parkern

Would love to hear advertisers thoughts on using this service. Did you see a positive net gain? What was your budget? How did the system work for you?

run a web app that allows people to create custom online stores that is tied into a fulfillment system. We originally created the site geared towards everyone: artist, designers, clothing companies, etc. We have discovered that this is just too large of a bite to chew.<p>I wanted to see if anyone had any advice or ideas on a niche market that could benefit from a platform like this? Basically what group we might be able to repurpose/reformat this for.

Does anyone know the cheapest way you could use geo/gps tracking in an offline sense? I mean using it with a real world product that wasn't a cell phone. So it could be implanted into an item and then you could track it online? Say for instance a football.

Is this possible?

Looks like one of the founders of Kiva.org is behind it. It is a for profit version of Kickstarter. Anyone have beta access?

Since the discussion for PG's ycombinator.com/ideas.html seems to have gone stale (and possibly out-dated) lets get a new discussion going.

There are also a lot of "What do you want built.." posts, so lets consolidate.

Answer any of the following questions:

1) What needs in your life do you wish were fulfilled online?

2) What online sites do you admire and how could you see a similar concept working in lateral industries?

3) What offline sectors do you see as the least represented online?

4) And then to go back to the original ycombinator.com/ideas.htm - feel free to elaborate or add to the list. (in the same vein, generally speaking)

Does anyone know any cheaper alternatives to Yodlee.com's banking API?

There was a site I came across that let you manage all of your PPC efforts in one seamless dashboard.

I feel like maybe it was started or sold by someone who was interviewed on Mixergy. Anyone know what I am talking about?

So one of PG's business ideas is figuring out how to help companies outsource their IT department.

Wufoo does a fantastic job for this with forms, but what other areas could this be applied to?

What other tools could be made to help businesses benefit in a similar sense?

After spending some time looking at different CRM software options, I very much felt that individual freelancers, or even small web design teams, we're largely being left out of the current software offerings. They all, for the most part, seemed to appeal directly to very large businesses in which collaborating and talking to each other was not that easy or aimed specifically at (traveling) salesman who need to maintain a gazillion different contacts/relationships.

It got me thinking about a CRM created largely with the freelancer in mind. Users create a form of sorts to embed on their site, potential clients then fill it out and it's funneled and organized in the app. I think this could be a really great tool, especially for people who get a lot of requests.

I'm mainly wondering if:

1) Do you think this is a good idea or does email suffice in managing new and potential clients?

2) Can you think of any other features to go along with this idea that would also benefit freelancers (besides the obvious ones like invoicing and time tracking as those two spaces are very crowded)?

3) Would you pay for a tool like this?

And also, on that note, what about a workroom of sorts (similar to Elance) where you can pass back and forth all communications?

There are certain aspects of what I like to call the "Freelancer suite," basically tools that are designed specifically with the freelancer or small web team in mind. They basically are: time tracking, invoicing, collaborating, organization, etc.

Certainly some of these areas are very well-covered and considerably crowded spaces, particularly team and client collaborating and invoicing. I was wondering if any of you saw areas or niches that were being underserved or all together missed?

What would you think if a site existed that was basicaly a kickstarter but for startups/for-profit businesses.

So a startup or concept would come on and post their idea and the community would then buy shares/equity into the company?

I was thinking that because actual profit can be skewed so much, in exchange for buying equity/shares, the startup would payout a percent of revenue back to the investors. That way it couldn't be up for debate what that number is. Thoughts?

The "Lets talk about Etsy" post seemed to get some really good insight and feedback, so I thought I would do another about Opentable.com.

I will throw out some questions to get things going:

1) How did opentable overcome the Chicken and the egg problem? Did they build up a roster of restaurants before they even opened the consumer side of things?

2) Did OT start with just San Francisco? How fast did they expand into other cities? Or did they go from SF to nation wide in two steps?

3) How hard was it for Opentable to change the way people made reservations? Was the market ready for it or did it take a long time to get people to make reservations this way?

I feel a business that doesn't get mentioned that often around here is Etsy. While the money raises and investors behind it can be read about on Tech Crunch, not much is mentioned about the business.

Thought I would get some discussion going on it: -How do you feel Etsy was able to overcome the Chicken and the egg problem? -Were they able to just find a great market that was being underserved by eBay? -Do you see other markets that could flourish by being "spun" out of eBay? -How were they able to market themselves to not only shopkeepers but consumers as well?

I am sure there are other good questions as well..

We all know a good metrics driven analytic tool can be the backbone to any web business. What are some good tools that you use to learn, analyze and optimize your traffic and leads?

I know a lot of people here run software solutions, so I thought we could have a list or talk about various business models being utilized for subscription based websites. I will start off with the following:

1) 37 signals approach - which is a very limited hidden free plan and then numerous other paid options.

2) Squarespace approach - 15 day free trial, with no credit card required. If you don't upgrade then your account is canceled

3) Carbonmade approach - funnel everyone into the site via a free plan and then once registered try to get them to upgrade

4) And then another pretty common one is - credit card down on sign up with a 15 day free trial, which rolls into a paid plan if you don't cancel.