A poker coaching/video site where EVERYONE can upload their own videos and set a price as much as they want. For example Galfond could sell his 45 min Highstakes video for $200 and some crushing 0.5/1 reg could sell his vid for $10.

The site owner receives a share of the price. Something like 70/30 in favor of the player. Site owner handles all the technical and financial aspects. Players/video creators receive one payment a month.

Some obvious advantages are:
-players are not forced to upload a new video, they can do it whenever they want
-players get more money with this concept if they upload great content. Lets take Galfond:
Receives ~200k from Bluefire for one year. With the new system he uploads 1 VIDEO A MONTH at $200. 200 downloads = $336.000 at 70/30 share and $384.000 at 80/20 for a year time span
-players can sell their videos for whatever amount they want
-players can add videos in whatever language they want. right now 95% of coaching sites only offer videos in english. but what about croatians, swedish, peruvian and so on... those will be all on one platform now...

Get 1 big name pro to join this site and you will be #1/2 pretty much overnight.

I could go on and on, but not much time right now.

If you do this, I am happy with 5% of profits

This is just a really random thought and I haven't done much research but...

Is there any company that tries to take advantage of the fact that businesses offer credit terms such as 2/10, n/60 or 1/10, n/60, yet a very very small % of businesses actually pay early despite short term interest rates being ~0%?

So, for an example, there are 3 companies: A, B, and C
A is Sports Authority
B is a supplier
C is the idea

A owes be 100,000 as of today with terms 2/10, n/60. C pays A 98,000 within 10 days. A now owes C 100,000. C gives A a small discount to make it worthwhile, so A pays 99,500 instead. C makes 1500 in <50 days given the credit terms on a 98k investment. Obviously this would be more profitable given better credit terms, such as 2/10, n/30, so it only takes 20 days to earn the 1.5k.

Potential Problems:
-Transaction costs (Can see ways around this but maybe not?)
-Credit risk (company not paying early may carry non-negligible default probability)-- is it the case that offering the cash discount is actually optimal for the company offering it?

I am guessing that either
a) credit risk makes this not profitable or
b) someone already does this

The Galfond video example is bad, I mean I'm not sure how much a bluefire subscription goes for, but you have access to hours and hours and Galfond for that price. Are there really many players who would pay 200 bucks for one video? As opposed to pooling some money together with some friends or getting it for free on some russian site?
Could work better with much more affordable price tags, but then users might have an issue with the quality of the videos of unknown, unverified coaches. I don´t know, there may be something there, but logistics are complicated and something need to be done to make sure there are no ripoff vids on the site

Yeah, lots of people already do this. In fact there is at least one startup doing BigData machine learning to do this better than everyone else by doing credit risk better than everyone else. one of their non-conventional data points is UPS/FedEx shipments

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but you might find this helpful: http://milestonemade.com/looseleaf/ It's a scratch paper app on your iPad.

It's done by a friend of mine, but i have no stake in it, financial or otherwise.

I have a great idea for a thread but I'm not going to start it as i'm scared other people will copy it. For now I'm happy to be really vague about my thread idea and hopefully build some interest in it before I actually start it. Does anyone think this is a good idea or should I just start the thread now instead of in 9 months time?

Thoughts?

I don't think I will be able to wait 9 months without knowing.

Yeah, I know of at least 2 doing something like this (developing alternate credit scoring and lending based on that). One is here in Atlanta, and the other was started by the husband of a friend of mine and is based out of the UK.

It's a very interesting concept and one that definitely offers a lot of potential for disruption. I really can't see the big banks moving in to this lending space except by buying someone who is already successful at it.

I have the idea for an anonymous safety net. Most people engage in some sort of risky life activity, whether its outdoor related, dating, or sexually related where they'd benefit from having a safety net.

Most people take extra risk because they don't want family or friends to know what they're doing, don't want to bother family/friends, or can't rely on them.

A website/app where you could fill in an automated ticket, with options of what you want to happen if you don't cancel the ticket, with your information and a deadline.

You pay a small fee to create a ticket. On the ticket you give a description of the activity, destination, timeline and what you want to happen if the ticket isn't cancelled by the deadline. Options of a trusted person called, phone call to your #, law enforcement called, etc.. If any of these options are triggered than you've agreed to pay an additional fee.

Want to go for a hike in the desert, engage in risky sex, or hang out at a crack house? Want an emergency safety line? Don't want to tell family or friends? Pay $5 for an anonymous ticket that will protect you.

