Meaningful global problems, even, not just coffee and bicycles.
Managing water. Tracking disease and promoting vaccination. Tracking government corruption. Funding nonprofits. Modernizing education. Etc x 100. These aren't even third world problems any more.
Great points, but I think all of those problems seem incredibly difficult to solve as a new entrepreneur. I guess our service is more about the "lower hanging fruits" for right now
The main problem seems people do not know the many solutions that already exist.
For example from this weeks ProblemHunt:
1. But I only got an appetizer...
Going out to eat with friends is fun, but splitting the bill sucks. Either someone doesn't have cash or the person who just got an appetizer ends up paying the same amount as everyone else.
2. Anyone got a charge?
I love riding my bike while using my phone for its GPS, but using the GPS completely drains my battery. By the time I get to my destination my phones dead!
In Europe it would be no problem to charge your phone in most coffee shops, bars or restaurants. In Asia they even advertise with 'free phone charge' (or they put a price on it). But maybe I misunderstand the problem and is it more specific ? There are also portable battery chargers in all sizes ?
For most of the other problems it would not be difficult to find an existing solution either. So this could be an idea for monetization: have people set a reward for solving their problem. In relation to how big the problem really is to them ? I will then gladly solve the 'low hanging fruit' :-)
Another possible improvement: people should describe a possible ideal solution as well. The problems now seem easy to solve but maybe its only because the description is too vague.
Interesting idea. My only bone to pick with solutions is that I think it actually puts a limit on creativity. When you have a completely open ended problem I think it sparks a different mechanism in your brain than when you see a solution presented for you. Another thought I had was to maybe do less problems per week, but really break down what's going on in each problem and viewing the problem from multiple perspectives. Curious what your thoughts are on that?
'My only bone to pick with solutions is that I think it actually puts a limit on creativity'
I understand. That is true if one would use the 'problems' just as another starting point for creativity. But for that one could already read newspapers, Facebook, etc, etc. No need for these (to me) very vague problems.
'to maybe do less problems per week, but really break down what's going on in each problem and viewing the problem from multiple perspectives'
But if you try to look at all angles you might miss the problem a person actually has ?
So I propose to have the person put in more effort - to push him/her into a bit more focusing. Maybe by adding some extra questions by asking for visualizing a solution. If someone does not want to think a little bit harder for a solution to the problem, then there is no real problem. So that might be a good filter as well ;-)
One of the things that might be bad about this is competition. If I'm trying to start a startup and I've noticed a common problem and there's zero competition for solutions - that would be the ideal scenario for a new startup. But a service like this could have multiple people inadvertently working on duplicate solutions for the same problem. There is no mutex.
Don't get me wrong its a cool idea but probably nothing will beat basic observation and creative thinking when it comes to finding new ideas.
That's true multiple people could be working on the same problem, but I'd counter with two points. One, MySpace came first and solved a similar problem to Facebook, yet two totally different outcomes - execution is key. And two, I think the cool thing about sending problems not "business ideas" is that one problem statement could yield a thousand different solutions.
How would someone go about responding to these problems? For instance, #10 on http://www.probhunt.com/example2.html can be solved by joining one of the many IRC channels or Slack chats that focus on the language.
Interesting. I've created problems.club (I posted link to HN yesterday), because I want to find a problems, which new startupers and other people like me can solve. Your project pursues the same idea.