This is an idea I've had for a while. I'm busy and don't see potential for a 10 billion IPO in a few years. However, I think it's an interesting idea and I haven't found a similar website online so far. I'll throw in the towel and share it with BFI.

Let me state it as simple as possible: it will be a website where you can quickly post something that will be available "in the future". I can write my stuff down on the website and tie it to a release date/time. This will generate links like:

intothefuture.com/writser/soccermatch
intothefuture.com/writser/pokerhand

If you go to the link, you will see something like: "Writser's prediction will be available in three days.". Only after the release date the message will be visible for everybody. You can link messages to your email address / forum username to verify your identity (I have some vague ideas about this, requires some extra thought). The website should also create a link to an image file, so you can include your future post in every regular forum.

A few use cases:

1. You want to do a bet with some 2+2'ers on a sports match. However, you have some unique insights and you don't want to share your prediction because that would put you at a disadvantage.

2. You want to discuss a poker hand online, yet not give away the result immediately.

3. You want to be a smartass and predict something in a random thread, without influencing any events. Like "you will not pass your job interview because you wear pink sneakers".

4. You can play rock-paper-scissors on an internet forum.

So basically, you can use it to do some fun (and ocasionally useful) things on internet forums. Unfortunately "inthefuture.com" is already taken. I'm thinking about registering futpost.com or something. Please tell me why this is a terrible idea and/or who did it already.

Longbets.org does something similar right? They just focus on prop bets over a longer time horizon (min 2 years) and the questions they tackle tend to have some kind of economic or social significance.

Importing fresh mangoes from the Philippines.

The problem:

Yellow mangoes in local markets that claim to be Philippine mangoes come from seeds cultivated in California and Mexico. These mangoes are not nearly as sweet and they have an inferior texture. Due their short shelf life (< 10 days from the time they make it to the markets in the Philippines) shipping is prohibitively expensive to deal with. Customs inspections could also kill an entire shipment if they take too long.

Solution:

Find customers (higher end restaurants and bars) that can justify the markup to discerning patrons. I have contacts with various people in the industry that I can give product samples to and work with them to find a way to incorporate it into different menus. On the marketing angle, I'd pair up with a supplier from the Philippines that focuses on issues that many of these restaurants do care about such as fair and ethical treatment of the supplier's workers, sustainable farming practices, etc.

Obstacles to viability:

Most of the information about importing restrictions and process can be found online but there are still key gaps in my knowledge such as lead times and likelihood of delays.

Even though many products can make a claim to terroir and justify higher prices for them, it can take a long time to change consumer attitudes.

Even though I can find some takers in the restaurant industry to purchase mangoes, the market may not be large enough to sustain an income for even a single person. Fortunately I don't see the costs to entry to be too high and there's always room for growth with other products. I chose this specific one because I really ****ing love these things.

Things to do:

Get air freight quotes for various package sizes and go through the labyrinth of Canadian food importing regulations.

Do double blind tests on the product (as a fresh fruit to eat, as a juice, as a smoothie, etc.) to see if it is superior to the supposedly inferior products from California/Mexico.

Find an ethical supplier and get quotes for various shipment sizes.

What other obstacles do you guys see in this? I can see at least a few cases where it won't be economical but I may go through with it anyways for a couple shipments. At the minimum I'll learn a new skill (importing produce) and it could be fun getting more experience doing sales and presentations which is something I don't get to do at all in my current job (software dev).

Thanks

one of my good college friends did the peace corps in west africa and noticed the same thing. the country he was in had the most amazing mangoes all over the place, to the point to where they were a hassle for people there to deal with and dirt cheap.

The business was originally going to be about finding buses to events (concerts etc) and the background is left over from then. It does need to be updated.

Great thread!

A friend of mine has created a new site called Natter.com. Basically it's like an organized chat roulette, but can be policed since you have to sign in with Facebook.

You 'speed' chat with people via webcam for 1 minute, then it asks you if you'd like to continue chatting, add on fb, or rate them. There are various rooms with different topics, and I think you can create new ones? There is no real emphasis put on dating though it sounds like a dating site.

