Microinterview with James Altucher About Startups

James Altucher is an American hedge fund manager, author and blogger. He has founded or cofounded several companies, including Reset Inc. and StockPickr. His writing has been frequently published by a number of media outlets, including The Financial Times, TheStreet.com, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post. He has also published several books on investing. He maintains a blog at JamesAltucher.com where he discusses his experiences as an entrepreneur and his theories for success and happiness.

Comments in italics are from StartupAlmanac.com.

Question: Can you give three new ideas for startups that you haven't talked about before?

Altucher: podcast2book

This is a great idea. So many bloggers are doing podcasts right now, it would be nice to have a service that can transcribe all your recent podcasts then put them into book form. 

Altucher: lead gen to people who will renegotiate edu loans

There are a huge number of former students with outstanding student loans. There are businesses that will help those people renegotiate those loans. Those businesses just need leads so they can contact those people looking for help.

Altucher: credit lines to pawn shops. charge 15% and 2 pts

Pawn shops need money and sometimes the demand for borrowing gets strong, especially during a rough economy with lots of people out of work. If pawn shops need money, they can easily afford to pay 15%, considering the outrageous amounts they charge on their loans.

Question: Thanks, James.

Altucher has several books worth reading that would be useful for entrepreneurs and those involved in or considering startups, including I Was Blind But Now I See: Time to Be Happy, How to Be the Luckiest Person Alive!, and Faq Me.

A microinterview is a very short concise to-the-point interview with no more than two or three questions and answers.