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Free startup ideas! Get your free startup ideas here! Taking the first ten, for example: # lose weight 37862 people - dieting website - exercise website # s
by mstevens 16y ago
Free startup ideas! Get your free startup ideas here!
Taking the first ten, for example:
# lose weight 37862 people
- dieting website
- exercise website
# stop procrastinating 27741 people
- 8aweek
- rescuetime
- leechblock
- your-own-twist
- iPhone app with random advice on meditation and focus.
# write a book 27115 people
- writer's editor.
- A way to make money off content without publishers
# Fall in love 25192 people
- dating website
# be happy 22707 people
# Get a tattoo 20911 people
- tattoo directory!
- Design-your-tattoo online, and book with our range of licensed artists
# drink more water 19639 people
- Subscribe to bottled water deliveries online!
# get married 19348 people
- Dating website
- Wedding organiser
# travel the world 19122 people
- travel tips
- low cost online travel agency
# go on a road trip with no predetermined destination 19098 people
- Worldwide mobile phone packages
- Post-to-email service
- travel tips again
etc etc
- brown9-2 16y ago# lose weight 37862 people - dieting website - exercise website aren't there about a million of these?
- RyanMcGreal 16y agoYes, and they're not working. That's a great opportunity to build something that does work!
- startuprules 16y agoWhat makes you think all of them aren't working?
- mstevens 16y agoWell maybe they work a little, but the number of fat people I see every day (starting with myself in the mirror) suggests they could work better.
- startuprules 16y agomstevens: I would hazard that most people are fat because of their economic condition. That is, they can only afford cheap foods, which are mostly fatty.
- hugh3 16y agoI keep hearing this, and I keep thinking it's complete BS. I would be quite happy to show you plenty of fat folks with above-average incomes. In fact I'm sure I could find a bunch of them on this board.
- graywh 16y agoHistorically and for most of the world's population, your economic condition would prevent you from being fat. Poor in the US are so well-off, they can afford to be overweight.
- lsc 16y agoAll the offices I've worked in here in America, probably more than half (myself included) of the overpaid nerds were overweight. Sure if you go to the marketing department, that's probably not the case, but that's just because marketing won't hire you if you aren't pretty. We're not so picky over here in Engineering. Eating healthy does take time and effort and some knowledge, but it doesn't take that much money. Assuming you have access to a stove, healthy food can be had for cheap. Chicken? cheap. rice and beans? cheap. Vegetables? yeah, those are pretty cheap too.
- tomjen3 16y agoBecause if they were, people wouldn't get so fat? Whomever figures out how to make people want to loose weight, rather than convince them they should force themselves to loose weight are going to make a fortune.
- run4yourlives 16y agoThat's because they're not designed to work, they're designed to confirm to what people think will work. Losing weight is not a mystery: Take less calories in than you burn and you will lose weight (simple, but 99% effective). To do this you need to eat healthy foods and get active. People don't want to do this. People want to eat crappy foods and sit around watching Grey's Anatomy (#93) and lose weight.
- jcl 16y ago# kiss in the rain - Weather forecast - waterproof lip gloss catalog Seriously, I'm surprised this one very specific goal ranks so highly. I guess I'm in the wrong demographic to understand it. But is there some pop culture thing that makes this more popular than, say, "live passionately"?
- hugh3 16y agoMy guess is that most of the people who added it to their goals had never thought about it until they saw that it was a popular goal, but they thought "ooh, that sounds romantic" and added it. It's just one of those random runaway successes. On the upside, unlike "live passionately" it's relatively easy (desert dwellers and the terminally dateless excluded) and well-defined, so you know for sure when you've achieved it.
- suckafree 16y agoNice list, but most of these are low hanging fruit and are already saturated with established players. The riches are still in the niches. Example: instead of losing weight, I'd focus on helping people gain weight. It's a much smaller market, but there are lots of skinny guys wanting to gain weight in a healthy way (me included).
- hugh3 16y agoSure, there's existing solutions for most of these, but they don't actually work very well. Weight-loss websites aren't all that good at helping people lose weight and keep it off. Dating websites aren't all that good at helping people fall in love. And nothing is good at helping people to stop procrastinating. If you can actually make something that works then the market is all yours. (Not all of 'em though; I admit things like "travel website" are pretty saturated at the moment.)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- rbonvall 16y ago> nothing is good at helping people to stop procrastinating Maybe the golden idea is to help people to stop feeling bad about procrastinating :P
- mattiss 16y agoLift heavy weights. Eat as much as you can stomach, then eat some more. It isn't rocket science. Seriously just eat 5 huge meals a day and a protein shake before and after you workout. You will put on muscle like nobody's business. It's also the ONLY way to do it...
- lawn 16y agoIf it really was this simple as with loosing weight (basically eat less and workout right?) then all dieting courses, pills, books and so on wouldn't sell. But they do and that's why this would sell too.
- bemmu 16y agoWe could try and combine some ideas. So how about... Lose weight + get a tattoo = a tattoo which you get that is hidden under your love handles, motivating you to lose them Write a book + fall in love = a dating site where users instead of writing boring messages, write a love story together Lose weight + drink more water = A cup that lists the calories and health negatives of different drinks, with water in big happy letters with ZERO calories and no negatives
- duck 16y agoAlthough I am sure some bright people here on HN are already working on one or more of the above, these seem pretty saturated already. Maybe the best startups are the ones that solve things for people that they don't even know is a goal yet.
- mstevens 16y agoThe problem with solving problems people don't know they have is that you have to sell the problem before you sell the solution. I was more inspired by Paul's post today and recent personal musings on the vast supply of ideas floating around the place. My personal pet notion is doing webmail better than google, which I occasionally scribble down random ideas for.
- drtse4 16y agoI was thinking about this in the other direction for books, this explains why weight loss/self improvement/etc... books sell so well.
- nandemo 16y ago"drink more water" This is the most puzzling one for me. How can this even be a goal? Are all those people chronically dehydrated? Perhaps they drink soft drinks instead of water? Is it a North American thing? Mysteries...
- brown9-2 16y agoMost fitness or nutrition guides tell people that they should be drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Considering that the #1 goal is to lose weight, it follows that people listing "drink more water" as one of their goals are doing it as a part of wanting to lose weight.
- scotty79 16y agoThis is probably associated with the 'loose weight' theme. It means: "Drink water instead of coke or some other sugary drink."
- city41 16y agoMaybe it is an American thing (I'm American). I've had to very consciously switch my drinking habits from diet soda over to water. I used to literally not drink any water at all.
- ntoshev 16y agoI think drinking 2-3 liters of water per day (~100 ounces?) is seen as beneficial for the health. People usually don't drink that much because they don't feel thirsty, but they would like to. I don't live in the US so I don't know what I'm talking about.
- tyn 16y agoThe widely accepted notion that we should drink 8 glasses of water per day is apparently an urban legent http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp
- carbocation 16y ago
- dabent 16y agoThe three big things are health, wealth, relationships - Health WebMD, diet sites, probably others I can't think of. Snake oil. Oh, the internet is dripping with snake oil - Wealth/Career Careers at LinkedIn, The Ladders, Indeed and many more Wealth in eBay stores, Etsy, heck even Adsense More wealth in Motley Fool, ScottTrade, etc. That even goes into affiliate marketing, make $$$ online scams, etc. - Relationships Facebook, MySpace Match, eHarmony, etc.
- run4yourlives 16y agoThere's a much easier market than those: #93 - Watch Grey's Anatomy - An online Grey's Anatomy episode streamer and forum. This is the road to millions.