I think it has awesome potential, and the actual execution of the features is really good. There are things I would change it were mine, but hopefully he'll see good growth.

It's had some cool press releases recently and has been mentioned in some big newspapers, as well as having a 'celebrity' talk on there for a few hours. (celebrity was one of the women from 'The Only Way is Essex' TV show in UK)

As a user you get 'Natter' points which directly correlate with how much you've been using the site. A 1 minute chat equals 1 natter point. I'm not sure if you can earn Natter points at varying rates. There has been an affiliate program implemented recently which pays £10 per referred user and £10 for your first 10 Natter points, once they've reached 10 Natter points. e.g. I refer Fred, and Fred earns 10 Natter points... I get £10, Fred gets £10.

If anyone's got any questions I can try pass them on to the founder.

[...] actually I would just dub the videos (poker coaching site).

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Saw some of the ideas I put out, the signing deals seems to be someone doing some K's already. The recipe seems to be demand (both on selling and buying recipes) but no one doing a good job of making money out of it. The one page news there was one decent that I saw and another one lousy, people were buying more than one until they found one acceptable. <15 min google research though.

Here's an idea. Some kind of browser plugin (or site) that allows you to filter google search results based on all kinds of different semantic categories.

Like say I want to look up some recent or past political event but only want to see results from legitimate news sources (not the internet echo-chamber/blogosphere etc. - something like the way safe search filters out porn sites). I haven't even begun to think about all the filtration categories like this. But I know that one really annoys me.

I have an idea for an anti-greenwashing site where products are rated & compared based upon their actual sustainability (i.e. lays chips putting a green leaf on the bag to fool people into thinking its eco-friendly). I'd like it to operate like the "Eat This, Not That" book about diets. It would cover as many products as possible, but mostly call out those that are completely full of crap.

I guess as a start it would directly target companies that are trying to take advantage of the green movement in dishonest ways. I have a domain name purchased, but I haven't taken the initiative to get it going. If you're interested in talking about it, feel free to PM. I am 50/50 about making it a non profit or an LLC with someone else. Not soliciting anything but conversation.

A Groupon clone for whorehouses, saunas, strip clubs and adult karaokes (in areas where these activities are legal). Over here this market spends a lot of money advertising on adult websites and magazines so there is obviously a need for promotion. Since websites like Groupon would never promote this kind of business in order to protect their reputation, I believe there is a market for a Groupon-like site that targets this niche. A large part of this business' revenue depends on repeat costumers, which is the premise that Groupon offers (spend money to get them in the door and make money from their repeat business).

I had an idea during the last semester to design a site that is similar to what Facebook was supposed to be, incorporating ideas from other sites as well.

It'd be an easy way to find someone to study with that was taking your classes, and you can also rate your professors and classes, as sort of an added bonus to help success in college.

I planned on doing this by having everyone sign up with their university email address, so as not to get trolls. When they signed up, they had the option to enter their course schedule and they would then get into a sub-community of everyone taking that course. You could post to a group wall saying you were having trouble with a certain section and partner up with someone who knew what they were doing.

If you didn't trust people in your class to know the right answer, I'd have the solution for that. Something similar to 2+2's coaching forum. You post your credentials, probably a transcript or something, showing proof that you know what you're doing. You can charge for tutoring but would have to pay a fee to be able to post about your services.

Near the end of a semester, there would be an option to rate your professor on clarity, quality and how easy the class was.. similar to RateMyProfessor. I planned on starting it only at U of Toledo, but branching out if the demand was there.

I don't have nearly the coding experience to do it well, nor do I have the assets to start it up but I think it's a decent idea.

So, I work in this industry. Not the "anti-greenwashing" one, but the one where we would benefit greatly from people seeing the truth in CSR campaigns given that our entire business model is based on it (based on this + what I've talked about before, someone should be able to figure out where I work).

There is a HUGE need for something like this. B Lab is a great source for finding companies that are serious about their mission. They do a very rigorous vetting process and have strict guidelines for what you have to do to become and stay a member. We are one, so I've seen it.

