3 Online Startup Ideas I’d Like to See People Take a Stab At


Just for kicks, I thought it would be fun and interesting to throw out a few startup ideas that I think would be beneficial in the coming years. No worries, I won’t be upset at all if you see one and decide to run with it. But if you do, please get me in on the ground floor of your service, just as soon as you come up with your solution to the problem.

Personalized Life Stats

Okay, so we have all of this data that presents different aspects of our lives sitting around waiting for someone to plug into. Think about it. What are all of the data sources that you feed on an ongoing basis? Just of the top of my head, there are: bills, email accounts, bank accounts, financial statements, medical records, calendars, cell phone records, social networks, blog posts, virtual check ins, etc.

How long will it take before we really start to take advantage of all of this data and move towards aggregated life stats? In other words, when will we be savvy enough to start comparing through time the effects of the choices that we make? Would this not give us a leg up in making better choices in the future?

After all, if we had a way of tracking the number of Starbucks lattes, hours spent reading / replying to emails and trips to the grocery store, would that not lead us to make more sensible decisions?

Universal Identity

Since the conception of the Internet, we have had to deal with security-related repercussions, spanning from fraudulent activities, to information security, to theft. Through all of this time, we have yet to identify and adopt a standardized method of web identity. While some may argue that this is a good thing that protects the anonymity of individuals, others have come to believe that that it simply perpetuates fraud and information security gaps.

Interestingly, the big potential players in web security (Google, Facebook, etc.) have taken a backseat and not entered the arena as of yet. To me, it is only a matter of time before a startup comes and tackles web identity issues with a simplistic, robust, solution that earns them millions and affords individuals assurance that there is little user fraud going on in the background.

Universal Browser Login

Within the past five years we have really started to move into the world of customizable browsers. Bringing forward plugin options for practically everything that you can imagine. While this has definitely been a big improvement, there are still many problems that haven’t been addressed.

First and foremost is the lack of user-friendly customized browser setup. While there are a million plugins, it is a pain in the butt to have to sift through everything to find the right options and plugins that give you the perfect experience. Further, your effort is lost when you use a friend’s computer or plugg into the web from another point.

My solution: Design the first fully customizable, open-source web browser. Login to it and your world is at your fingertips no matter if in New York, or Australia.

Now, I’d like to get a glimpse of what you are thinking. What are your thoughts? Do these startup ideas sound like services you would take advantage of, or just more useless junk on the web?

Are there any other ideas that you think could make for meaningful, potentially profitable startups?

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention 3 Online Startup Ideas I'd Like to See People Take a Stab At -- Topsy.com

  • http://www.foursides.ca James M

    Some of the ideas you have mentioned are currently being tackled right now.

    Life Stats: Check out http://blippy.com/ or http://www.mint.com for an idea of what people are doing. Blippy socializes all of your credit card transactions, Amazon, etc. so people can see what you’re spending money on, and you can be more accountable for your expenditures. I don’t believe it will say you spent $100 at Starbucks, but when you see that you went to Starbucks daily, it might be more effective. Mint.com gathers all of your bank account information and helps break it down for you so you’re more fully aware of how you’re spending money. I can’t use it in Canada, but I’ve only heard rave reviews about it.

    Universal Identity: Tools like FacebookConnect and OpenAuth are aiding in helping you create a seamless identity across websites. I’m sure everyone has used either FacebookConnect or OpenAuth (to connect your Twitter account, as an example) at least once. Google Profiles has creating a landing spot for people to see all of your social sites, web sites, pictures, etc. This area has made huge jumps in the past few years in making the creation of identity easier, and it will only become more secure and easy to use.

    Universal Browser Login: There are a few options here. With a browser like RockMelt, you can connect your Facebook account to the browser. You have access to all of your Facebook contacts on the left, browsing tools on the right. It’s only in Beta, based upon Chrome, so it could be very likely in the future that you will be able to save your preferences onto a server. Open up the browser, connect to that server to pull all of your preferences, and you’re on the go. There are a lot of bookmarking sites where you can access your bookmarks on the go, and there are projects for mobile browsing that you put onto a USB drive. Although you have to remember to bring the USB with you when going to a different computer, it is a solution. There’s versions of Opera, Firefox, and Chrome that I know of. Do a Google search for “usb browser”

    • http://moderncommunicator.com David Guzman

      Hi James,

      I’m terribly sorry for the extremely late reply, but this post published at a crazy time and I forgot to respond!

      First off – thanks so much for your candid insight!

      I’ve actually used both Blippy and Mint in the past and have been fairly impressed with both services. While I see more need surrounding a service such as Mint to track the minutiae of personal finance, socialization around our purchases is definitely an interesting phenomenon that we already see in our daily life.

      I totally agree with you that both Facebook and OpenAuth are actively trying to tackle the identity problem occuring throughout the web. However, it still remains interesting that despite such efforts a major player has seized to emerge thus far. Perhaps we will see this in the not so distant future?

      As far as the universal browser login is concerned, RockMelt is definitely one of the key players in this space thus far – but only in the social realm. Logging in with Facebook to RockMelt will only reveal the friends you have online. Recently, Google Chrome opened the “Chrome Web Store,” a simple location where users can go to download and install a variety of Chrome plugins. The only thing that I am waiting on is the login feature that allows you to reach your personal browser regardless of where you are, which seems like the next natural step after focussing on user browser customization.

      Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

      -d

  • http://www.dennisedell.com/about Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing

    It shouldn’t be surprising that two of the biggest companies haven’t jumped in to fix the identity issue…they are two of the biggest problems in that area.

  • http://www.ecardlr.com Alex@ecardlr

    Well those are surely some innovative ideas. But I am sure there must be a few people working on those ideas

    • http://moderncommunicator.com David Guzman

      Yup, there definitely are. Nevertheless, many of these needs have yet to be directly addressed.

  • http://www.megabizflakes.com Samuel

    Awesome ideas man. I love all the ideas most especially the #1 idea :D , Umm.. i will try to look into it and am sure other peeps will love to give it a shot. Thanks for sharing man. Have fun.

    • http://moderncommunicator.com David Guzman

      Thanks for the feedback, Samuel. You should jump in and make millions with one of these ideas now. : )

  • Kalen

    Number 1 and 3 could probably be done right now. The 2nd seems impossible until we start using retinal scans, thermal facial imaging or something else that is highly complex and can actually identify a real person in the digital universe.

  • Martin

    I just found a new site that is all about innovative ideas for startups: http://www.ideaswatch.com/. Try to post it there ;-) Maybe someone will decide to go for it.

    • http://moderncommunicator.com David Guzman

      Thanks for the suggestion, Martin. I will definitely give it a shot.

      Thanks for reading my post.

      -d

  • http://www.clickclickmedia.com.au Phil

    When I read the personalised life stats title I imagined a full body picture of yourself with stats laid out either side. alot like an mmo or rpg game. lol