We are FreeWill (http://freewill.com/). We may be the most efficient fundraising tool for charity ever made. We provide free wills to people, and make it very easy to donate charitably in that process. We've raised over $190M for charities in just over a year! At the same time, we've made legal services more accessible by providing free estate planning to over 17,000 people.
I'm a co-founder of Mixnode and we want to "make web-scale data affordable for everyone".
Having access to trillions of data points from the web is a super power reserved for only a handful of companies;
what if anyone could access and analyze these data points without having to hire 25 experts in distributed systems and raise VC... Imagine the explosion of innovation this will bring about.
We want that explosion to happen sooner rather than later.
If you find this mission intriguing please send me an email: [email protected]
I worked for 2 years on the crawl infrastructure team of a well-known SEO/analytics company that was pulling in over a 120 billion web pages a month. It was definitely one of the most difficult projects I've ever worked on and we did have a team of 6-7 very incredibly smart people -- not "25 experts in distributed systems" though :P
This is a very lofty goal and I'm not sure how you are going to tackle it with 3 people, however I'm rooting for you and would love to get my invitation soon. Best of luck.
I find your mission interesting, but I was turned off by the fact that you're a Canadian company with ~3 people. I wish I could set a reminder to ping you in like 3 or 4 years. :( Best of luck!
I am working on Learn Anything. It’s an open source website with the goal of providing most efficient learning paths. A kind of Netflix for learning.
If humanity really solves personalized learning by crafting learning paths based on all of Internet’s resources, user’s current knowledge and learning preference, I believe something akin to singularity may be reached. So I am trying to build the website that tries to reach this goal in an open source way so anyone can help.
Interesting idea. Being able to navigate the massive amounts of information on the Internet is a skill in itself. Sounds like your group creating a sort of Driver's Ed to absorb quicker.
At Kayak Adventures, "we are a small, locally owned shop that strives to inspire our guests to join us in reclaiming an active stewardship of our natural world through inspiring sea kayaking tours."
It's important because climate change is one of the biggest problems of our age, and by helping our guests foster a sense of connection to an amazing (and vulnerable) place, we can produce what thousands of news articles cannot: people who care.
Enable community driven coordination of distributed enegery production and consumption.
Basically virtual power plants operating on the edge of our grid.
Heat, refrigeration, lights, etc are at the foundation of modern society. The foundation of modern society is driven by the distribution of energy. Helping ensure energy sources at the edge of our grid achieve scalability and fault tolerance strikes me as something that truly matters.
LO3 Energy
The company has been around for some time but recently underwent rapid growth. I started as a part time remote contracted and was the first software engineer to be brought on full time.
It’s been a lot of work and there is still a long way to go but the thing that keeps me chugging is the people involved. We’ve attracted a powerhouse of a team both on the business and engineering side. Further, I’ve never worked with a more genuine and kind group of individuals before.
I'm reading about your Allgau microgrid, and it looks like it may have been chosen as a pilot because some feed-in tariffs are expiring. Is the idea here to effectively bypass the utility company (even though there is a partnership for this pilot) so that energy consumers end up directly paying each other through the blockchain ledger?
"When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money."
I don't have crazy debt or people to support, so it's very easy for me to say this, but it's sad to see the smartest people in my generation putting so much effort into getting people to click on stuff :/
I'm a co-founder of Kosmos (https://kosmosschool.com/). Our mission is to build a complete K-12 school that exists only in virtual reality. It matters because such a school could provide better education to kids from all around the globe at a fraction of the cost today.
I'm building HuggyList. Our mission is to provide condensed knowledge for busy professionals.
It truly matters because it makes learning much easier for people who lack of time.
This helps everyone to make better decisions and have a greater impact.
Your documents and notes are a reflection of your knowledge and experience.
We believe the hard work you put into them should benefit you in the long term. This is why we are working on the most intuitive and flexible platform for you to capture, share and navigate your thoughts.
I'm the solopreneur and solo developer behind Hacker Experience 2 (https://hackerexperience.com), an open-source MMORTS hacking simulation game with the main goals of
1) fostering interest on Computer Science among young adults and curious people, especially those on third-world countries that have no chance of going to college
2) bringing people to the FOSS world by having a low-barrier to entry project where they can contribute directly (not necessarily with code). That kind of experience - seeing their contribution being rolled out worldwide to a game they love - must be life changer.
