Thread by @rickyyean

Some of my personal #RequestForStartups (themes I personally find interesting). Here we go! Thread 👇

1/ 🏫Operationalizing @ycombinator: Create places online where different types of creatives can commune, compete in a structured game and give/receive frequent feedback. Like what @pioneerdotapp is doing.

2/ 💛Future of social media: Who is being underserved by the ad-based business model because it optimizes for engagement at all costs? Who feels those costs enough to shut off Facebook, and where do they go?

3/ 📷Camera-first utilities: Using Highlighter.com by @dksf was nifty. Can we use the camera for more productive things? Can taking pictures of food automatically log it for us? Can we finally split restaurant bills easily?

4/ 📦New platform plays: Can we build on top of @zoom_us now that vidchat quality is reliable? Can we build on top of @WeWork and leverage the commonalities in their physical spaces?

5/ ⛪️New religions: Remote work (leader: @photomatt), sane work (leader: @dhh), humane tech (leader: @tristanharris), FIRE (leader: @mrmoneymustache). Software is useful for legitimizing new religions to the masses. Opportunities here?

6/ 🧩Full-stack/vertical integration: I’m starting with industries with high BBB complaints (bbb.org/council/consum…) and applying my criteria (medium.com/@rickyyean/sho…) to find a good full-stack opportunity.

7/👩‍⚕️New tools for new jobs: There aren’t terrific tools for data scientists yet. What about everyone fixing and rebalancing shared bikes and scooters? IG influencers? What else is new?

8/ 🦟Antivirus for deepfakes: today’s viruses are deepfakes, crypto scams, 3rd-party trackers, filter bubbles, flame wars, and dark UX patterns. How do we fight them?

9/ 🤝New trust-building: our current proxies for trust (brand, ratings and reviews, real names, ID verification, mutual friends, background checks, licensing, etc.) are becoming insufficient. Who is underserved and how are they solving for trust differently?

10/ ⌚️Time-shifted content consumption: More on-demand means less live/shared experiences. Replaying reactions by playing back Twitter is one thing, but what if you take first principles to designing rich experiences when time-shift is the default?

11/ 👩‍🏫Best of the best: I’ve been really enjoying watching experts analyze other experts, Penn & Teller style. @kobebryant's Detail, @alphagomovie, @bballbreakdown, @maestroparedes, etc. Find a coach or people who are top 100 at what they do, but empathetic enough to.

12/ 😜Jokey ideas: Toreba (control a real-life crane machine), Uber for wingmen (sell companionship like Japan), Woke co. (help the world get woke), Asian people Yelp (because authentic Asian food are rated incorrectly on Yelp)

13/ Wrote a bit more about each in my latest essay, lmk what you think! 🤗 medium.com/@rickyyean/i-g…