Help Me HN: Can't think of new ideas I am interested on working on

Funding seed-stage startups is broken. The ratio of accredited investors to startup is so skewed that most startups don't stand a chance of getting funding. As the LinkedIn IPO shows, average people are extremely excited about getting involved, but they are locked out in the US due to strong regulatory laws.

Disruptive startups can't get funding and there are many people who would like to fund them with small investments of, say, $50.

Here's a solution. Part One: Companies register as public companies on Malta, which is EU, on the cheap (relatively). They aren't listed on any exchange but can privately accept bids for shares from anyone. E.g. 10 shares for $50.

Part Two: A site which offers any company/group/idea the possibility to list (ala Crunchbase) but then for those companies that incorporate publicly in Malta, there's a pre-built mechanism for them to field and accepts bids for equity. There's a very small transaction fee for this.

I've registered the domain OpenStarts.com but it's yours along with the business plan if you want it. Just email me. A quick deck is here: http://c25571.r71.cf1.rackcdn.com/OpenStarts.ppsx

am I right in saying that this is really kickstarter with equity in place of product ?

I've always thought a Kickstarter for startups / websites would be such a brilliant idea, but not feasible. This guys idea sounds fantastic, but I think the whole registering in Malta wouldn't be too appealing.

check out profounder.com they do just that

Not really. You must have a substantial, pre-existing relationship with the investor and you may only have a few investors. Even then, because these are non-accredited investors, you may have trouble raising financing in later rounds.

The idea of OpenStarts is that you can be funded by thousands of people you've never met and there's no penalty later.

while i can't speak to the 'penalty later' part, profounder does make it possible for kickstarter type fundraising from strangers. however, those people can't make more than their original investment back (sort of like kiva, which is not surprising, because Jessica Jackley, the pro-founder CEO, was one of kiva's co-founders)

Hi all,

My name is David Lang, I'm the Community Manager at ProFounder. I wanted to weigh in on the great discussion above. ProFounder does, in fact, allow for equity investments and is legally compliant. As mentioned above, it's SEC compliant due to the fact that investors have prior, substantial relationships with the entrepreneurs.

You simply can't do it in the U.S. There are very, very strict regulations against it. Many have tried different angles but it's amazingly airtight.

Malta isn't appealing, I'm sure, to those outside of the EU. But the way I mentioned makes at least possible what otherwise is impossible.

We originally wanted to do something similar to what you are proposing. Since crowd-sourced investment was out in the US, we decided to just set up the site pitchups.com to allow people to get feedback/comments on their startup idea and connect with others, and just develop it as a community. There may be some value and synergies in combining what we are doing at pitchups with your site - maybe it can serve as a funnel for great ideas to get to the crowd-sourced funding stage. Let me know if this is something that would be of interest to you, by emailing admin@pitchups.com

Your "just" is just gigantic. But yes :)

Does the SEC really not assert jurisdiction over US residents selling equities (possibly even to other US residents) when they are shares of a primarily US-held foreign corporation, or being offered through a foreign market? Somehow that surprises me.

US citizens can own shares in a foreign public company. That company can sell shares. There's nothing the SEC can really get mad about here.

The SEC can bring felony charges against individuals offering unregistered securities, not just penalize a corporate entity that created the shares. As I understand it, it doesn't even matter whether the securities actually are shares of a corporation, or just some similar enough instrument. Before doing this, I would make very sure either the foreign corporation or the foreign market meet exemptions well defended in case law.

individuals offering unregistered securities

These are fully registered securities. It's legal.

Thanks David, I appreciate the offer. I think I'll stick with US base companies for now, it's something I understand more. I don't have any understanding of Malta or the EU and doesn't sound like something I'd want to get into but I genuinely thank you for the offer.

If you ask me (and I think you did!) this is kind of a mini-burnout. Take a vacation - a real one. Don't think about anything, just take a month in Sicily or something. Meet some new friends who aren't in the startup scene. Go hang out with your dad, or some cousins.

Disengage.

Then come back. I'll bet you'll find you're more excited.

Thanks Vivtek, I honestly don't think it's being burnt out. After my last startup, I did take a leave and traveled for a bit. I think it's really more of, the ideas I'm coming up with or encountering are just not very interesting to me personally.

It's probably projection on my part, then. Ha.

I've gone through this type of phase in the past. It's usually stress or lack of sleep, when it happens to me. In times when I'm happy and well-rested, I always have a background idea I dearly want to pursue.

Maybe you need to engage in creative procrastination. Find something boring you need to do for a while, then sneak time to have and work on your ideas!

Then, too, if I don't have a flagship project (so to speak, by which I mean a specific project I want to achieve) then I usually work on support structures that it would have been nice to have the last time around. Kind of a sharpening of my tools for the next job, I guess.