3) raising privacy awareness and let people know about encryption and VPNs
4) and why not, create a fun, interactive and highly strategic game :)
After 4 years of development, I'm still nowhere close to reaching any of them (not yet released). But if my game can motivate and change the life of a single kid, all that trouble will be well worth it.
Here's to another 4 years! For people out there in similar situation, the urge to quit may be high, but try not to give up. E-mail is on profile in case anyone wants to talk.
I'm a co-founder at Stitch, and our mission is to inspire and empower data driven people.
I believe that the development of the scientific method and evidence-based decision making is the most important development in human history. It's not universal, and it's a lot of work. We want to motivate more people to come over that way of thinking and make it easier for them to do so.
Hey there! We have very closely related missions. At the very least we’re in the same domain space. Would love to learn more about the Stitch platform to see if there are opportunities to collaborate?
At Genomenon, we're building tools that help discover, diagnose, and treat cancer and other inheritable disease. To do this, we've built the Mastermind Genomic Search Engine [1], powered by the world's most comprehensive source of genomic evidence.
You've probably seen a lot in the media lately about the possibilities of precision medicine powered by personal genomic sequencing. With the advent of the $1000 whole genome sequencing [2], we now have an immense amount of data at our fingertips. The problem we have now is known as the "bioinformatics bottleneck" [3], in which our sequence data reveals thousands of variants in our DNA, and we need to figure out which ones are clinically relevant, by figuring out which ones have been observed and studied. We seek to make that task easy; to minimize the time it takes to perform an exhaustive search, and reduce the chance of missing important information in a patient's sequenced genome [4].
Most people have been or know someone who has been affected by cancer or inheritable disease. As far as missions go, this was an easy one to get behind when I met my co-founder almost five years ago. When my startup at the time got acquired shortly after meeting him, I knew immediately what I wanted to do next.
Unify all web APIs in a single, programmable, and customizable interface. It matters because people's data does not reside in files anymore, it's behind a very heterogeneous set of web APIs which, as a whole, are very hard to use.
I recently started ownpath (https://ownpath.in/) because I want to build a better framework for lifelong learning.
While books and courses have their place, I think that human connection is crucial to not feel isolated. When I'm learning something new, it feels great to be able to bounce ideas off someone, get feedback on my work and if possible, make some friends along the way.
My bet is that more people also feel similar things. If you have any thoughts on the website or just want to chat, feel free to reach me at [email protected].
I’m cofounder/CTO at CareZone (.com). Our mission is to help people care for themselves and their families.
The US health care system is disorganized, inefficient, and overwhelming for patients and their families. We aren’t “solving healthcare”, but we provide tools and services that make caregivers’ lives easier.
This matters not just for the obvious reason that so many people need help, but because relatively little effort in the health care system goes into helping patients and their caregivers with the responsibilities the system dumps on them.
I'm the founder of FormAPI [1], and my company's mission is to help developers fill out and sign PDF documents.
It truly matters to my customers, because they're paying me money. And it truly matters to me, because if the company continues to grow, then I'll have lots of money and freedom. Honestly it's mostly about the money, but I really enjoy building things and solving problems for people.
the truly matters part i think needs at least 1 level of “but why”... okay they pay for it, but why do they pay for it? that’s the important thing... okay, it pays your salary and gives freedom, but why do you care about the product? what if it paid you nothing (but that didn’t matter); would you still work on it? why?
i’m sure you know these answers; you wouldn’t have gotten to “paying customer 1” otherwise
Quick side note: the main graphic on your website displays "Upload template", "Set up fields", etc.. in the default serif font on my computer probably because I don't have the Avenir Pro font installed. You can probably fix this by converting the text to outlines in Sketch.
Our mission is to fight period poverty. There are many women in the world and in the USA that can't afford feminine care. Not only that but conventional tampons and pads are disposable, highly polluting, made out of plastic, and not that healthy.
Conventional tampons are made with regular cotton as well as rayon. Regular cotton could have toxic residues from pesticides, dioxin from the bleaching process, and rayon fiber can disintegrate within a woman's body, breeding bacteria that could hurt or be dangerous like toxic shock syndrome. Disposable pads are made from mysterious ingredients because companies don't have to disclose ingredients to consumers in the USA. All the chemical scents, antibacterial, plastics, those are all not disclosed which should be worrying because there are many toxic chemicals out there.
The solution I'm working on are reusable cloth pads. The idea is simple and has been what the world has been using before disposables came out. They are a lot more sustainable because they are reusable. They can be customized for each customer and come in pretty colors, shapes, and sizes.
