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Ask HN: What would be your new niche?

• ezekg 9y ago
  Outside of tech--I'd like to create a travel-related business to help people travel more often on a budget, or a high-quality coffee box subscription where I send out hand-selected coffee every few weeks (likely from small shops, local roasters, etc.), or start my own micro-brewery.
  • cvaidya1986 9y ago
    Do it
    • ezekg 9y ago
      Working on the travel business with my wife, actually. And then getting into homebrewing more and more lately. We'll see where it all goes. :)
      • cvaidya1986 9y ago
        That's great! I wish you success!
  • gatesn 9y ago
    You should check out Pact Coffee if you’re in the UK: https://www.pactcoffee.com https://www.pactcoffee.com
• startupdiscuss 9y ago
  Making movies, books, comics, or any other form of story telling.
• KaiserPro 9y ago
  Perhaps dive back into VFX, although that's still IT. My next one would be Watch/Clock making. failing that, farming/game keeping.
  • KaiserPro 9y ago
    Or, as money is no object, camp counsellor
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• kyoob 9y ago
  I'd be a comedic actor and try to get on Broadway. I did improv and sketch for years and had some of the happiest times of my life.
• joshmanders 9y ago
  Open a restaurant. If tech didn't take over, I would have gone to school to be a chef instead of a becoming a developer.
• nickwalker 9y ago
  Cardistry! What some of these guys can do is incredible
• PascLeRasc 9y ago
  Live sound production, either touring with a band or at a theater.
• caio1982 9y ago
  Tried to bootstrap a few travel-related ideas since I do have plenty of traveling experience but it seemed the local market wasn't ripe (macro-economically), then I decided to leave IT after 15 years to professionalize the dogs and dog training knowledge my family and I already had since ever and the niche is here and all that, I have a great doggy daycare to run and local buzz etc, but man it's tough. The real world is definitely another beast than IT. I now believe and understand that IT has always been a fantasy land where we all pretend we are awesome but we are just spoiled. The non-IT reality is fucking hard, but it is amazingly rewarding in its own way. I only hope I don't ever need to go back to IT, we'll see...
  • slazaro 9y ago
    How about combining both? Maybe if you think long enough or work long enough in this kind of dog businesses, you'll see opportunities to apply tech to solve some problems. Easier said than done, though...
• TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Funny this shows up today, because I have a half-written blog post about it I meant to publish this week :). I'm actively trying to do exactly that - pivot from IT into something more meaningful. Currently, I'm exploring two areas which were of big interest for me as a hobby: space technology and biotech. My goal is to spend this year exploring options, getting the "lay of the land" and forming a plan of learning new skills, in order to ultimately get a job in one of those industries before 2020. Rationale: both are some of the most potentially impactful fields on the future of humanity. Space Tech: Because I've been dreaming about space exploration since my earliest days on this planet. Because - with the recent accomplishments of the private industry - the time is ripe now to work on bootstrapping an industry in space. I mean manufacturing, asteroid mining, etc. There's lots of work to be done, the momentum is there, and frankly, we're long overdue for all of that. Biotech: because I feel that mastery over molecular nanotechnology would solve half of the issues humanity faces, and biotech seems like the best way to incrementally get there. As I'm fond of saying, nature is advanced molecular nanotech which we didn't design and can't control yet. All of that comes from the desire to work on something actually beneficial to humans (with a good effort/effect ratio), as opposed to cranking out code driving money towards marginally useful businesses. -- For a long time I've been reluctant to talk about it, as it is with desires for grand endeavours. But I am committed now, so if anyone can help me find my bearings around those two spaces, or have some experiences of pivoting there from pure software, I would very appreciate it.
  • ezekg 9y ago
    Oh, what I would do to be able to get the opportunity to do something in the space industry--even in tech. I long to be a part of moving our species to other worlds.
  • mandeepj 9y ago
    Have you tried with Blue Origin? I heard they don't expect you to have background in space
    • sixdimensional 9y ago
      They have a number of jobs open on their website (I was looking), in Kent, WA where their headquarters is!
• mynegation 9y ago
  Rescue or med evac helicopter pilot
• ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
  I want to open a sexually explicit Ice Cream Parlor on the Las Vegas strip. It would just be called "The Split Banana", and all of our ice cream would be frozen in the mold of a penis. A small mold would be 6 inch, Medium = 9 inch, and Large/Monster = a 12 inch mold. And the ice cream flavors would also have really inappropriate but funny names. Suggestions would be appreciated as I haven't done much work there.
