Is seems that most of the people talking about startups imply a web app. Which makes me wonder if anyone is considering an embedded or more traditional desktop/server software product?
Or what about something more brick and mortar, a physical product or a service that must be carried out in person? I am becoming increasingly critical of the immense value we put on things that exist strictly on the web.
I started a company that has nothing to do with the web at all. After a few years, it has done quite well.
It seems that many believe here that the only form of entrepreneurship worth pursuing is web-based apps, or, failing that, a technology-oriented company.
But many startups do quite well by innovating with business processes, targeting inefficient industries, or offering more traditional but innovative products to underserved consumers or businesses.
For example, furniture seller Design Within Reach beat the pants off their VC funded online competitors in the late 90s, using the massive innovation of a paper catalogue. This worked because the furniture industry had extremely poor customer service, and they figured out how to fix that by being an excellent reseller; they knew that "being online" was not a magic pill.
"It seems that many believe here that the only form of entrepreneurship worth pursuing is web-based apps, or, failing that, a technology-oriented company."
There are huge margins, opportunities for disruption, potential for capital efficiency, and huge scaling advantages for software/tech businesses (which is why they are popular with VCs and entrepreneurs alike. But there are obviously plenty of examples of offline business that prosper (or even grow like gangbusters).
(Design within Reach is an awesome example, by the way)
I'm not doing a startup so much as building real estate investing business right now. I am running through the "4 Steps to Epiphany" and Ferris's processes right now. I'm trying to bring in innovations from current day techs (blog, web, etc.) however, I'm finding a number of the customers don't have ready access to the web.
We are focusing purely on mobile. For us, iPhone is an excellent spearhead platform, which has solved distribution and payment problems well enough so that you can test out ideas, but we are following e.g. Nokia closely. App/service development technology in mobile will quite likely go towards HTML5 too, but it ain't there yet, so that's why we are still putting effort to native implementation.
In my opinion, the key insight from the business perspective is that the most mid-range to high-end mobile handset models will have user-friendly, App Store like payment procedures in three years time. And, at least in Europe, people are more used to paying for content in mobile compared to standard web.
I think it would be interesting to hear more discussion on HN regarding these different types of problems. Just as we can all learn about optimal web promotion strategies, or the right development framework to use, so too should we learn from others about how to identify the right manufacturing partners, how to arrange distribution deals, channel strategies, etc.
I am getting involved in a plastics manufacturing business and reading like crazy to prepare myself for it.
the biggest problem I have is very similar to a technology problem. The engineers love to do design and vetting (ie/ riding the prototype parts) but are not keen on the follow through aspect of finalizing design and going to production to enable sales. Much the same as a technologist who loves to tinker and refactor, but isn't interested in shipping product or doing support.
Tarsnap (my online backup service startup) has a web site for signups and accounting; but it definitely falls into the "client/server app" category rather than the "web app" category.
It needs to be prepared in a fed licensed kitchen. Luckily, there are co-ops and rental places all over.
Here is a list: http://www.commercialkitchenforrent.com/
Our product idea tackles the analysis of massive amounts of data. Thus, we require relatively high computing power, data storage and bandwidth, and a rich, interactive UI. Consequently, we are going for a more traditional desktop app approach.
IMO, there's nothing wrong with either web, desktop, mobile, or whatever, which is why I don't understand the web vs. desktop wars that sometimes rage around here. Just use the right tool for the job.
I agree, but I really look at it in terms of what best suits your customer's needs.
Thats why I can't wait to get my hands on Atlas and give Cappuccino a whirl. Complete flexibility between desktop and the web could create a one-size-fits-all solution.
My startup's a Wide-Area Bonjour service (DNS with client updates, long lived queries and a convention for service discovery) which squares it in the client/server camp although it does have a web interface. The next thing I want to do isn't a (strict) web offering either.
These guys are in my town and do an excellent job of marketing themselves. I get the impression that the business is run very well. They have a really good internet presence - might be worth contacting them and picking the owners brain a bit seeing as your market is similar (upper midwest) but distanced enough to not be a huge direct competitor.
As someone who represents many startups from the legal angle, I have a good number of clients (especially serial entrepreneurs) who are attacking "high-value problems" faced by enterprise customers, and these often involve the more traditional desktop/server types of products - these may not be the most numerous but they are by far the most substantial in terms of resources invested and likelihood of high-value ($100M+) outcome.
That said, a large number of my startup clients (probably 60%+) are doing web-related apps as well.
I am working on a service for game developers that lets them add multiuser activities to end-user apps (say, an iPhone game). The difference from other services is that we host referees server side to watch over or officiate activities. The referees are created by the developers themselves, and since they run server side, deployment, cheat prevention, and client app creation are greatly simplified. Client apps become semi-dumb terminals. None of this is web based.
I run the US operations for a capital equipment company. We make equipment that makes nanofibers. This sounds high tech, but it isn't; our customers are textile, nonwovens, paper and filter companies. All of the modern pharmaceutical miracles are made possible by advanced filtration. www.elmarco.com
My GF is starting up a business in head hunting in the energy sector: http://www.boolos.com/
predictably times are slow right now so to lift the profile of our startup she has created a blog at blog.boolos.com which is well received by her peers.
I'm curious what the mathematical expectation of rewards per unit of effort put into various types of startups is. No one has probably tried to collect this sort of data.
I think there are some things you can do on the desktop that you can't do on the web. Or another way of looking at this -- the OS is simply a vastly complex web browser.
I thought about iPhone and Palm WebOS, but iPhone is saturated and Palm has crippled WebOS from doing anything truly fun.
Mobile software (e.g. iPhone apps) is another big category for recent startups. Personally I'm working at a startup developing mobile software that may be distributed along with hardware (through an OEM or other partnership with a manufacturer).
My fiancee and I have formed a company around her custom jewelry and fashion designs. We're getting all the pieces in place and are very close to launching.
Me and a friend are starting a healthy-eating salad bar, the first in the city. It's very different from programming, which is what excited me the most about the project.
i'm attempting to build one based on hacker-ish, somewhat collaborative principles. its slow going, though, because it at least partly involves steel manufacture, as well as electronics design.
its an interesting prospect, since the niche isn't huge, but it has potential, and because the margins on some of the things i'm looking to produce will likely be thin, at least to start. definitely different from how something like a web app works.
Our product has both desktop as well as web parts to it. Some of the code needs to be executed on the client machine which in no way we can shift to server.
