(We originally posted this in 2019. You can read more of our original ideas in our archive.)
Problem: Working from home, the one thing I miss most are the casual “hallway conversations” or “water cooler conversations.” Often, this was what informed me of meetings I hadn’t explicitly been invited to.
Solution: A running video-chat for co-workers to hop in and out of in between meetings to simulate “walking” from one meeting to another. Two companies have already began to implement parts of this such as Hallway (featured on TechCrunch today) and Congregate (featured in the Harvard Gazette last week). Overall, this would solve the problem of access to unofficial information (a problem described in Chapter 2 of “Online Communication Strategies” a book by Mathukutty M. Monippally and Smeeta Mishra). They describe a plethora of problems that global virtual teams face every day. Though it was published in 2014, I highly recommend skimming this chapter and this book to discover problems worth solving in the working-remote-era.
Monetization: Fee for premium features on this service, or for the service in general.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)