  • overcast 9y ago
    Good choice, there's always money in the banana stand.
  • lostcolony 9y ago
    Cocky Road, obviously.
    • potta_coffee 9y ago
      Or "Rocky Chode"
  • thecolorblue 9y ago
    Probably a good idea to throw in some boob molds as well.
  • workthrowaway27 9y ago
    NYC has Big Gay Ice Cream[0]. Sort of similar to what you're describing. They seem pretty successful. I think they've expanded to a few other cities too. [0]: https://www.biggayicecream.com/ https://www.biggayicecream.com/
    • ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
      Thank you for the reference, but we here at The Split Banana believe EVERYONE can enjoy a delicious Ice Cream penis. Not just the gay community.
  • jzig 9y ago
• moltar 9y ago
  * Snow plowing op * Bus driver * Pilot * Brunch resto owner * Teacher * Public speaker * Politician
• mrweasel 9y ago
  Open a store selling beekeeping equipment. I live in an area where that's somewhat under served and I have a lot of experience with online sales so I could broaden my number of potential customers a bit. My wife keeps telling me that the stores we've visited are extremely poor at selling to the extend that they are missing obvious upsells.
• dchuk 9y ago
  Whenever this phase of my career naturally comes to a close, I want to start a chili food truck. One of my bucket list items is to win a chili cook off, so I figured I'd connect that goal with a business itself. I don't know shit about running a food truck, but it seems that a chili truck could be simpler than other types because you don't have to make the food upon ordering, it's all cooked beforehand.
  • caio1982 9y ago
    ...and because it is made beforehand it gets even tastier! I wanna be your costumer.
    • dchuk 9y ago
      I wasn't planning on wearing a costume until your comment but I dig it! In all seriousness, if I ever get to this goal, I will follow up with you.
• sixdimensional 9y ago
  I say this half seriously: start a business helping people in IT make career transitions, as a career advisor/matchmaker with opportunities. People with IT/IS backgrounds are usually quite broadly capable people, generally speaking. Actually, I think enabling and giving all kinds of people space, support and ability to explore pivots and opportunities sounds kind of awesome.
  • caio1982 9y ago
    That is a fantastic idea. The only caveat might be you becoming a sort of startup guru full of words but lacking real experience pivoting your own career.
  • Omnius 9y ago
    That would be a pretty awesome non-profit.
  • michaelbrave 9y ago
    all of my best ideas are always given half seriously, those are the ideas worth listening to.
• MrQuincle 9y ago
  Mass production of lab-grown meat.
• dh-g 9y ago
  Automated, locally sourced, compact restaurant to provide low cost meals.
  • thecolorblue 9y ago
    I would be interested to hear about your plans for this. I have been thinking about starting small hydroponic farms to provide local food to restaurants. Email is in my profile if you are interested in trading notes.
    • dh-g 9y ago
      I'm not far enough along to have much interesting to say yet. Your idea reminds me of a company I like in Montreal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trl2eE-kVGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trl2eE-kVGM
  • kiliantics 9y ago
    I was going to say I'd like to do something like this. In addition to being very low cost and highly automated, I'd also want to make it environmentally sustainable by making it vegan or entomophagous. I'd also like it to be economically sustainable by making it a worker co-op.
• RussianCow 9y ago
  Open a bar and/or distillery and/or winery. I'm very interested in mixology, and there is a lot of interesting stuff happening with alcohol right now at the intersection of modern science and centuries-old traditions. Some ideas: * Open a place that's a juice bar by day, and a regular bar by night. Focus on using fresh, seasonal ingredients for all drinks. * Experiment with using fruits other than grapes for wine-making. Some fruits, like blueberries, have many of the same properties as grapes, so it would be interesting to see what sort of beverages you could make by fermenting them. * Same thing with distilled spirits: There is so much untapped territory here because most distilleries use ancient, traditional methods, with maybe only one or two variations from the norm. I would experiment with everything from ingredients to techniques, including using different types of wood than oak for aging, and pressurized aging to accelerate the process.
