The Product Ideas Newsletter #6

bodymodifications, houseplants, and YC for X

3 Prompts

• What is something you spend a lot of time on and are unhappy about it?

• What product could you create to respond to the rapidly increasing interest in Houseplants?

• What could you build at the intersection of the human desire for social contact and social robots? (I had to include this prompt because I was happy that my prompt generator occasionally spits out something that makes sense.)

2 Opportunities

• Work and lectures are now happening remotely. As a result, it's no longer possible to build a network in traditional ways. What solutions will emerge to solve this problem? One interesting angle is "Y Combinator for X". For example, Substack is now offering a "YC for writers". The primary benefit that YC offers to founders is access to a network of successful and like-minded people. The funding startups get is negligibly small, you can learn everything that is taught by browsing the free YC Startup Library, and all the advice that is offered during the office hours is also available in Paul Graham's essays. A great book to learn more about how YC works is The Launch Pad by Randall Stross.

• Bodymodifications (e.g. for health tracking purposes), will be huge in the future. This is a great example of something that's currently only done by "crazy" rich people that will soon receive mainstream adoption.

1 Thought

"Often the best ideas come from one’s own experiences. Write a detailed diary of everything you do in a typical day and identify things that could be improved. It could be something important (e.g. what tasks to prioritize in your day) or relatively small (e.g. deciding whether to bike or take an Uber to work)." - Ryan Hoover