Ask YC: Projects that inspire you
Hi YCers,
Sometimes I stumble upon projects / startups really excite me.
Years ago, I was really excited about del.icio.us: so clean, so nicely developed. Now it's been overrun a bit, quality has gone down.
Today I stumbled upon http://weewar.com - So NICE! Well developed, so clean, just sexy.
I'd like to know, what are startups out there that really inspire you, that are really just the cream of the crop - the small little % of stuff that really matters to you?
I've been doing my own startup, and I can't say it has fulfilled me. I'm in a process of turning it around, asking myself what I really care about, what really inspires me. That's why I wanted to check with you guys / girls, what really inspires you.
Thanks, Rob
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34 comments
| 29 points
| on HN
)
great strides in general science and math inspire me more than startup companies. space travel, deep ocean exploration, etc..
i'm a fans of some startups, but i don't think thats the same as inspiration.
the only exception, i think, is the inspirational kick in the pants you get when someone sells their company and gets rich or reaps some other type of reward/recognition and you think to yourself "i thought of that three years ago!" or somesuch. really makes you want to get out there and innovate.
They're not really a startup since they only accept donations, but I loved the idea so much I made my own version which does not randomly assign a string but instead allows users to pick their own phrase: http://www.oneryng.com
Maybe I should make that more clear...
Detecting circular assignments is a great idea though, thanks!
I wish you luck, but I can't help thinking rickrolling, goatseing, and spamming other people's links will be a problem.
Nice work on oneryng.. At least reveal the meaning of life though if you know it..
That being said I do enjoy reading about facebook progress in the world, quite inspirational.
A good one I found today was http://www.zoomii.ca
Sometimes if I've been working on facebook apps for a while I'll go back to my own site and smile.
Why? Because they have a service that exists in a field that is hopelessly dominated by a single competitor (twitter). But they think they can do it anyways, and in many ways have created a superior product.
They have an amazing product and keep adding new features (e.g. recently added git support!). Awsome customer service, a person responded to my feature suggestion within 12h.
Most importantly they have a good business model. Most startup's see a problem that needs solving and solve it with no regards to how to make money from it (ad revenue will not make you a millionarie unless your google!). They will ultimately fail. I like companies which actually have a little bit of business acumen and can actually find ways of making money from their product. 37signals is another company that does this well
They've got some really cool products and a really slick web site.
I sometimes use them as a reference for my own web apps, which is basically a nice way of saying I've stolen ideas from them before. :)
Flickr seems so obvious now that people forget how lame online photo sites were before it. Personally, at least for some time, Flickr made me invest more time and energy in taking better photos. It's naturally social, as opposed to glued on "social networking" features for many apps.
Because, I can get to learn what people like, dislike, want, need, cry for. It is Feedback 2.0
I am currently subscribed for few feeds for some products on my domain. Very informative.
What I would really love today is an Intelligentsia. Something similar to a closed and secret community of smart people (which you find here) who share ideas, links,thoughts, solutions to our everyday problems. Think of it as a closed, secret invite only HN.
I can't wait to see how far they progress towards very ambitious goals. Definitely seems like they've got the team to succeed. Also can't wait until they roll out to other cities.
The good news is that the journalism grant that funded them stipulated that they have to release their code at the end of the project, so when that comes, each city can make their own Everyblock if they have the will.
and the rest of VPRI's
"STEPS Toward The Reinvention of Programming"
q.G.
Web communities are great and all that, but as I get older (sound like an old man even though I am a twenty-something) I actually want to meet people, network, and have deeper more meaningful engagements (...ok ...real-world fun & parties ;) ).
Hence the fact I am getting bored of it but that, however, seems to be true with most sites after the new-and-shiny phase passes.
http://www.weebly.com/
http://geticeberg.com/
http://wordpress.com/
All sites that let the user build something of his own. I've always been fascinated by this approach.
All very clever and very cool.
(Now all we need is a site that lets the user build a site that lets his user build a something of his own.)
http://heroku.com