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Comment by orangethirty | Hacker News Reader

You can copy an existing business (that works), and apply it to a different industry.

Or copy an existing business and apply it to the same industry in a different country. No reason, say, Appointment Reminder wouldn't work just as well in Germany.

Yes. Note that when I say industry, I also cover geographical differences.

Or copy an existing business, and apply it to the same industry, in the same country.

Competition is proof that the market exists. And if there is an existing service provider, by definition there are customers that are not 100% happy with them.

B2B markets are usually very large, and there is room for lots of growth.

Hey, you are a MD student from Germany as well + interested in Programming/SAAS? Any way to contact you?

Finished studying as of November last year, actually. And sure, send me an email, cassandrexx on gmail.

Or copy a startup that limits itself to email / iPhone notifications (like e.g. peerby.com) and add SMS to have a much bigger reach.

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank. Can you give an example to get me thinking?

Pick any business tactic using phone/SMS, and replace the nouns with other nouns. For example:

Papa John's sends me a text every Friday at 4pm, giving me a pizza coupon for the weekend. I suspect this drives a ridiculous increase in pizza orders for them.

What other business can send a coupon to a customer at a time they are likely to want it?

- Service for movie theaters to text concession coupons on Friday afternoons

- Service for web gift stores to text coupons to customers before holidays

- Service for restaurants to text daily coupon right before lunch

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