• overcast 9y ago
  Two years ago, I began a transition to a more hybrid niche. Food/Cocktail promotion, which involves my photography, and web development skillsets. Spent the first 1.5 years, working on all of the relationships with bartenders/restaurateurs/chefs, promoting their work through instagram and the web. Becoming the largest promoter in the area. Now I'm ready to start rolling out the second phase, involving web software. So while not totally out of IT, I've definitely branched into something much more enjoyable. Eating delicious, meeting tons of new people, has been rewarding.
• joncrane 9y ago
  I'd move into politics or teaching. Something that would improve my country (the USA). Maybe lobby for increased education standards, more pay for teachers, that kind of thing.
• adventured 9y ago
  CRISPR (cas9, cpf1 et al), hands down. What it can do, what it's likely to do, and we're only in the first inning of understanding how to utilize it and manipulate it. I believe vaccines are the only medical discovery/creation that will end up being comparable in impact on humanity. CRISPR will enable us to directly, fully seize control over our evolution (we've obviously been subtly affecting that for thousands of years). It'll take a process spanning decades for the most remarkable applications to be discovered and commercialized (or otherwise made available for the general population), and it'll be worth the wait. We'll gradually strip countless inherited diseases from the entire human race in the span of a few generations. Breast cancer? 99.7% wiped out. Parkinson's inheritance? Gone. Cystic fibrosis? Gone. The age of antibiotic resistant infections? CRISPR will solve that soon as well. And so on. As with vaccinations, there will be numerous CRISPR therapies/cures/applications that will be extraordinarily cheap, pennies per person, and deployed to all persons on earth (as with vaccines, it'll take decades of gradual generic'ization, initially all therapies will be expensive, then many will become common, and then they'll be globally deployed for pennies per person).
  • stefanpie 9y ago
    I've always found biology and medicine research to be a great pivot for people in technology and programming because of the similarities in the mindset used when approaching a problem. For example, alot of bio and med research is looking at complex pathways and interconnected systems and seeing how we can go into different points and add, remove, or change things and how we can interfere with these systems in a controlled way. Software engineers have to similar tasks because they work on large interconnected systems as well and understand different protocols. Penetration testers and security experts also fit this comparison well because they have to try different approaches at different points in a system to gain access or control of a system the same way biology and medicine researchers have to find different ways to interfere with a system to develop a new drug to inhibit a pathway or change the expression of certain proteins. I feel as if crisper / cas9 is a great example for this comparison because researchers are still exploring the many different possible things can do with the same way people in technology explore new tech and apply it to new problems.
• toyg 9y ago
  Archaeology. Technological advances in mapmaking, map-parsing and surveying (drones) are leading to a golden age in excavation, on a level unseen since the XIX century. They now have software that can literally just sit there spouting suggestions all day: “hey, this pattern around fields in Nolandia-sur-nothing looks a bit too regular, wanna investigate?” And there is still so much that can be done, as digitalization is solving the “dusty archives” problem and neural networks might soon be able to suggest links between material (“this parchment fragment here might be related to that fragment in a museum on the other side of he world, which they’ve even forgot they had”). Unfortunately the obstacle is always the same: money. There is little or no money to be made digging up old vases, and often plenty to actually forget about the vases altogether and let this or that new building be constructed on top of them (or destroying them).
• SatvikBeri 9y ago
  If money weren't a concern, I'd definitely want to work on improving science, particularly social science. Right now, there seems to be a lot of medium-hanging fruit for systematic improvements that don't get built, because there's not much incentive to do so within academia. OSF has done some great work here, and I'd want to start something similar .
  • workthrowaway27 9y ago
    Over the holidays I met my brother's GF's granddad, who is an economist. He said one of the biggest problems he sees in the social sciences is that the tools they have for data analysis (he specifically mentioned Stata, SAS, and SPSS) make it hard to keep track of what transforms you've made to the data, so people get results and then can't reproduce them because they don't remember what sequence of operations they've performed. Related to this, he said most social science people aren't good programmers which hurts their ability to understand their data. So I think you're right, although I suspect it'll be hard to get people to switch to anything new since they already know how to use tools that let them get their work done.
    • sanderjd 9y ago
      This sounds like a generational thing. I suspect there are up-and-comers who are hungry to be better programmers, and are interested in the abundant better tools. So maybe the problem to solve isn't so much getting people to switch tools as aiding education and discovery for people who don't yet know what tools to use. Edit to add: I know a couple folks with backgrounds in statistics. One of them taught a data visualization class using R during his postdoc and is now teaching data science in Python for a code school. The other works for a big established company that does lots of data analysis, and still uses one of the old-school tools you listed, but is always very interested when we chat about the newer tools that are out there. So I think it's a mistake to think most folks are stuck in their ways.