That's some damn risky sex if dying is a real possibility.

Apparently you've never had really good sex.

There are other practical applications, I think. Get an automated call to get out of a date, etc..

eta: I was thinking outdoor activities, like that movie where the guy went hiking and had to cut off his own arm because no one knew where he was going.

eta 2: seems like it would be really handy for independant working girls as well.

i like the idea, but i don't know if people are going to pay enough for it

Maybe. I think the entry point would be cheap like $5 to create a ticket and no other fee if you cancel. The plan would be to make $ on lots of cancelled tickets and then charge considerably higher $ if a ticket has to be handled by calling, etc..

I'm hoping that something like a $5 price point would be low enough to entice people and the threat of being charged $25+ to have someone follow up if something went wrong wouldn't be a problem. If you're actually in danger who cares about spending $50 or $500 to get help on the way?

Pricing for something like this could be difficult I really don't know. People are strange about money. they have no problem paying $5+ for drinks regularly but bitch about paying <$5 for a book.

I think there are lots of people who could benefit from the service. Kind of a private, anonymous, judgement free 911 type service?

only works is if it is a mobile app, free to "create tickets," and then you make all your money on the back end. even then i am still skeptical.

Yes, it definitely has to be an app everyone can have on their phone. I think you'd have to make some money on the front end, maybe even if it was as little as $1 to create a ticket, as a vetting process.

I think making money on the backend would be tough because of the work involved in following up on tickets? I'm guessing (pulling it out of my ass) that less than 1/1000 tickets has to be followed up on (if there is sufficient $ penalty) and even fewer require real time.

Im either entirely wrong about the marketability of this or 2+2 engages in no risky activities in life. Hasn't everyone here gone on a trip, date, hike,meeting,(whatever activity) where they thought I wish I could leave a sealed envelope with someone in case I don't come back, but didn't want to involve or bother anyone?

You might be onto something... maybe... But I'm still trying to visualize that one ideal scenario where your service would work great.

Think of a good example and describe it to us and why it would be nice and useful.

Personally, I am thinking of my troubles in Bogota that I wrote up here - where there was a decent chance of me getting stabbed/hurt. And none of my friends or family even knew I was out of the country when this happened. (Especially for my family, I prefer not to update them or check-in so that they do not expect updates/check-ins and worry when I get delayed with something.)

I travel a fair bit and it's usually to developing countries. When I go out at night in some random African city, what sort of alert could I set? It would be expensive to set an alert every time I go out, and there would be lots of false triggers when I fail to check back in because of connection issues or other delays.

Would I have to check-in with your service each day to make it useful? If I die, there's no rush and eventually authorities will figure out that I went through border control and ended up in Bogota and that there is a body in Bogota. And if I'm in the hospital it's not like my parents can do anything for me when they get a message a week later and I've already received the bulk of emergency care. (Plus, I have evacuation insurance that would extract me back to the US for proper service.)

And you have stuff like Spot that lets you trigger an emergency message when you get in trouble while hiking/etc. using the GPS satellites.

So I'm having trouble visualizing any practical void that your service would fill and how it would work. Give us a well thought-out scenario.

Well, it wouldn't be expensive to set an alert, I'm thinking $1-$5. It would be expensive if you didn't cancel an alert. Connectivity would be on the user. I don't see it as useful on a "go out for the evening" basis.

I envision it as an app/site where you set up a personal profile and then anytime you want to create a ticket/ alert you'd have an option to fill in as much information as you want (who, what, when, where, what to do if I don't cancel my ticket on time).

You wouldn't need to check in with my service ever. You'd only use it when you thought you were going to engage in risky activity and wanted a safety line.

I'm familiar with spot but nobody wants to pay for the device and service - I realize that, yes it's useful and people do pay for it but I think it's a different market and spot has been proven somewhat unreliable and there is the issue of carrying another device.

Specific examples:

1. There was a recent movie of a guy who went hiking, had a boulder fall on him and he had to cut off his own arm. It's been awhile since I saw it but I vaguely remember him trying to let people know where he was going and no one was home. He could have created a ticket saying "I'm going hiking in X area, I'll be back by XX/XX/XXXX. IF I don't cancel my ticket by X time please contact (family, friend, law enforcement). He could provide as much information in his profile as he wanted. If he didn't return by the specified time it would trigger notification of family or law enforcement, etc..

