I have a unique opportunity on my hands, but lack the ammo to execute with.
In my senior projects class at CU-Boulder I have been given the go ahead by the professor to forego the standard curricula of CSCI 4308 and create my own project as long as it has "substantial business influence". This of course directly translates to building a startup.
I have six months, a team of five senior cs-majors, and the support of the university, but there is still a glaring hole.
I don't believe I have a good enough idea to run with.
Some that I have been contemplating are a comedy-mashup site (basically a last.fm for stand up comedians), a Haskell web development framework (which I asked for feedback for in a previous post and was pretty much told not to do it) or trying to edge my way into point of sale restaurant software/hardware.
I am not sold on any of these and am looking for some inspiration because I only have a couple more days to write a formal proposal or else I default into the standard class and must take a project from the industry.
Any ideas that are within the scope of this project?
1. Promoter Marketplace - A site where people can buy/sell product promotional services for local areas. Examples include a club promoter who gets paid based on the number of people at the club on a certain night, or an energy drink promoter that gets paid to hand out cans on exam week. Allow for people to list their rates and let past clients review them.
2. User Manual Creator - A site that lets people easily create user manuals for their products. Most manuals seem to follow the same set of steps: list parts, show numbered steps with pictures, provide alternate language text, etc. Let users upload pictures/text for each step and then you create a printable manual that can be folded up and neatly placed inside a product box.
They aren't my A-list ideas, but you get what you pay for. :)