Do you find the idea of dashboards for businesses interesting? That's what I'd work on if i had lots of time to research, lots of know-how, and lots of business experience. It's exciting because

a) building these things makes the world more productive, businesses more agile,

b) you can take inspiration from a wide range of sources (science fiction, journals, movies, video games, old inventions),

c) there's very exciting stuff coming to market right now. Microsoft's Kinect, Nintendo Wii (and whatever their new console will be), lots of interest in 3D displays, while stuff like voice-recognition and natural language interfaces and data visualization is finally getting really good

So many combinations of the above to be discovered, and so many industries to benefit.

Sorry, not really into the dashboard for businesses thing at the moment

Here's an idea. You'll quickly find many challenges/problems with it, but if you can fix those (that's called innovation) you'll have something.

Many immigrants to the US go back to their home country for surgery and similar health services. It's cheaper and often better. Why can't non-first-generation-immigrants take advantage of the same services easily? Ie. why can't you easily go to countryX and cheaply get your teeth fixed?

AirBNB for offshore medical services. That could be a billion-dollar business in fact.

Once people find a doctor they like (and a foreign hospital), they stick with them, and would be going behind your back to get follow-up/repeat treatment. Not to mention all the redtape

Right. And you're saying you could not figure out ways to fix these problems? Innovate!

There's the high-concept pitch.

Yeah, we go to Hungary for our major dental work and have always thought you could organize groups to do the same. "Bridges and Bridges", alluding to the bridges on the Danube in Budapest.

The market for this already exists.

Its called "Medical Tourism". Basically middlemen (or a startup) hook up a potential surgery customer to a hospital + hotel (5 star usually). They sell you a complete package including air fare, taxis, rental cars and hotel stay. And of course the surgery.

And it still comes to about 1/4th the cost of surgery in the US.

Its a $10 billion industry if not more. And its going to grow I believe.

Why don't you join http://www.weekendhacker.net There might be some projects you would like to join.

Thanks, will check it out

I thought I would give this thread some time to mellow out. I can't see your email address in your profile. I am in the Bay Area, as I believe you are. Currently not working and have a good deal of spare time.

Would you mind having a quick email to perhaps see if we can colab on something?

I am sure you got a lot of comments and thought that at one time your email was listed, and now it is unlisted. I won't take up much of your time, but I too am bored with where I am at, and want to do something that is not driven by money as the sole reason to do it.

I have a few ideas that are not unique in any way. The ideas themselves may not even be all that fun or challenging aside from the technical aspects of scale. Most would need to scale as large as many of the largest trafficked sites popular today.

What I think would be fun is the challenge of entering a market that is owned by only one player. Being the #2 is not always a bad thing, and shooting to make your #2 the new #1 sounds really fun. To me, it becomes about execution of the idea, which is the fun part.

Any idea will eventually become boring, you will complete it, and the challenge of starting will be over. Growing and executing your idea different from how it ever has been done is what motivates me.

If you at all would not mind having a short email or two, maybe there is something we can work out.

It wasn't in there. Your email is missing as well. I just updated.

Personally I'm not big on ideas that absolutely require scale to succeed. As for market, it really depends on the market and idea as a whole. I prefer consumer facing companies that are not vertical specific.

It could help to switch gears entirely for a while; study a trade that involves physical craftsmanship (vs. mental) and/or gets you outside or using your body. Do it with focus, for long enough to gain real skill. You may come back to coding, or you may not.

Another thought -- there's a special kind of burnout when you realize that the "problems" most new products/services solve not really problems -- they are just about moving money around more easily or in different ways, or convincing people more effectively to buy more things they don't need.

How do you define a good idea? "One that makes money" is pretty weak. Some people can motivate themselves purely on the money something will make; the rest of us need to dig a bit deeper when looking for worthwhile projects. One that solves a particular problem you have, for other people, is also pretty weak if your personal problems are all trivialities. "I travel a lot, and it's hard to find shoes that are still comfortable at the end of a long flight."

I'm currently burning time learning new programming languages and looking to learn hardware development.

Enroll at one of these: http://singularityu.org/programs/executive-programs/ Or get ideas from those: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ Or come to Berlin for a coffee and some inspirations.

Take a look at many of the startup ideas on our website, pitchups.com, where anyone can submit their startup idea or pitch and get feedback and comments from others. Some of these ideas may be of interest to you. And I am sure many of these startups would welcome an experienced entrepreneur to collaborate with and help them take their ideas to the next level. Our vision is to make pitchups into a community and ecosystem to foster startups - and allow anyone with a great idea to find others willing to collaborate. In fact, we ourselves are looking for experienced partners to collaborate with us on pitchups.com - and would love your inputs, if this is of interest to you.

Thanks, will do

Try developing an idea. When you find something wrong with it, then dive into how you could fix that. And then find something else wrong, and see if you can fix that.

Undeveloped ideas are not interesting, developed ideas are.

Second album syndrome eh? :)

Read everything James Altucher has written: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/

He's been around the block a few times, but wears his heart on his sleeve.

