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A comment on New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea. Parent comment

Re:New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea by seagreen on Wednesday March 14, 2012 @01:38PM (#3704288)
This is funny because I just had a long conversation with a friend about a startup idea. It would turn your smartphone into a beacon that broadcast your profile and your interests to the world, so that you could look around a coffeeshop or whatever and see the people that share the same interests and then have great conversations with them. Then I realized it had already been done, and it's called clothing.

I still think digital "clothing" would be cool, and I get that there's a lot wrong with the way we use clothes to signal today, but anything that adds so much bandwidth to communication between people can't be all bad.

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Re:New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea by guynamedloren on Thursday March 15, 2012 @05:12AM (#3707511)
Actually, its called highlight.
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Re:New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea by seagreen on Thursday March 15, 2012 @07:21PM (#3711123)
Cool, thanks. It's actually a slightly different idea though, because (as far as I understand it) highlight doesn't signal your interests, it just shows who you're connected to. Maybe more like a class ring than actual clothing?
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Re:New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea by guynamedloren on Thursday March 15, 2012 @07:35PM (#3711165)
I'm pretty sure it leverages your interests (pulled from facebook) in some way. FWIW, highlight is one of those ideas that seems great in theory, but I could never see it being a huge success. I just don't have the desire to randomly meet friends of friends that happen to be around me. It seems like it would be an awkward - almost forced - connection. Call me old school, but I much prefer organically developed relationships.
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Re:New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea by seagreen on Thursday March 15, 2012 @08:37PM (#3711361)
I think a lot of people think the same way, which is why these location/social startups haven't caught on more. It seems like the big question is whether their problems are inherent or are actually just software problems. I can imagine a program being eventually developed that's as good or better at making successful introductions than the best salonnière who ever lived. At that point it would be worth the added artificiality (at least to me).
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