Accelerating sustainable startups w/ a list of problems

19 points by edwardog 14 years ago | 3 comments

Is there a maintained list of market-researched problems that exist in non-web-centric industries?

I’d love to see more web-based startups attack problems that businesses in industries like farming and forestry face instead of making more todo list phone apps.

Do lists like these exist? It’d be so awesome to point energetic students at something like this that came with librarians and domain experts to lead them on the right path to skipping having to wait to be inspired and hit with a knowingly-profitable/sustainable startup idea.

X4 14 years ago |

Hi Edward,

I've asked myself the same question. My approach was data-driven and similar to what @sitkack recommends you.

I really like that people like you exist and ask questions like that. The only way to a better world imho.

I dislike @waxy's idea, because by putting a registration barrier he locks ideas. I've the picture of a kobold hiding a sack of gold, hehe =) Don't get me wrong, it's fun.

However, I was thinking that when I get enough data I can use prediction algorithms for future trends, add a list of common problems to the fields to be resolved. Then it should be possible to solve it using algorithms and input of people only. Those people would be the modifier for the algorithm, by telling their location specific problem with a question/answer game.

It should be possible to solve loghoritmically. You could ask people questions, similar to the iphone game that guesses which artist you think of by asking questions. log(2) 100 ~=7 (yes/no)

It could use Google-Trends/Google Prediction API or the new startup that google bought to forecast future trends.

I've chosen my last idea using that method. But I haven't written the algorithm down yet, so I followed it manually..

But the best way is to just go into a company and ask the CEO/Engineer/Developer/Worker questions and do so for as many componies as possible. Process that information into clean datasets and you can start to work with that. That's Business Intelligence.

hope it doesn't sound too mad. If so, just forgot what you read. :P

waxy 14 years ago |

We were trying to build one at http://startups.org/ideas.html, it's been going interesting i might say especially as everything that was added up till now was pure viral. We hope to see busier days though, we really want to do something good for the community out of it.

sitkack 14 years ago |

Take the list of new YC companies and extrapolate what PG thinks is important. Might not have any bearing on reality, these startups are designed to get flipped so the goals of YC are different the larger body.