• ninjakeyboard 9y ago
  I just want to write music. Here is my stuff but I do it 100% for fun only. https://soundcloud.com/decklyn/tracks https://soundcloud.com/decklyn/tracks
• Radim 9y ago
  Stone age & early bronze age history, archeology, anthropology. I find the genesis of storytelling, religion and how we conceptualize the world fascinating, even (especially?) where it comes in tiny fragments. Things that are so deep-rooted now that we take them for granted, like perceiving the world through discrete objects, language, social reward structures. As the evolutionary rat-race accelerates and niches get obsoleted more and more quickly, there seems to be an increasing business opportunity in digging deeper into what makes us human, what defines our sense of "self". Facebook, Zynga & co already exploit that. Understanding these patterns has tremendous business value, even if only to better protect ourselves. What tunes do we dance to? How were these rivers historically formed, what is their inertia, future direction? How much of ourselves is cargo-culting on by-gone fitness landscapes? Humanity is the collector's luxury item of the future.
• jaimefjorge 9y ago
  I would think of opening a 6 seat (for 3 couples) BBQ place in Europe (Portugal). I would slow cook and smoke the finest meats and allow for Europeans to taste the amazingness that is US southern comfort food. I would make it so delicious that together with low supply of seats I would be able to charge significantly.
  • caio1982 9y ago
    A random guy just opened a place like that one year ago a few blocks from my house (southern Brazil, where a good barbecue/churrasco/assado is always looked for). The place seems a big success, go for it.
  • conductr 9y ago
    Sounds awesome, I'm a BBQ fiend. Why Portugal?
• jzymbaluk 9y ago
  I'm still early in my IT/programming career (working my first job after graduating college in 2017), so it might be a little early to start seriously thinking about pivoting just yet, but I'm really interested in the intersection of technology and urban planning/city administration. I'm an urbanist, fascinated and enchanted by the concept of cities in the abstract, and I want to see the rise of more great American cities in the 21st century. I want to see current great cities become more accessible, and all cities become more attractive to not only other urbanites, but suburbanites and rural people also. I'm not really sure what the best way to follow this dream is, but I'd definitely appreciate any input or advice from anyone out there :)
  • workthrowaway27 9y ago
    The Power Broker is a great book about Robert Moses, a very influential city planner in NYC. The book shows how much of planning is politics. Just look at how much trouble San Francisco has and you'll see that the problem isn't lack of ideas or lack of money. This is also a great blog that frequently discusses urban planning themes: https://granolashotgun.com/ https://granolashotgun.com/
    • jzymbaluk 9y ago
      Funny you should mention The Power Broker, I got the audiobook through Audible in December, and I'm about 16 hours in (only about a quarter of the way through!). I think it's interesting how the book wants to portray him as a power-hungry evil emperor type. He was definitely power-hungry, but I don't know if I agree on the evil characterization. It seems like he did a lot of good for the city, and it's tough to imagine what NYC would be like if someone like Robert Moses hadn't been able to relentlessly modernize the way he did. Thanks for the blog recommendation!
• kabdib 9y ago
  Start a Science Fiction bookstore. [... completely ignoring the "possible income decrease" here... :-/]
• acconrad 9y ago
  I think if I were born in a different era I'd end up as an architect. I see it as much of a science as I do a creative endeavor, and it feels like the closest parallel the web development work I do.
• walshemj 9y ago
  Thought about his a while back going back to my original college course (Themofluids) and did a spec application to a small mech engineering firm near me RBR Racing and Hybrid Air Vehicles out at Cardington. Oh BTW the first one is the F1 team and the second is a firm specializing in Airships
• iain_r 9y ago
  I have always like the idea of making wooden furniture. Different tables, chairs, cabinets, etc. Having a small custom furniture shop would be cool.
• ryanchants 9y ago
  I'd like to start a nonprofit that takes donated/damaged camping equipment and refit it for homeless and others in need of just keeping the elements at bay.
