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Ask HN: Are Pure Software Startups Out of Luck?

by sss111 on 12/26/24, 6:25 PM with 5 comments

I’ve been working on the process of identifying problems and turning them into ideas. Recently, I started building an MVP to collate all my lab reports into one place—only to see someone release something very similar (see biotracker.me) on Show HN just the other day.

Another idea I had was about organizing all hospital health records in one platform, but it turns out there are already several startups working on that (see: onerecord.com) . It feels like every idea I come up with is already being solved by someone else.

Even with the explosion of LLM-based technologies, most new apps just feel like wrappers around ChatGPT—something anyone else could easily replicate.

So, I’m curious: what are some hard software problems you’d love to see solved? Or am I just looking in the wrong places for inspiration?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

  • by jschveibinz on 12/26/24, 6:47 PM

    This is a fundamental question about entrepreneurship, business and applied technology. As an engineer, entrepreneur and investor, I will give you my best answer and perhaps others will join in. I only mean this in the most constructive way:

    1. Entrepreneurs take risks, and look for inspiration in fields they know well. They look for opportunities to solve high-value problems in ways that others may be missing.

    2. Software and/or applied technology is maybe 10-20% of the ultimate business opportunity. The rest of the business model has to do with the money required, the team, the market, the strategy, and the operational implementation.

    3. Problems may be hidden or obvious. Solutions may be hard, or easy. There may be competition already doing similar things. But you can still do something unique, differentiating and valuable. What are others missing?

    4. The best way to solve problems is iteratively: make a prototype, show it and talk to people, then fix what is wrong or broken. Repeat.

    The accessibility and speed of developing a rapid software prototype can make it seem like the development of a business around that prototype should be just as quick and easy. But it's not quick and easy. Success is a result of tenacity.

    Go back, look at your best idea, think about how it can be better than what's out there, tune it up, then start getting feedback. Good luck!

  • by not_your_vase on 12/26/24, 6:28 PM

    I spam this every time I have a chance: create a better version of captchas. Something that detects bot traffic reliably, but at the same time it does it in a way that's invisible for humans.

    I would pay money for it, would even consider investing, if you come up with a idea that can be patented. (If there is no patent, I would be still a paying customer)

  • by pavel_lishin on 12/26/24, 6:42 PM

    Isn't it a common truism that ideas are worthless, and execution is everything?

    There's probably an important corollary that you also have to have people who'll give you money, unless you're very confident your execution is so good that it'll beat multi-million dollar marketing budgets.

  • by jarsin on 12/26/24, 7:06 PM

    There's different stages of idea generation. In the beginning stage most people will have the exact same ideas.

    I'm sure there is probably a PG article on ideas and how to find them that go beyond the cliche or obvious.