My Favorite Ideas for Ringside Startup to Use
By Steve Poland • March 26, 2007
These are some hand-picked ideas from my Techquila Shots vault that I think are the best and most practical (given the anticipated budget) for Ringside Startup.
Please contribute to Ringside Startup if you’d like to see the journey of one of these ideas turn into an actual business — and hear the guidance of seasoned start-up experts during the journey.
LikeLoveOrHate.com
Simply put, this idea revolves around connecting people online via similar interests. Right now, if you go to a user’s MySpace page or blog, you may see a list of music, movies, books that they like — but that doesn’t tell you much (plus it’s time consuming).
I’m proposing a simple website that asks you questions to gauge what you like/love/hate — in an easy interface where you just click to answer questions, while we compile all of that data into a back-end database. Then, users place a widget on their blog/MySpace/etc and when another user (that has a profile with us) visits that user’s webpage, the widget instantly compares the visitor with the user being viewed, and tells the visitor what shared interests they have and whether they have a high compatibility (similar to Last.fm — see image provided).- “Vyous” (views, you — “your views”)
Last I knew, YouTube was getting 40k video uploads a day — and millions of people watching. Right now, YouTube is a big cluster — there’s a handful of categories. Personally, I don’t publish videos, because I don’t even know what to create a video on. My idea is that the next step in UGC videos (user-generated content videos) is giving users a reason to create a video.Everyone has opinions — my favorite pizza shop in Buffalo NY is going to be different than other Buffalonians. Just as my opinion on the new movie “Borat” will be different than others — or the parts that I loved the most will differ from others. Give people a reason to create video and I believe you could double those uploads per day. Goal: To become the largest source of original “opinionated” video, photographic, and contextual content on the web (globally). - Event Media Aggregation (Concerts, Sporting Events, etc)
People are taking tons of videos and photos with their cell phones and digital cameras these days at concerts, sporting events, weddings, etc. Right now though, there isn’t a single central source to find all of the media from a concert or sports game.This idea would create that central source — and allow people to specify if they’re attending an upcoming event, or attended a past event. They can submit URLs to Flickr photos, YouTube videos, etc — and they can also meet people that are going to an upcoming event, or find that person that they met at a previous event (but didn’t get their contact info). - Your Syndicated Chronological Life
A website that allows you to input all of your online user accounts and creates a public/private timeline of your life — thus, it will displays your latest Twitter updates, Last.fm songs played, blog posts, blog comments, Yelp reviews, etc. - Classifieds by Cell
Ability to easily record a video, or take photos, via your cell phone of items you have for sale. Typically, it takes too long to list an item on eBay or input it on Craigs List. This idea would allow you to pull out your cell phone, record a video, send it via your cell to us, and we’d call the user back using automated VXML technology to ask the user how much they want for the item, further detailed description, and a simple category selection.The whole process could take anywhere from 1-3 minutes per item. I expect there are tons of items in people’s homes that just aren’t worth it to them currently to post on eBay or Craigs List — and I believe for the millions of items listed on eBay, there are at least that many equivalent (if not more) that would be posted online if only it were simpler and took less time.
Please contribute to Ringside Startup if you’d like to see the journey of one of these ideas turn into an actual business — and hear the guidance of seasoned start-up experts during the journey.
Which one of these ideas do you feel has the most potential for “success”?
Comments
9 Responses to “My Favorite Ideas for Ringside Startup to Use”
Got something to say?
[…] have posted my favorite ideas for Ringside Startup to […]
I like the idea of a chronological time line. But I don’t like the idea of creating an aggregation of third party services - you are putting the control of the company outside of our hands. Look at how Myspace can make or break Slide or RockYou.
I much prefer building a stand alone plug-in similar to Last.fm that connects to a variety of programs and not just music.
But that begs the question how you would connect to sites and retrieve the content without an API?
Would you be able to have a plug-in that reads what YouTube videos you have watched by the URL? It doesn’t sound a far cry. It would just be a computer scanning the page when you activate a YouTube flash object.
I’ll toss my vote to #1. I think it’s the easiest, technology wise, which is good on your budget and you can launch it quickly. But it does have a low barrier to entry, so the key is getting the user base built quickly. I’m not crazy about the name, hell I’d be tempted to just call it Vyous.
My vote is for #2. I have actually done some work on a start up along the same lines. Everyone has an opinion and some would much rather hear someone’s rather than read someone’s opinion. I guess it is like YouTube would be ABC/FOX and Vyous would be MSNBC/CNN
I think idea #3 would be the most robust if a few sites were willing to let you mash up their content. At the same time, I imagine it would be the most logistically difficult.
#1 is the idea I think would be easiest to tip to mass adoption.
I would have to say #1 as well. Simply because i think it would have the shortest time to market.
Chalk me up as voting for number One as well. I enjoyed the brief discussion at TS’s, and think it’s one of the most unique on the list that has some interesting and widespread permeations available to it, once the core has been developed.
I also like #1, though I’m a sucker for simple ideas. There’s something really appealing about comparing your musical tastes to others (especially if yours are superior…kidding, of course…)
Here are the pros/cons from my perspective
Pros - easy to code, viral, uses technology to create bonds between people, fun, broad target audience, can start small and grow over time
Cons - monetization, fate in the hands of the evil MySpace overloads (actually, I’ve sure they’re very nice people once you get to know them), risk of widget overload, not much value, risk of becoming a quick fad, easy to clone
Despite the cons, I really like it. Regardless of the choice, good luck, we’ll be rooting for you!
[…] teamed up with Dave Squires (programmer) and we’re executing on the idea of WeBothLike (originally titled […]