• Toast_25 9y ago
  Mycology, more specifically work on strains of edible mushrooms to clean up the environment. Paul Stamets has shown that certain variations of P. Ostreatus can be used for cleaning up oil spills and that certain fungi concentrates heavy metals, indicating it could be used to clean up said metals. Unfortunately he's patented a lot of his research[1] and I don't really know my way around patent law enough to risk finding out if a company dedicated to applying these technologies could get me sued. [1] https://patents.justia.com/inventor/paul-stamets https://patents.justia.com/inventor/paul-stamets
  • twobyfour 9y ago
    What would you do with the mushrooms, though? Presumably one wouldn't want to eat them once they'd absorbed a bunch of heavy metals, right?
    • Toast_25 9y ago
      Safely dispose of them. Neither would be safe to consume, but would help clean up the environment a great deal. The (not-thoroughly considered) business model would be to restore land enough to make it usable again for crops or livestock. This might be more difficult to do for heavy metals than petroleum.
      • twobyfour 9y ago
        What methods exist for safe disposal of heavy metals?
        • Toast_25 9y ago
          No clue mate. I haven't given this business idea enough thought to be honest.
          • twobyfour 9y ago
            Fair enough. I'm just curious.
• omar12 9y ago
  A yoga studio/dance music lounge.
• mod 9y ago
  I would work with my hands. The most exciting thing would be getting out of a chair. IT has hurt my body. I do love creating things, though, so I would ideally be building original creations (I don't want to be a framer or service mechanic). So some kind of craftsman. More realistically, I would create a business that could create value on-site, but dealt with customers on the internet. So ebay, etsy, etc. I understand building customer bases on the internet far better than I understand it in real life, and I also live in a low population area. Most specifically, and ignoring income decreases, I would like to do some kind of old-timey craft. Woodwork, leatherwork, blacksmithing. Leatherwork in particular is quiet, relaxing, and doesn't need a particularly large area or set of tools, and I'm totally fascinated with handmade leather products. I would need a standing workbench, though!
  • sogen 9y ago
    Go, Do anything, it’s great. I’ve done painting woodworking, soldering circuits , and ‘hacking’ some furniture, it feels great.
    • mod 9y ago
      Yep, I have a shop and I get a fair amount of stuff done (when it's warm in there!), but not professionally at all. Still spend my days in this chair.
• nunez 9y ago
  Either something regarding commodities trading or aviation/aerospace
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• oceanghost 9y ago
  Pinball. I love pinball. I'd modernize the machines. Even brand new titles the technology is very old school. I have some ideas to reduce / eliminate most of the wiring in the system and thus the cost / complexity. Also, I'd finish my fking novel.
• RickJWag 9y ago
  I'd spend the extra time and go through Med school.
• jabl 9y ago
  Wooden boat building. I love to work with my hands, wood is pleasant to work with, and wooden yachts are a beauty to behold. That being said, I realize the above has 0% of being a commercial success. The market is flooded with affordable plastic-fantastics churned out in factories in nearby lower income countries. Also, I suppose it's one thing to enjoy working with my hands when I do it for my own enjoyment in my spare time vs. doing it for real work on a deadline. Sigh.
• rayalez 9y ago
  If there are literally no restrictions - robotics, space, or biotech. If I wouldn't care about the meaning and amount of value I produce - screenwriter or standup comedian. If I would optimize for pure fun - computer graphics and digital art. Although to be honest, I think being a startup founder is the coolest thing I can imagine being, so I would keep working on startups, except I'd build a startup in a more advanced, hard tech field, instead of SaaS.
• AlexAmee 9y ago
  Since I can think I've always loved the idea of changing the source code of life, I also never understood why we don't regrow body parts once we have lost them. From a nature standpoint of view, nature does not care about the single individual as long as the species survives. I don't like that behaviour. Imagine a caveman who lost his arm in a fight with some animal. It just takes more energy to regrow parts and the caveman would be vulnerable all the time so nature decided to take that awesome feature away. What nature does not realise is, that we now have the time to regrow body parts, there is no danger anymore, somebody who lost a leg can recover in a hospital. And I'm 99% certain that we will regrow body parts in the next 15-20 years and I'd love to be a part of that revolution. CRISP is another big thing that has the potential to cure diseases, those we call incurable. All those facts and the possibilities of extending the human race makes me very excited. So my niche would be Biochemistry, I choose that field because I think Biochemistry is the C and Assembly language of the human body.
• vinrob92 9y ago
  I would go for real estate :) (I had some experience in it before founding my current company and there is a lot of innovation to be made)