2. Longer term, offshore sailors could enter their details, itinerary, etc., and set long range tickets where the coast guard or authorities would be notified if they didn't cancel their own ticket. They'd be able to put detailed information in their own profile. There are huge problems all of the time when boats go missing because no on knows if they're actually missing yet. It would be great if sailors could take some control of this (might be a separate total business).

3. Independent hooker wants a safety net. Has a profile setup and can easily enter destination, John, info, etc. and setup a trigger for a safety call, or alert authorities.

4. Risky sexual encounters, women dating, bdsm community wanting safeguards. Women are much more at risk anytime they meet someone and may want a safety net? As well as a way out. Go on a date and if it doesn't go well you send a text, or don't send a text by x time, to end the ticket and get an urgent call requiring you to end the date.

Woman can say " I have to go X emergency" for a small upfront fee and small fee if she wants out.

5. Any meeting you're uncomfortable going to. Have an out or at least know they'll get burnt if you're dead.

seems like a pretty cool idea

The idea may have some merit. I think I like the idea of a one time setup fee of $5 and then create alerts for free. I think you get less resistance if you want to charge people $1 every time they create an alert, and you still get people vetted.

what about a dating site for fat BBW women... We all love them so lets give them their own space

aren't all dating sites basically just for fat women?


eta:

Steve,
you may have a good idea with an initial setup fee of $5.

My plan is that when a ticket is created they link to their paypal and agree to pay a fee based on what response they want if the ticket isn't cancelled. I don't want the tickets to be totally free or people will be creating a ton of tickets.

I kind of envision it as something the average person might use once per month, though hookers might find it useful several times per night. I might have to offer a special hooker package/ pricing.

The fee will have to be fairly large like $25 plus to make sure people don't forget to cancel their tickets and to cover the work of dealing with the ticket.

No idea just how hard this is going to be to setup up or make an app for but I think I can get a mvp up pretty quick and then go from there.

The thing is if it takes off at all I'd need to scale pretty fast because I think to do it right will require a real employee on call 24hrs per day to deal with un cancelled tickets/ emergencies. I don't expect a lot of work or emergencies but if I'm going to offer the service the emergencies have to be dealt with properly.

Thinking of calling it Slafety.com - Life Safety

I could see a lot of false positives happening because the person who set the notice up forgot to inform it that he's back and all is well.

If the trigger action is to call 911 I wonder how well they will handle a ton of fake calls, especially if the instructions are potentially expensive like flying a medical/rescue team out to the top of some mountain range.

Also I feel like a lot of services would be for shady things but who do you call for "shady thing rescues"? You can't call 911 and tell them you're snorting coke off a dead hooker's toenail under a bridge. Also with all of the NSA crap going on would you even want information like that sent over the phone even if it was to your best friend?

Making the response anonymous like "xyz is in immediate danger and their well being is at risk" is going to set off alarm bells too.

I like the idea. If it's used as intended though you might end up having to take part in lots of investigations when people do go missing. No idea if people would pay for it or not.

Instead of aiming it at everyone, I'd pick a specific group of people to target it at.

I think I could avoid false positives by having an automated fee of $25, or more, for any ticket not cancelled on time.

I think fees for anything like a 911 call would have to be quite high, probably >$100 because we obviously want to discourage that and not be making lots of emergency calls. On the other hand if you actually need 911 called on your behalf you're not going to care that it cost >$100.

I also think the service would be more useful for alerting a family member or friend if the ticket isn't cancelled and then the trusted family member or friend could take over and decide whether to initiate a search and rescue, go look for them, check at their house, etc..

The default also might need to be a phone call to the person who submitted the ticket before anything else.

There are lots of details to be ironed out but I think there are people who would use the service.

The details is where this will fail IMO.

The entire purpose of this system is to avoid calling your buddy and telling him to take action if you're not back from your skiing trip in a few days.

The person leaving to go skiing has a large incentive to cancel it because he doesn't want to worry or bother his friend. A $25 fee (or any fee) isn't really going to do anything other than sap $ from his pocket when he legitimately forgets.

If the person is capable of receiving a phone call to confirm then they are most likely capable of sending a call for assistance on their own without the need for any assistance.

Can you list off a bunch of cases where someone would directly ask for a 911 assistance call instead of using their friend to relay the info to 911 without having to pay potentially $100+? What's to stop people from gaming your system too, the skiier in the above example could just tell his friend to call 911 but your system would never know because those details aren't put into the ticket description.