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The funny thing is that at least people back then dreamed big, even if it turned out to be stupid after the fact. Now people just chase after social graph and

The funny thing is that at least people back then dreamed big, even if it turned out to be stupid after the fact. Now people just chase after social graph and all try to make money off it in some way or another. Can anyone point me to a startup doing something cool that has he potential to change the world?

jedberg 17y ago
> Can anyone point me to a startup doing something cool that has he potential to change the world? As cliche as it is to say it -- Facebook. Actually, they have already changed the world. How so? I graduated high school in 1995. At the time, a few people had email, but we didn't really use it to stay in touch. When we graduated and went to different colleges, we pretty much lost touch. We might see these people during break, but I stopped going home at break. I've reconnected with a whole bunch of high school friends thanks to Facebook. And you know what? When you talk to kids that are graduating now, they don't identify loosing touch with their friends as a problem. Even if they go to different schools, they just check out Facebook, and they are all caught up. When they go home for break, they just pick up where they left off on Facebook the day before.
- greenlblue 17y ago
  Not so sure about that. Online contact is way different from face to face contact and I don't know about you but when you have 200+ people on your friends list it turns into a different kind of social game than when you are hanging out with 3 of your best friends at the local pub.
patio11 17y ago
change the world? For definitions of "change the world" which include "Will solve boring problems for entire industries" I'm thinking Twilio. Every time I hear folks rhapsodic about the possibilities of the mobile Internet I think "Eh, it is going to be a decade or two until that hits folks who are not Valley types" and then Twilio was like "Hey guys, every phone capable of receiving voice calls now speaks HTTP. Go remake a billion dollar industry."
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
loganfrederick 17y ago
Square. They're one of the most promising startups with a huge potential to change interpersonal commerce.
Eliezer 17y ago
Livly. Trying to cure cancer. http://www.livly.org/ http://www.livly.org/
- necrecious 17y ago
  Cancer research is definitely a worthy goal, but how is livly different from all the other cancer research institutes? One website I wish exists is one that lists all of the problems in the world with historical data to dig deeper into, such as number of people affected, amount of money spend to combat the issue. That way it is easy to see how big of a problem something really is and if spending more money on it will make a difference.
  - kls 17y ago
    This is a great idea having disparate data aggregated in one place would allow data that was collected for one study to be used in unforeseen ways to make entirely new correlations in data.
  - healthystealthy 17y ago
    One difference with Livly is the type of research being done - harnessing the innate immune system to develop a true cure, as opposed to developing a vaccine or a way to marginally increase the lifespan of someone with cancer, for example. A lot of money has been spent on cancer research... The NIH estimates over $157 billion, and that was in 2002. There has been little progress. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=cmed6&part=A19480 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=cmed6&#38... It's not simple enough to say that spending more on cancer will result in the same amount of progress. A little can go a long way in the right hands. That is the case with Livly. It's a self-funded startup focused on a cure, not on being published or getting publicity.

jedberg 17y ago

> Can anyone point me to a startup doing something cool that has he potential to change the world? As cliche as it is to say it -- Facebook. Actually, they have already changed the world. How so? I graduated high school in 1995. At the time, a few people had email, but we didn't really use it to stay in touch. When we graduated and went to different colleges, we pretty much lost touch. We might see these people during break, but I stopped going home at break. I've reconnected with a whole bunch of high school friends thanks to Facebook. And you know what? When you talk to kids that are graduating now, they don't identify loosing touch with their friends as a problem. Even if they go to different schools, they just check out Facebook, and they are all caught up. When they go home for break, they just pick up where they left off on Facebook the day before.

greenlblue 17y ago
Not so sure about that. Online contact is way different from face to face contact and I don't know about you but when you have 200+ people on your friends list it turns into a different kind of social game than when you are hanging out with 3 of your best friends at the local pub.

patio11 17y ago

change the world? For definitions of "change the world" which include "Will solve boring problems for entire industries" I'm thinking Twilio. Every time I hear folks rhapsodic about the possibilities of the mobile Internet I think "Eh, it is going to be a decade or two until that hits folks who are not Valley types" and then Twilio was like "Hey guys, every phone capable of receiving voice calls now speaks HTTP. Go remake a billion dollar industry."

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

loganfrederick 17y ago

Square. They're one of the most promising startups with a huge potential to change interpersonal commerce.

Eliezer 17y ago

Livly. Trying to cure cancer. http://www.livly.org/ http://www.livly.org/

necrecious 17y ago
Cancer research is definitely a worthy goal, but how is livly different from all the other cancer research institutes? One website I wish exists is one that lists all of the problems in the world with historical data to dig deeper into, such as number of people affected, amount of money spend to combat the issue. That way it is easy to see how big of a problem something really is and if spending more money on it will make a difference.
- kls 17y ago
  This is a great idea having disparate data aggregated in one place would allow data that was collected for one study to be used in unforeseen ways to make entirely new correlations in data.
- healthystealthy 17y ago
  One difference with Livly is the type of research being done - harnessing the innate immune system to develop a true cure, as opposed to developing a vaccine or a way to marginally increase the lifespan of someone with cancer, for example. A lot of money has been spent on cancer research... The NIH estimates over $157 billion, and that was in 2002. There has been little progress. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=cmed6&part=A19480 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=cmed6&#38... It's not simple enough to say that spending more on cancer will result in the same amount of progress. A little can go a long way in the right hands. That is the case with Livly. It's a self-funded startup focused on a cure, not on being published or getting publicity.