Humanity is on a sure collision course with ecological disaster and potentially billions of deaths. Do something about climate change. Anything. Every new startup should be addressing the fact that we are on the Titanic and the iceberg is getting closer.

There is an all too common type of blog/post where the writer has said "[Large entity] has done something really dumb and all of my avenues for remedy have come to nothing".

The post goes sufficiently viral that it gains the attention someone within [large entity] who can actually do something about it. This is a terrible model. It's not really a model at all, it is the complete absence of any working model.

Make something that enables individuals to tell large entities that something needs to be done. Effectively turn input from many into a list of meaningful, actionable items that get delivered who have the capacity and desire to do something about it.

Though note that in that case the problems will mostly be techie problems - a useful way to find less crowded spaces is to ask people from different walks of life what their pain points are.

Here's mine: fix income inequality and the staggering inequality in the distribution of wealth worldwide.

How is that a startup? I dunno, maybe there's a small part of that big problem that you can start tackling. Maybe it has to do with some facet of the economy you're improving/making more efficient, maybe it has to do with influencing policy. That's for you to figure out.

Find a big, big problem, and then look for a manageable chunk that your team can execute an idea on. You're in this for the long haul, right?

Hah, good point. I don't like to rant usually, but this is for the good cause.

I'm annoyed I feel the internet is turning more and more hateful.

I'm annoyed writing and fixing tests takes half of my time when writing code.

I'm annoyed business people only see the difference of salary asked and not what experience brings when having to choose between a junior dev and a senior one.

As a pedestrian walking in SF, I am almost run over in crosswalks daily, even while knowing that drivers will run right through them. Fix that and I’d subscribe to a companion app with a blank white screen for $5/month..

Easily fixable phones and laptops.

My phones and laptops are small enough and lightweight enough.

Making them bulletproof is too expensive. But making them easier to fix, documenting the process and authorizing repair shops would do be great.

PS: I don't need to be able to hot-swap parts.

PPS: pro models from Dell and HP at least are often quite easy to disassemble and fix and I think you can often source parts from eBay for years after you buy them.

As a manager at a large corporate the process for incurring expenses drives me nuts. There is an annoying approval process, expenses have to be logged, I have to look up the expense policy, justify the expense, track it against budget etc etc. Often there is modest expense I want to incur and I know the business is generally in favour, but the expense process is just so cumbersome and confusing that I dont bother. There must be a better way. Even though I have a corporate credit card I still have to keep invoices and assign each credit card expense to the right spending code etc.. Arggg, its making my blood boil just writing about it, somebody fix this please.

Pain HN? Show HN Pain? Moan HN?

i like the idea - we just need a new tag

HN Pain Point:

that seems more like it

Well in the particular case this charity had no stack at all. They had a 'friend of a friend' who could do a web site, the person who knew me asked me how email worked because they wanted email addresses from the charity website but didn't want to change their "real" email addresses. I did my best but felt like something which was more like WPEngine would be a good single point of contact and setup. I also looked that the county 'dba list' (this is the 'doing business as' list that the county publishes to indicate when someone is doing business as a company name) and there were several new charities there. Seemed like a supply of leads for 'free'.

I don't disagree that there are people in this space. The nationbuilder folks (mentioned elsewhere) and apparently there are a couple people who specialize in setting up church web sites etc.

From a go to market strategy I'd probably advise that the team interview the executive committee of several new charities, compile a survey of charity sites and rank them from great to garbage, pull out the common functional features of every site, then decompose charities into every activity they do from filing tax returns to holding black & white balls. Look at how they manage payroll, volunteers, and assets. Listen to the problems the treasurer, directors, executive director, and donors have with charities. Where are their pain points and what does their day to day look like. Then pull all of that together and identify where there is commonality amongst groups and where their is uniqueness, and for each uniqueness attribute do the stake holders think it adds value or do they just not know any other way.

Then I would mock some interfaces to the infrastructure from using a phone, a web site, and maybe a chrome book like device. Look at security, look at complexity, look at time to complete tasks.

And finally after I felt the set of problems that could add significant value were identified, and I had helped a couple of new charities get from zero to online. I'd pull apart where the service business added value and where it didn't and develop a business model that was cost effective for the charity and sustainable for the startup to grow it in a boot strap fashion while the company got its feet under it for running its own organization.

Are you willing to share your list with us? Would be curious to see it.