb. There are too many regulations to just jump in, too many slowly moving entities, and too many companies with a high stake in the game to oust you. In the tech field (the tech for the sake of tech), people use each other's ideas and evolve quickly to keep up and better themselves, no matter who they are and without ego (somewhat).

All in all, I wish the problems could be laid out, and people could work on it. I work with education stuff in my day job, and I see the issues, and as part of my job we try to solve the problems. Which is wonderful but it's difficult to identify the problems even if you work with them every day. It's easy to say "shit's broken", it's more difficult to say "here's where it's broken" and even worse to say, "find me a solution, and it'll be fixed".

illini1232• 12 years ago

Interesting perspectives.

To touch on your 3rd point, that is the inherent problem in these industries: the companies are in it for the long-haul. Do they wind up innovating? No. Epic Systems in healthcare is a fabulous example: http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2013/05/15/a-chat...

They code in MUMPS. MUMPS predates C. Yes, you heard me right. The healthcare IT platform that is espoused across the industry is based on what should, for all intents and purposes, be a dead language.

I've taken a bit different approach with some of these industries, and I come from the belief that it's going to require a combination of intellectual partners (like universities and research centers) together with startups to make any sort of meaningful difference.

I'm right now in a niche segment of behavioral health. Funny enough, there is a law that was passed right before the ACA ("Obamacare") that mandates that hospitals put electronic medical records into practice, and over time develop "meaningful use." The big guys have been slow to deliver, the insurance companies want to see change, and the hospitals have to do it for fear of penalty. A lot of people saw disaster, but I saw an opportunity. Over the last several months, I've been working to commercialize some of my research coming out of grad school on this. I was fortunate enough to balance theory and application in school, and this definitely left me jaded towards the SnapChats of the world.

As to your 4th point, that doesn't surprise me at all. I'm Chicago-based, and everyone views the Midwest as a rust belt. I co-led a research initiative that looked at startup activity in the Midwest around ag, health-tech, and advanced manufacturing: http://worldbusinesschicago.com/techcluster

Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but I feel bad that more dev guys just aren't aware of what's out there. It frustrates me so, so much. We glorify things in the industry that we just don't need.

Here is Siebel's talk: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2110

Watch it. He's a horribly boring speaker, but the content spoke to me. It's what convinced me to look for the low-hanging fruit in health-tech. Funny; now that I found a problem that can be addressed (that isn't), and have a defensible business model, bringing on a technical co-founder can be so hard for all the reasons we just named. Ha!

Ask HN: What startups and startup ideas ACTUALLY make a difference in the world?

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