Category: idea

Request for app: Arnab Goswami debate talk time distribution tracker

I bumped across The Newshour on Times Now today after a really long time. It is still _really_ hard to watch. Amazed at the longevity of this format (I presume it is doing very well)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard of Arnab Goswami and his antics. Basically if you like to watch people shouting at each other, and see one self-aggrandising man trying to pass himself off as a force for righteousness, then this is the show you need to watch. Arnab Goswami has spawned many memes, and he is famously known as the man who knows what India wants to know.

Anyway, a brilliant app idea struck me while watching. Would be really glad if someone builds it. I think it might be pretty useful <I’m being serious>. So here goes..

What if you could get real time metrics on a debate. Suppose you are watching the newshour, and you could pull out your phone, launch the app and see something like this –

debate time tracker v1

Or maybe even this –

debate time tracker v2

The red indicates time spent shouting or multiple people talking in illegible debate etc. We could also measure decibel levels. I’ve noticed how they keep controlling the volume on the newshour depending on whose voice they want the loudest.

Of course this could be done for other news programs as well. But since the idea came from watching newshour, I want to call it the Arnab Goswami debate talk time distribution tracker. If Arnab funds it, hell I’ll build it myself.

What do you think? Does India want to know debate metrics? What are the other metrics we could track, apart from talk time?

Startup Idea: an ecommerce account aggregator

The problem
Ecommerce is ubiquitous in the developed world, and is fast gaining the same status in the developing world as well. Obviously, all ecommerce sites are not equal. Order tracking and customer support experience varies by a lot. And logging into each website to track your order is cumbersome. There are times when one is expecting multiple orders, but it is ‘work’ to keep a track of all of them and request for support.

The idea
All your ecommerce order history, all your order tracking information, all your customer support via one app. The global ‘Your Account’.

Why is it good for customers
Easy to keep a track of all your orders from one single app. Customer support tickets can be raised, tracked and replied from within this app. The app can automatically raise customer support tickets to the respective site if an order gets delayed. Potentially it can handle site specific return policies as well.

Why is it good for ecommerce companies
Instantaneous touchpoint with customers for gathering feedback and updating about order statuses. Order tracking integrations with popular couriers to reduce customer support costs. By automatically raising tickets for order delays, the company can respond early and prevent possible customer anger management.

Challenges
How to get stored to go through the trouble of integrating/supporting this app. The quick approach could be to get access to transactional emails of these stores and by parsing order information from emails to start with. Deeper functionality will only be possible with API level integration. I haven’t really figured this one out though.

Opportunities
Can be a CRM channel providing companies with a targeted messaging platform for feedback, surveys, promotional offers etc. Can scale globally.