Mobile house based on a UPS truck platform. The UPS trucks are the perfect size, have high internal ceilings, and are made out of metal for long life and durability. Plus, they can be head with stick shift! Unfortunately, UPS does not sell their used trucks, but there are companies that make similar trucks. One day I might do 10 ideas for an RV, and describe my ideal mobile house in detail. First Steps: find a source of used UPS like trucks, and start a company that converts them into luxury RVs.
WiFi reselling service. A service that allows you to purchase a WiFi hotspot, connect it to your internet, and recell your internet connection to others. This would be perfect for small businesses who want to set up such systems in densely populated areas and compete with local internet providers. The box would take care of establishing a VPN connection so that the traffic is not associated with your own IP. The system would charge for the service, and you get 50%. First Steps: as I was typing it, I realized that there must be something like this on the market already. If not, create it.
DIY mechanical garage designed for enthusiasts to work on their own vehicles. Many of us are not lucky enough to have a garage with a lift where we can do mechanical work on our cars/bikes. This is a service I would personally really like to use. A place that has a lift and specialty tools like a TIG Welder, press, etc. A place that you can rent by the hour / day / week to work on your own vehicle. They can make money by also selling you parts and renting specialty tools. First Steps: see what kind of legal liabilities you might expose yourself to, buy a garage, start small, and grow it. Make additional money by charging for classes.
Tire Calculator that converts between metric and standard tire sizes. Ok, this one sounds super obvious, but there really isn't a tool that allows you to enter tire size in inches, and have it show you a nice range of suitable tires in the standard format. I actually made this app really quickly for a friend of mine for the iPhone, but never published it. First Steps: make the app, publish, make money on Tire Rack adds.
Real Estate transaction tracking service and communication hub. Most of the problems in a real estate transaction occur due to lack of communication between the brokers and the principles. Some of that is by design, because brokers love to feel important. Full disclosure, I am a licensed real estate broker, and I hate most real estate agents and brokers. It's a profession infested with pretentiousness. That said, I think everyone would benefit from an easy to use tool that organizes all of the documents electronically, collects signatures, and shows the buyers and the sellers an easy to understand timeline with progress of their transaction. First Steps: I have a lot of ideas in this area, so I should mockup the feature list and design, and then pitch this to the few real estate people I like :)
ID badge that reminds people to wash their hands. Washing hands in hospitals and medical labs is absolutely critical, and yet it's a major problem. This idea is to make a BT or RF device that is attached with double sticky tape to the ID badge. Every time you work through the bathroom door, the device is armed. To disarm it you have to spend at least 30 seconds next to the sink with the water flowing. If you walk out of the bathroom without disarming it, the device would beep, reminding you to come back and wash your hands. First Steps: while writing this up I actually did a quick patent search and found an on point patent using RF. However, I couldn't find any implementation. Hmm.... research why.
Automatic soap dispenser that dispenses soap directly into the water stream. The soap is injected into the water stream as soon as a sensor sees hands under the water with IR sensor (or 3 seconds into the process). This way people are "forced" to use soap. Again, this is a HUGE problem in hospitals. My wife worked in a medical lab for a major hospital, and her job was to make training modules on this problem. First Steps: check patentability, make a prototype, pitch it to a hospital administrator. This is also good for franchise restaurants.
Composite drawing tool for writers to do character treatments. A tool specifically designed for writers where they can make computer designed sketches of characters in their stories. Looking at a picture of a character sometimes really helps you envision what that character would do in a situation (key to all good writing). First Steps: see what composite drawing tools are available in general, and how they can be better adopted for writers. If possible, sell it as a SaaS to writers, perhaps bundled with an online writing platform (another idea).
News tracking service that allows you to track obscure stories and only receive updates when there is new information. Have you ever read a story where the resolution to the event will happen some time in the future. Say, a US citizen gets arrested in a foreign country on BS charge. If you are interested in that story, and want to know how it eventually gets resolved, it would be nice to have a service that can monitor that story on Google and send you periodic updates. Google already does something similar, but they send you updates every time new stories are published, even if there is no new information in them. A service that uses AI to monitor stories for new relevant information would be ideal. First Steps: this is outside my wheelhouse, so research how AI could be used to identify new information in a story.
A movie called "Killer Joshua Tree." Ok, so I live next to the Joshua Tree National Park, and I want to shoot movie there about a chemical spill, teenagers camping there, and a mutant Joshua Tree uprooting itself, and hunting them. Is it a B movie? Yes! Will it be terrible? Probably. But I still want to shoot it ;) First Steps: find other crazy people who want to do this, get permits, shoot.