Not second but yeah, it's probably something along those lines. I've read many articles he's posted so far. Probably thought HN =]

"I don't have any obvious or immediate itch to personally scratch"

Put yourself into the shoes of someone else and fix their biggest problem. Can't think of one?

Go to a non-nerd party and ask around, "What's your biggest problem?".

I've tried this but not very many people know what bugs them and the ones that do (albeit few) are things I probably don't want to do. But I greatly appreciate the brainstorming.

I'm sure you know this already, but I think the best ideas and the ones that you will be strongly motivated to work on are those that solve a problem for a lot of people, but principally for you. Something in your business life or elsewhere that you have found frustrating or lacking, but that has no good tech solution. But I'm sure I read it elsewhere and it made sense that it's easier to find solutions than problems. Don't look for a solution, look for a problem, a tough one, then cast about for ways to solve it.

"Can't think of new ideas I am interested on working on"

That is a huge itch to scratch, perhaps if you created a product / service that would help people like you think of new ideas and filter them quickly that would be of value? For example I just used the "Apply To Self" idea from neuro linguistic programing to take your problem and create a solution see-

http://www.hypnosis101.com/wordpress/nlp/sleight-of-mouth/ap...

I like ideas and have several brewing. However I don't really think this is the way it works... my ideas come from an evolution of other ideas that come together to form something bigger than I could have imagined.

I encourage you to take your time, to think about problems that you see discussed here or on Reddit, and find the problems those problems create, then you're headed in the right direction.

If you want to chat about ideas or creativity, my eMail is in my profile. Don't be shy!

Woah! Did you just copy/paste my mind or what? I am exactly in the same situation and feel exactly the same way as you! Every word and sentence you wrote describe me perfectly. I also sold a few startups, I'm both business and technical, can't get excited again, love Square, etc. We should hang out ;-)

I showed your post to my wife and she really thought I wrote it.

Please reach out to me and we'll talk. You can find my email on my about page. Cheers!

Will make a note to reach out to you later =]

If you like Square, then try to build a bitcoin billing? :) The bitcoin market is relatively small now, but it's growing very fast.

Betting on such a small and unproven platform doesn't give you very good odds in my opinion. People who've been around the block a few times are usually looking for a bit more certainty than that. Not that anything is certain in the startup world, but this seems beyond risky/crapshot. My 2 cents...

Surely it's more risky, than usual startup (because you bet on both your abilities and bitcoin growth), but it's the one in a lifetime chance :)

Read this transcript. Maybe it will inspire you. It inspired me. http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speechesandarticles/a_speech...

Will do.

I got an idea that's more disruptive than incremental. Shoot me an email/message if you're interested in chatting about that or just getting over the creative hump. I'm in Silicon Valley.

Your email is not listed in your profile.

This usually just means that your taste has grown more refined and you no longer find the culling upsetting. Just keep doing what you're doing until you hook the big one.

Travel to a 3rd world country - Africa, Remote rural parts of india.

With all your resources - what can you do for these people.

You seem to have enough money - you need something with deeper meaning.

If you're interested in open source Bitcoin projects, shoot me an email. There's plenty of world-changing high-quality FOSS components to create!

"I've always found something wrong with the ideas I've thought of" -> figure out how to fix those problems, that's called innovation :)

We have the opposite problem. Lets have a chat if you're STILL stuck in you effort to find exciting, fresh ideas.

I have a few I think you'd be excited about.

Contact me.

Don't see your email. The email field in your account settings is not public. You would need to add it to the public profile box (about)

If you're, truly, interested in getting in on a great idea from the ground floor...I think we should chat.

Just send me a message.

I have reverse problem. I have lots of things in mind but fail to decide which to select first.

I've been in the same position for nearly 2 years. Contact me at xtac@ymail.com

patience.

the process of finding things you like takes time. be aware of your state through the process and learn from it.

solve the problem correctly once, and you wont ever have the problem again.

maybe you need to take a fishing trip or a place you odd to be but never been. Prefobly with human

What motivated you the last go around? Was it $$$ or the idea?

Neither. It was originally developed as a solution to solve my own problem. The intention was never to create a startup out of it. It wasn't until a few months later that someone pointed out that I should run with it as a startup. The rest is as they say, history...

Ok, but what kept you going? Was it the thrill of getting customers or the thrill of solving that particular problem or...?

I'd love to work with someone who has done it before so if I can motivate you, that would be awesome :D

There were multiple reasons but ultimately it was an interesting problem we were solving among various other factors. Your email is not in your profile but if you want to connect, I'm pretty open.

Oops, check it now :)

If you're in NYC send me an email at kevinlordbarry@gmail.com. I have an idea kicking around I'll be happy to share with you.

Hi Kevin,

I'm located in the SF Bay Area but I'd still love to connect. Will shoot you an email later.