I seem to get a new great idea every time I drink a beer. That's what I want to tell friends every time they come to me with a "great idea" I should implement (as business partners, of course).
That said, I still love hearing people's ideas. Just don't expect me to act on it.
I'm sure a lot of people here have a lot of ideas. But there is a big difference between "an idea" and "a good idea".
I have a lot of ideas too, but I often find a rather critical flaw somewhere sooner or later, or I fall out of love with the idea because in the end... it wasn't that good.
Finding a truly good idea, one that still stands after weeks of simmering, that looks good under all angles (product is actually buildable, the customers are there and reachable and willing to pay, you're not likely to have to compete with the Googles of the world, etc..) doesn't happen all the time. Discovering a hole in a market, and realizing a lot of people are walking right past a gold mine that you believe is there is something you may want to keep close to your chest. Especially when you're talking to other entrepreneurs.
Few random ideas, rewritten from my ideas.org file in a personal Wiki. Enjoy:
- wireless VGA adapter - one part plugs into a VGA port of your laptop, other into the display, and you can work on a second screen (or a projector) while sitting with a laptop on a couch, and you don't have to care about the display cable.
- multi-way TODO sync - a set of open-source converters of TODO lists and associated service. Open source mostly so that one person don't have to write them all, and could instead crowdsource the project. Converters would most likely have to utilize an intermediate format, e.g. one module would convert from Due Today to the common format, and another from common format to, say, Emacs .org files. Motivation: this way I could use Org Mode on my computer, Due Today on my phone, Outlook at work, etc. etd.
Sorta compared to the vga adapter idea, I'd like to see the pcweasel updated to the now. HDMI, usb (mouse,keyboard,storage) all over HTML5. Make it a hundred bucks and I will buy 10.
TODO sync is good, make is a service on heroku, ec2, etc.
The sims editor should allow you to put your own face on it. have it painted by someone in vietnam.
1. An app for helping freelancers estimate their income taxes. It takes their "estimated" income for the year (ideally a slightly low estimate) and then they record each invoice/payment. It tells them how much to set aside from each for income taxes at the end of the year considering their local tax rules. I'd kill for this if it was super simple to use and erred on the side of caution with amounts (I'd rather have too much set aside then too little). I'd like to actually implement this one myself if I ever get time.
2. Custom ready meals. Design and order customized microwavable/prepackaged meals and have them delivered to your door (logistics issue here). Great for all sorts of situations but mostly targeted at busy people who find themselves eating out too much, especially those with special diets. Could allow limitless variety.
3. An easier/cheaper way to post podcast episodes on a schedule. Try running a regular podcast and you'll get some idea of how limited the options are.
4. I strongly suspect there's room for yet another photo social app that is effectively snap chat (easily send photos to specific people) but where the photos stick around. Instagram has implemented this feature but it's a bit buried under all the other options and I don't think anyone uses it. Simplicity will rule this arena.
5. A daily deal monitoring service that alerts you when a specific product you need goes on sale on one of the many deal sites. For example, I want a robot vacuum (who doesn't?!) but it's not an emergency. I definitely do not subscribe to or watch daily deals. I want to sign up for an alert when someone has a daily deal for cheap robot vacuums.
If any of these exist, let me know. I want all of them.
Please build a project milestone tree site. The idea would be that the users can make a project. Then split that project up in milestones, and then those milestones can be split into more, etc..
I think that fits very well to how the planning for a software project should work. Bonus points if you can make it into a Trello like system where you can assign team members to milestones etc.
And generalize it so the underlying framework can be used in other areas, such as manufacturing, where you need to estimate the time/cost to build an assembly, which is itself composed of other subassemblies. Then have the ability to store those subtrees separately, so if you're estimating a new product with some subassemblies you previously estimated, you can reuse that data.
That's a product you can actually sell to any number of small manufacturing businesses worldwide.
- a Bitcoin exchange which can support fast algorithmic trading
- an encyclopedia of objects that can be combined together (your algorithms are such that you can find from their 3d shapes, specs and connectors which parts / machines can be combined together).
@ 1. Craigslist style email obfuscation as a service.
problem: i have a marketplace type website where my users would like to be contacted but not have their emails be made public.
how it works: i set a subdomain of my site, mail.mysite.com to an ip address you designate. on demand, i make an api call to your service (emailobfuscationasaservice.com) with
emailobfuscationasaservice.com responds with either a success message and an anonymized, temporary email address like 239fag72wa@mail.mysite.com (the subdomain i gave you) or an error message like "no such user at that domain" or "domain doesn't exist" or something.
the email address lives until the expiration timestamp. if the obfuscated email receives a message, you forward it to the "real_address".
if "obfuscate_replies" was set to true at email creation time, then if the person responds, you play middleman for both parties and force all their emails to go through you (basically you create another obscured email for person who writes to the obscured email).
if "callback_url" was set, that means that I, the operator of mysite.com, want to be notified of activity at the obscured email address, so you POST activity to the specified url. that lets me do things like update activity feeds in my app for the user.
@ 3. Basecamp for travel planning (I imagine this already exists).
I am on a trip with some friends right now. We have ideas for stuff we want to do but its all poorly organized in email and google spreadsheets. Basically the things we want to do are: tourist sites, activities, food.
A cool app would let us create a group like in basecamp, state our destination, then let us start typing things in we want to do. those get matched to existing review sites or links that contain information about them and put on a map.
in an unfamiliar place this is useful because it lets me group items/events geographically and plan my trip better. it would let people plan an itinerary together, asyncronously and make comments on possible activities for the group.
(other smart features: places to stay, modes of transportation, notes like "don't forget to get your visa by date XXX").
Basically a crud app. how to monetize? no idea. affiliate commissions on airbnb, event tickets, etc? i want it, wouldn't build it. the backend isn't hard, getting the UI right would be a challenge.
Regarding 1., I actually had an idea for a complete communication suite (email, voice, texting) but anonimized.
The realization came when I was exchanging contact info with a stranger on CL who was selling an iPhone.Why was this person now privy to my G+ profile? my phone number? etc...
The service would create "channels", each with a temporary telephone number (that works with texting) and an email. You use these to communicate with the seller/buyer/whatever and when you're done you disable the channel.
To communicate you would download an app to your phone that allows you to view messages and reply, or even place calls.
Anyways I didn't build it because I wasn't passionate enough about the idea, and I figured it would mostly be used for nefarious purposes. Also, there are some legal implications if somebody becomes the victim of a crime while meeting someone using my anonimized communication service.
Implementation of this technical problem left as an exercise for the person who "steals" this idea.
For 3 you can check out TripIt: you can just forward your bookings or notes to them, and they'll either parse it properly (if they recognise the provider/airline etc) or just file it for your review later. It's not exactly what you said, but close.
I'm pretty sure 1 exists as well, but I can't remember the name.
That said, I still love hearing people's ideas. Just don't expect me to act on it.