[rdtsc]

The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd:

"Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up"

Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.

[guelo]

1. The odds of succeeding at a startup are a lot better than 292 million to 1.

2. You get a paycheck, even if it's less than market rate.

3. It's fun and exciting to use someone else's money to try to come up with a new business type.

[downandout]

>3. It's fun and exciting to use someone else's money to try to come up with a new business type.

Most startups are not able to raise money from outside investors. In fact I'd say outside of the Stanford student/graduate/dropout crowd, it's probably less than 1%. The other 99% also don't get paychecks because they can't draw from investment capital they never got.

[pcmaffey]

4. You're much more likely to learn and grow professionally tackling problems you likely wouldn't otherwise face (or at least at a higher rate).

[pc86]

4A. Buying a $2 lottery ticket is faster.

[arikrak]

People often spend months or more on their own before they can raise external funding, become profitable or give up.

[pyrrhotech]

In most cases, it takes many months or years of unpaid work before you can even get VC funding or revenue of any type for your startup. And most startups fail before they even reach that state.

[akg_67]

You seem to have rose-colored view of startup and what it takes to succeed with a startup.

Your odds of succeeding at a startup may not be better. With powerball, you are risking $2 for 292 million to 1 odd. With startup, you are risking several thousand multiples of $2 in opportunity costs for potential return that might be at best 10x.

As a founder you don't get a paycheck unless you raise decent amount of OPM. There are 100s of founders who fail to raise any funding for every one who raises some. You just don't hear about such founders. Same applies to your point 3. You should talk to people who have raised OPM and the handcuffs they operate with.

[ethbro]

>"Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.

Obligatory (previously posted here): http://www.aviato.com/quiz

[praptak]

"Negative lottery as a service"

Customers (drawn from the rational HN crowd) pick lottery numbers and pledge not to play the lottery for a period of time (selectable from a really cool animated dropdown). At the end of the period we mail them the amount saved on tickets or, in the unlikely event the numbers actually came up, lost by not playing.

As premium paid service, infinite period of time with physical printed yearly reports and cool framed diplomas to hang on the wall.

[CPLX]

Lottery as a service

[n0us]

Get a $1 lottery ticket mailed to you in a nice cardboard box every month for only $11 dollars a year.

[LanceH]

I wanted to sell used lottery tickets for half price. The expected value of each ticket is higher than the regular lottery and it isn't gambling.

[trevyn]

Include some ad fliers and this could actually work.

[codazoda]

Pretty sure this would be illegal, but as a resident of a state where I cannot buy a lottery ticket, I'll buy.

[wingsonfire]

May be peer to peer lottery tickets as service. I have heard friends/colleagues used potlucked money to buy tickets and if they win share the prize. Have a service for it with nice Web 2.0ish dashboard :P

[pjbriggs]

are you telling me a markov chain came up with these 2 at least billion dollar ideas?

[srum]

Competition:

https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=tB6QVsOuHPHS8AeM0YuwC...

https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=tB6QVsOuHPHS8AeM0YuwC...