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Ask HN: How are you changing the world with your startup?
Just curious. Feeling kind of disillusioned with all these headlines about things that don't really matter for the sake of human progress. Anyone can answer this question, even if you are just at the idea stage.
BTW: I'm not saying startups don't do anything for progress, just seeing so many startups doing something just to make a buck before the 'bubble' that everyone is concerned about.
- kickme444 16y agoOur startup is http://redditgifts.com http://redditgifts.com - we are hoping to inspire people to be kind and think about the giving before the receiving. We hope to expand our project to other charitable (if even between 2 people) avenues. In our first year of operation we have proven that this works, can scale and can provide revenue as well as good will!
- nreece 16y agoI think almost all startups do social welfare by providing employment and paying their taxs. Some startups go further and have a bigger impact, be it with innovation, streamlining some conventional processes (e.g. cutting out the middle-man, e-commerce etc.), or by discovering a new paradigm in environmental science, human communication, entertainment etc.
- avree 16y agoOur startup, www.getaround.com , is trying to tackle the challenge of the spread (and inefficiency) of the automobile. The concept is called peer-to-peer car sharing, and is kind of a mix of Zipcar and eBay. We let car owners put their cars up for rent when the cars are normally sitting idle. We've created our own in-house hardware that allows for unlocking/tracking/monitoring of cars via smartphone or the web, and negotiated a custom insurance policy that lets us insure each vehicle in our system with a $1 million policy. The entire platform is designed to allow complete control of your car. Owners set the price they want to charge/hour. They can choose to offer special daily pricing or weekly. It's been pretty interesting so far.
- rblion 16y agofascinating. it's better to be a part of the cure than the cancer. :)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- MrFlibble 16y agoGreat idea, like giving a community powered twist to the car-share companies out there. This could be especially great for people who lost jobs & no longer need to commute... why not generate income from the otherwise idle car? Best of luck!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- GregBuchholz 16y agoIf by startup we mean "runs off of venture capital", and by "my startup" we mean "place where I work", then I'll answer: High efficiency heat engines. The current focus of our technology is turning sunlight into electricity, but there is lots of potential in other areas like residential heating and cooling. http://infiniacorp.com/ http://infiniacorp.com/
- badkins 16y agoOur startup, lightpointsecurity.com is building software to make it virtually impossible to be exposed to malware while web browsing.
- Mankhool 16y agoEnabling anyone with a smartphone - whether an individual in New York, or a village in Nigeria, to earn revenue based on geo-location.
- kongqiu 16y agoAt ParkGrades.com, we're making it easier than ever to find a great nearby park, no matter where you may be.
- WillyF 16y agoI'm helping to put college students and grads into jobs and internships that they never would have found without http://www.onedayonejob.com/ http://www.onedayonejob.com/ and http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/ http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/
- huuleon 16y agoOur startup is helping people buy and sell with video. People can enjoy watching video listings without leaving the comfort of their homes. http://www.123exchanges.com http://www.123exchanges.com
- joshu 16y agoWe're trying to build a way to help everyone do everything. Also, we're hiring.
- bluecobalt 16y agoWe're soon launching an alternate reality role playing game to inspire players to make positive changes in their lives and help create a better world. http://childrenofthestars.com http://childrenofthestars.com
- rblion 16y agogreat idea, this could be a really big deal. best of luck!
- MrFlibble 16y agoOur goal is helping the unemployed and the underemployed make ends meet with jobs ranging from full-time to just a few hours. I'm also designing for users to interact directly, creating local and truly small scale jobs. Lots more to it, but the primary theme is helping people find work of all kinds, not just Monster/freelancer-type stuff. Of course as a non-technical founder I've been relying on a few project manager friends for input but will soon need to hire someone well versed in back-end architecture and site flow/design to consult during the hacker hiring phase as we get underway. I know what I need (I've wireframed most of the site already) but not what skills are needed to actually code it. Sigh. On a "making the world a better place for our team" level, we're setting up shop down in Venice Beach. Yay quality of life.
- rblion 16y agogreat ambition, you will realize it in time. Best of luck!
- mahipal 16y agoMy startup http://brainracer.com http://brainracer.com is very early-stage, but we're tackling the difficult problem of keeping young kids interested in math. The math education system (especially in the US) tends to be soul-crushing, and it focuses more on repetition rather than intuition. Our first app is guilty of being a little bit repetitive also, but it uses social game mechanics and spaced repetition to make learning arithmetic as painless as possible. Hopefully, it will validate the idea of social math games and create some cashflow. I'm already looking forwarding to the next game we'll build on the iPad -- because of the touch UI, I think it's a perfect medium for exploratory learning.
- rblion 16y agogreat idea! Science and math are where this generation is so far behind, it's just sad how much this is going to hurt us until we fix this.
- keiferski 16y agoWe're working to solve a problem that virtually all businesses face and doesn't have a real solution. Other than that, I'm in stealth mode, sorry. :)
- kodeshpa 16y agoMaking social life easier- Explore Twitter, Facebook at quick glance with my startup. Let’s meet Dawg, your new friend. Simple application making social life easier than ever before. Now you can seamlessly connect your social life at Facebook and Twitter in one place. Get updates on the go, and glance over them - even if you get disconnected from the Internet! Dawg helps you stay social with your tweets, updates, photos and videos in a single application. Let's gear up to explore your social network easy way with Dawg. More details: http://bit.ly/fnfLOb http://bit.ly/fnfLOb Download app from : http://bit.ly/gakCmT http://bit.ly/gakCmT
- lovskogen 16y agoSounds more meta than changing the world, sorry. Twitter and FB are the ones making social life easier.
- publishedin 16y agoWe are in early Beta, and noticed that our USP is not getting through very well, instead we took notice that our solution offers a way to decrease the use of ads on the internet. So we are thinking to change our USP to something like: "The End of Advertising" For web publishers: Make money without ads. For businesses: Drive quality traffic for life, and improve your search engine rankings without writing a single ad. http://publishedin.com http://publishedin.com What do you think?
- rblion 16y agoimpressive. Content is definitely better than ads. It educates the customer while allowing them to speak freely. Best of luck to you and your team!
- SoWink 16y agoOur start up will effectively change the future of Social Online Dating. We'll be taking the current outdated approach to Online Dating/Matchmaking and upgrading it to keep up with current social market trends. We're currently developing Beta, feel free to take a look at our landing page and offer any feedback, http://www.sowink.com http://www.sowink.com