Ask HN: What startups are working on hard, interesting problems? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What startups are working on hard, interesting problems?

9 pointsz0a8 comments

This is open for interpretation. It could be a problem that's technically hard, an idea that's trying to disrupt a technologically backwards industry, etc. And interesting in that it's working on a novel solution to a new or existing problem, and not just another boring photo sharing app. Again, this is subjective, but I'm sure your responses will be valuable nonetheless.

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Astronomer is working on building the platform for data scientists and data engineers to be able to pipe any source to any destination.

Some of the technical complexity comes from the sheer diversity of data sources and sinks. The infrastructure is also non-trivial.

This is somewhat future looking because most large startups have a data team that builds their own in-house system eg Airbnb, Yelp. However a lot of companies don't have that luxury and extracting value (patterns and insights, for example) from your data is useful for many businesses.

I have just the company you're looking for: This company is working on solving the most difficult problem the humanity has been ever since it existed--how to get laid--it's called Tinder.

That's right! This problem is so hard that NOBODY can claim to have figured it out. And I haven't even gotten to the market size--the potential market size is literally the entire humanity! Not everyone wants to share what they had for lunch, but EVERYONE wants to get laid!

Hope this answers your question!

If, by "nobody", you mean "around 100 billion cumulative people", then I agree with you.

That problem is trivial to solve if you have money and don't mind having some post-hangover guilt.

The harder problem is getting laid and feeling some dignity afterwards.

We're launching a platform for Government-solvable problems:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13288228

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion

How do you define "hard" and "interesting?"

I clarified the terms in my edit.

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