&gt; What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone?<p>One thing I&#x27;ve been kicking around, though I am not sure yet how it would work, is measuring potential demand for a traditional good or service -- a type of sentiment analysis to find gaps in the market.<p>When I&#x27;m thinking about this problem I tend to imagine market gaps in physical space -- where could people use a sandwich shop or game cafe or a heavy equipment rental, for example.<p>The traditional route, which seems needlessly wasteful in a world driven by data, is for someone who happens to have capital to come along and start a business either because they &#x2F;feel&#x2F; there is a need, or because a similar business has been started in similar situations, or a similar business is raking in profits -- basically they guess (educated or not) at demand and spend a lot of time and money vetting that guess.  Or, even more error prone, because they have a passion and decide to roll the dice.  Then it either succeeds or fails to make a profit for a variety of reasons and their test is validated or not.<p>With kickstarter proving demand for potential goods that can be ordered and delivered, there should be a way to measure spacial demand for a good or service and move the capital required to willing and able people in that area to get it started.  Perhaps even collecting information on what particular business practices might have a high likelihood of working...distributed and generalized franchising based on latent demand.<p>The idea seems particularly relevant in a discussion of basic income.  If someone hates their job and are working only to stave off homelessness and starvation or to maintain some basic level of comfort and they are given the means to not worry about that anymore -- well, then they will likely try to figure out how best to improve their situation.  What better way than starting a business with a high likelyhood of creating value for your neighbors?  It answers the question:  what can I do to to have the most impact in my community?