10 Good Startup Ideas for 2017/2018

It’s that time of year again. Time to start a new company! No, not me, not yet… I’m still working on http://freebeer.ai, which by the way just made some real money last week (our first time asking for money generated about a 2% conversion rate).

Nevertheless, here are 10 Good Startup Ideas for 2017/2018… according to, well, me.
Why are they good, you might ask?
“Why are they good Dr. Beverly?”
Well…
I have no idea if they are actually good (e.g. will generate sales), which is how I usually determine goodness… but…
These ideas seem: a.) to solve a real problem. b.) to be easily testable c.) to be scaleable and d.) be able to have something that is protect-able.

Here they are, steal them please!

1.) Solar Computers
2.) AI for exercise/fitness (maybe even a martial arts bent to it)… the AI personal trainer.
3.) Solar Bike
4.) AI for price-matching
5.) Solar Gameboy
6.) AI for research (market research, topic research, searches, etc.).
SENSING A THEME OR 2 HERE?
Okay, here is a few more…
7.) VR Cafe / Gym
8.) Smarter Microwaves
9.) VR College
10.) Smarter Dishwasher

More themes? Well, yes. 2017/2018:
AI is exploding
Solar is burgeoning
VR is popping
and Smart is here to stay.

Get crakin’
Oh, and please buy my new book… Lean Startings – a novel about the life of a Lean Startup

Redefining Intelligence

Yesterday I was lecturing to a bunch of awesome UT Students and I was asked for an example of one of ‘my’ lighthouse principles.  I said ‘fairness’, because I do believe in fairness; primarily fairness of opportunity.   When I said this fairness principle applies to ‘grading’, the students were quite happy about that!

A similar value of mine is ‘effort’.  That if people will apply enough effort they can achieve anything.

So, how does this relate to intelligence?

Well, two things, a child can be intelligent, but not given equal opportunity (fairness), and thus fall behind others… and specifically fail to learn how to effectively learn (i.e. they might be quick to learn, if they had the opportunity).  Thus when that child does poorly in school, and drops out, and stops learning new things, are they less intelligent?  Society says no… I think the answer should be ‘yes’.

Second, and opposite, a child can be considered a ‘slow learner’, but who puts in maximum effort, and learns how to learn (for them), and gains average grades in school but sticks with it.  This child learns advanced mathematics, science, history, and more… is this ‘slow learner’ still considered as not very intelligent?  Society says yes… I think the answer is no.  This child is MORE intelligent than the quick learner who (for reasons in or out of their control) does not put in enough effort to continue learning.

Here’s what this all means:  I believe that intelligence should be a measure of the knowledge that a person has gained and retained.  This is not how fast or how easy it is for that person to learn new things, because with enough effort, that can be overcome.  This is instead how MUCH that person has learned, whether by whatever amount of effort it might have taken.

The quickness of how fast someone can learn (or memorize or problem solve), is a totally separate trait, barely worthy of consideration (e.g. IQ is useless).  Thus we must not call the lazy quick learner who does not apply themselves as intelligent.  We must not accept the messed up education system that does not give the quick learner enough opportunity.   Even more so, we must not call the ‘not as quick’ learners less intelligent, instead we must give them ‘fair’ opportunity to apply effort to gain intelligence.