I am an Engineer at Celo https://celo.org/ - Our mission is to build a monetary system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all.
We aim to give financial tools that will help people to self-actualize. Many people in the world do not have the basic financial tools for lifting themselves out of poverty -- a sound currency and property rights -- and we aim to provide those. Second, we aim to create a system that connects people to one another through the financial system; especially those that have been disconnected from the financial system.
We have a flat & open culture and value diversity. We are hiring at our SF and Berlin offices: https://celo.org/jobs
> opening a bank account but for claiming various other essential services, such as healthcare and education.
Where such services are provided by a functioning state maybe, but if they are, they also have a functioning currency and banking sector.
Where their isn't.... I had a Ukrainian friend who said in the worst days of state dysfunction (now decades ago), the de facto currency was bottles of vodka.
At least with a bottle of vodka, you can drown your sorrows if your currency crashes.... So your zeroth challenge is "How is Celo better and cheaper and more trustworthy than a bottle of vodka?
[+] [-] vividgibberish|7 years ago|reply
Just had a feature in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/your-money/online-wills.h...
hmu with interest and feedback: [email protected].
[+] [-] yitchelle|7 years ago|reply
Great service btw!
[+] [-] wat1729|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enjayz|7 years ago|reply
Having access to trillions of data points from the web is a super power reserved for only a handful of companies; what if anyone could access and analyze these data points without having to hire 25 experts in distributed systems and raise VC... Imagine the explosion of innovation this will bring about.
We want that explosion to happen sooner rather than later.
If you find this mission intriguing please send me an email: [email protected]
[+] [-] portobelln|7 years ago|reply
This is a very lofty goal and I'm not sure how you are going to tackle it with 3 people, however I'm rooting for you and would love to get my invitation soon. Best of luck.
[+] [-] pmiller2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nikivi|7 years ago|reply
If humanity really solves personalized learning by crafting learning paths based on all of Internet’s resources, user’s current knowledge and learning preference, I believe something akin to singularity may be reached. So I am trying to build the website that tries to reach this goal in an open source way so anyone can help.
Website https://learn-anything.xyz Code: https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything
[+] [-] oceanghost|7 years ago|reply
Glad to see this.
[+] [-] gravy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moneytide1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neutrino137|7 years ago|reply
It's important because climate change is one of the biggest problems of our age, and by helping our guests foster a sense of connection to an amazing (and vulnerable) place, we can produce what thousands of news articles cannot: people who care.
https://www.kayakak.com/
(Apologies if this is considered "off topic" for HN, I've been a lurker for a while but this is my first post.)
[+] [-] rudolph9|7 years ago|reply
Heat, refrigeration, lights, etc are at the foundation of modern society. The foundation of modern society is driven by the distribution of energy. Helping ensure energy sources at the edge of our grid achieve scalability and fault tolerance strikes me as something that truly matters.
LO3 Energy
The company has been around for some time but recently underwent rapid growth. I started as a part time remote contracted and was the first software engineer to be brought on full time.
It’s been a lot of work and there is still a long way to go but the thing that keeps me chugging is the people involved. We’ve attracted a powerhouse of a team both on the business and engineering side. Further, I’ve never worked with a more genuine and kind group of individuals before.
[+] [-] moneytide1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dougmwne|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omosubi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shafyy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abledon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danidan11|7 years ago|reply
It truly matters because it makes learning much easier for people who lack of time. This helps everyone to make better decisions and have a greater impact.
As an example, here is some YC startup knowledge summarized in bullet points: https://huggylist.com/channel_lists/1537220271873x5642096565...
[+] [-] simon_acca|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aldoushuxley001|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] napsterbr|7 years ago|reply
1) fostering interest on Computer Science among young adults and curious people, especially those on third-world countries that have no chance of going to college
2) bringing people to the FOSS world by having a low-barrier to entry project where they can contribute directly (not necessarily with code). That kind of experience - seeing their contribution being rolled out worldwide to a game they love - must be life changer.
3) raising privacy awareness and let people know about encryption and VPNs
4) and why not, create a fun, interactive and highly strategic game :)
After 4 years of development, I'm still nowhere close to reaching any of them (not yet released). But if my game can motivate and change the life of a single kid, all that trouble will be well worth it.
Here's to another 4 years! For people out there in similar situation, the urge to quit may be high, but try not to give up. E-mail is on profile in case anyone wants to talk.