But, they are much more focused on the business side of things. They don't have a consumer marketplace, not many people know they can use them to find eco-/socially-responsible products, etc.

I'd be more than willing to talk to you more about it if you're interested.

Wow I REALLY like this. It sort of exists but not well done. So many implications for me as an SEO. Not sure exactly what I would want but you would get a <$20/month subscription (assuming you build it before I jank one together myself ) out of me and probably a lot of my fellow SEO's if you could do this. Also, would love one for Twitter.

This was my fav idea thus far in my thread.

Some ideas;

Taxi vouchers for anyone that makes it high on the leaderboards. Also, have a taxi/related service that can be ordered directly from the interface. This should mitigate liability.

Perhaps starting this in Australia/Canada would be better because you get the 18-21 year olds (a significant part of the "competitive drinking niche").

Well the hard part would be maintaining the gigantic database of websites categorized dozens or maybe hundreds of different ways for use in filtration. Pretty sure it's not something you could just jank out in a week.

Well my jank out utilitarian version (just to get a specific project done) would auto the scrape and give a bunch of different options for removing results. I actually already have it half written but like I said I would love a premium well done version and would pay for an intuitive semantic grouping database like you said. My guess is instead of creating another Google you would run upon request but Im no developer!

why would you go through the hassle of getting into the bar/restaurant business? Starting up dozens of bars yourself all over the country would be a much bigger project in itself and would involve a large investment and tons of risk. Just build/design the system, then approach established bars with the concept and charge them a monthly fee for the service. Plus, this way you might be able to deflect some of the liability because you're not the one selling the alcohol.

open source poker software that uses bitcoins and has some way of splitting up player funds automatically among trusted people. maybe even have a way to decentralize the hosting of the games as well.

whoever had the idea of something that alerts u when interesting things are happening could make a site that is like reddit where u can post interesting events and upvote and downvote them depending on importance. it could be split up into categories so that people receive alerts on only the things they care about.

Voting is slow and inaccurate.

You would be far better off letting the software figure out what someone may be interested in from their location, interests, browsing history, friends, etc.

Why not use RFID tags in the ball and sensors in the field. It would be way less costs than using fiber optics. You could also do this in any sport: football, baseball, soccer, hockey, etc.

Ok so here's one that would obviously be a ton of work but there's no limit to how much big companies would pay for it - a content management system/web framework that smoothly handles all devices and promises to deal with future platforms like Kindle, or who knows what.

My company empoys 50+ people just to keep the full web site, smartphone site, basic blackberry site all running along - and it's an absolute nightmare to make sure they stay in sync. And now our full site sucks on the iPad so they're going to have to add another branch for that at some point. The system could even use phonegap to push certain functionality out to iOS or Android apps.

As mentioned earlier, I run a small business. Discounts and couponing is a huge part of my business, as it is with other small businesses. We have a lot of digital discounts, but 80-90% is still physical coupons people have printed or cut out.

What would be the problem in creating a system to better track physical coupon redemptions. I think if you offered a system to create custom QR codes/bar codes/url whatever to print on your coupons then it would bring two benefits...

1) Obviously it gives you the ability to see all kinds of metrics and data associated with your campaigns.

2) It would open up an affiliate market that would bridge the gap between online and offline. If you opened up certain coupons to marketers, then it could create a custom affiliate code. You can develop relationships with people that are interested in promoting your brand and allow them to make some money based on how many of their coupons were redeemed in store.

I think the biggest challenge will be introducing another piece of technology into businesses. The code reader would have to be easy to use and cheap. The only other way I could see it working is to integrate it with the POS system.

Hopefully that made sense. I was developing the idea as I was writing this.

Thoughts?

I like this idea and agree that it would have to be integrated into the POS system. The difficulty in tracking would be based on the functionality of the POS you use. You might not even need to use QR codes to do it. I know that there are dummy UPCs set aside that you would be able to use. Buying UPCs is also very inexpensive and you can get the UPC graphics generated for free.

Any comment on why that would or would not work? I am seriously considering doing this.