[+] [-] jakestein|7 years ago|reply
I believe that the development of the scientific method and evidence-based decision making is the most important development in human history. It's not universal, and it's a lot of work. We want to motivate more people to come over that way of thinking and make it easier for them to do so.
www.stitchdata.com
[+] [-] tixocloud|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JangoSteve|7 years ago|reply
You've probably seen a lot in the media lately about the possibilities of precision medicine powered by personal genomic sequencing. With the advent of the $1000 whole genome sequencing [2], we now have an immense amount of data at our fingertips. The problem we have now is known as the "bioinformatics bottleneck" [3], in which our sequence data reveals thousands of variants in our DNA, and we need to figure out which ones are clinically relevant, by figuring out which ones have been observed and studied. We seek to make that task easy; to minimize the time it takes to perform an exhaustive search, and reduce the chance of missing important information in a patient's sequenced genome [4].
Most people have been or know someone who has been affected by cancer or inheritable disease. As far as missions go, this was an easy one to get behind when I met my co-founder almost five years ago. When my startup at the time got acquired shortly after meeting him, I knew immediately what I wanted to do next.
[1] https://www.genomenon.com/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$1,000_genome
[3] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/344/6184/653.3
[4] https://scipol.duke.edu/content/questathena-wrongful-death-s...
[+] [-] swarnie_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juancampa|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shreyas-satish|7 years ago|reply
While books and courses have their place, I think that human connection is crucial to not feel isolated. When I'm learning something new, it feels great to be able to bounce ideas off someone, get feedback on my work and if possible, make some friends along the way.
My bet is that more people also feel similar things. If you have any thoughts on the website or just want to chat, feel free to reach me at [email protected].
[+] [-] wrs|7 years ago|reply
The US health care system is disorganized, inefficient, and overwhelming for patients and their families. We aren’t “solving healthcare”, but we provide tools and services that make caregivers’ lives easier.
This matters not just for the obvious reason that so many people need help, but because relatively little effort in the health care system goes into helping patients and their caregivers with the responsibilities the system dumps on them.
[+] [-] nathan_f77|7 years ago|reply
It truly matters to my customers, because they're paying me money. And it truly matters to me, because if the company continues to grow, then I'll have lots of money and freedom. Honestly it's mostly about the money, but I really enjoy building things and solving problems for people.
[1] https://formapi.io
[+] [-] rickycook|7 years ago|reply
i’m sure you know these answers; you wouldn’t have gotten to “paying customer 1” otherwise
[+] [-] yunyu|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Regardsyjc|7 years ago|reply
Conventional tampons are made with regular cotton as well as rayon. Regular cotton could have toxic residues from pesticides, dioxin from the bleaching process, and rayon fiber can disintegrate within a woman's body, breeding bacteria that could hurt or be dangerous like toxic shock syndrome. Disposable pads are made from mysterious ingredients because companies don't have to disclose ingredients to consumers in the USA. All the chemical scents, antibacterial, plastics, those are all not disclosed which should be worrying because there are many toxic chemicals out there.
The solution I'm working on are reusable cloth pads. The idea is simple and has been what the world has been using before disposables came out. They are a lot more sustainable because they are reusable. They can be customized for each customer and come in pretty colors, shapes, and sizes.
[+] [-] seba_dos1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blattimwind|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kamyarg|7 years ago|reply
We aim to give financial tools that will help people to self-actualize. Many people in the world do not have the basic financial tools for lifting themselves out of poverty -- a sound currency and property rights -- and we aim to provide those. Second, we aim to create a system that connects people to one another through the financial system; especially those that have been disconnected from the financial system.
We have a flat & open culture and value diversity. We are hiring at our SF and Berlin offices: https://celo.org/jobs
More about Celo: "Hello From Celo" - https://medium.com/@celo.org/hello-from-celo-34bf195cb99
[+] [-] gHosts|7 years ago|reply
Where such services are provided by a functioning state maybe, but if they are, they also have a functioning currency and banking sector.
Where their isn't.... I had a Ukrainian friend who said in the worst days of state dysfunction (now decades ago), the de facto currency was bottles of vodka.
At least with a bottle of vodka, you can drown your sorrows if your currency crashes.... So your zeroth challenge is "How is Celo better and cheaper and more trustworthy than a bottle of vodka?
[+] [-] gHosts|7 years ago|reply
Your web site basically says "Apple Pay", but without Apple.
So how do you get from that to, "a monetary system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all"?