The graveyard of good ideas
Solutions that were tried, and what stopped them.
Patents that were rejected or abandoned, products that shut down, projects that went quiet. Borrow the idea, avoid the dead end.
796 solutions
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Considering legal action against Stripe
Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we mistakingly thought taking extra care of our account and forming our company under Stripe Atlas would at least help us survive until we got big enough. Also, some part of us thought – "Clearly, these people must have done something wrong. Stripe wouldn't be this aggressive. They are terrific for entrepreneurs after all!" We were dead wrong. The truly insane part about it is that we had no issues with *anyone*: no complaints, no chargebacks, no anything. We went further by regularly checking purchases and manually refunding suspicious sales, which happened once when someone started card testing and w
Why it failed: Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we m
gurgunday
- startupShut down2023
Ash HN: How can I make my idle CPU time useful to others?
Knowing that my computing resources just sit there unused bothers me. It would be relaxing to know that my idle CPU/bandwidth helps others. Previous/older solutions: - SETI (discontinued, [1]) - Leave BitTorrent open (risky) Are there any current distributed SETI-like projects that I can trust? [1] https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/
Why it failed: Knowing that my computing resources just sit there unused bothers me. It would be relaxing to know that my idle CPU/bandwidth helps others. Previous/older solutions: - SETI (discontinued, [1]) - Leave BitTorrent open (risky) Are there any current distributed SETI-like p
puttycat
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?
I'm not so worried that AI will become so good at coding that I'll be out of a job. It's not clear it's going to happen any time soon, and if it does, the implications for all sorts of jobs are so vast it's a totally different world. But there's a different concern, that the era of millions apps might be coming to an end, and with it the viability of many of us freelancers and small software companies. Instead we will have a small number of incredibly capable and malleable platforms. And it doesn't have to get all the way to that endgame for the app I work on to become redundant.
Why it failed: I'm not so worried that AI will become so good at coding that I'll be out of a job. It's not clear it's going to happen any time soon, and if it does, the implications for all sorts of jobs are so vast it's a totally different world. But there's a di
tablatom
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: WWYD? Built a company valued at $1B and may walk away with nothing
I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were valued at $1B post money - $187M raised by the company - $250M preference stack (liquidation prefs + debt) - I own ~27% of the business, and so does my co-founder. My co-founder is no longer part of the business day-to-day, he's on the board - We will end the year at $130M in annual revenues and burning ~$925K/month, we are a low gross profit margin business ~15-20% Personal Overview - I live in New York City, it's been ~ 10 years that I have been on this journey, bootstrapped with no salary for about 2.5 years and pretty modest salary for most of the years, up until a couple years ago when I started
Why it failed: I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were va
susanwise
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Oracle Cloud is shutting down free instances
Oracle is going to reclaim idle instances. What's interesting is there definition of idle is not zero use. It sounds like you can keep using the free tier if you switch to pay-as-you-go.
Why it failed: Oracle is going to reclaim idle instances. What's interesting is there definition of idle is not zero use. It sounds like you can keep using the free tier if you switch to pay-as-you-go.
RyanShook
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?
I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google workspace, provided direct verification in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and just made sense. Unlike some of the other investments like Stadia, domains is also not capital or resource intensive. They never offered discount on domains, they sold them at standard prices. The team working on domains must be small. It’s also a low risk project. Why would they kill it? What next? They’ll sell Google Fi to T-mobile and abandon Google voice?
Why it failed: I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google w
alsodumb
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Beta test Execute Program's interactive "Python for Programmers" course
I'm Gary Bernhardt, founder of Execute Program, an interactive platform for learning programming languages and other programming tools. Our "Python for Programmers" course is in a free open beta for the next week or so. We don't normally do open betas, but the infrastructure behind this course is new and very complex, so we want to stress test it. https://www.executeprogram.com/courses/python-for-programmer... Today, "Python for Programmers" contains 581 interactive code examples covering the core language. It's aimed at established programmers, not beginners. We don't explain basic language features like `while`, but we do show them briefly and note anything special about how they work in Python. We pay special attention to foot guns. For example, we have an entire lesson about Python's mutable default argument foot gun. T
Why it failed: I'm Gary Bernhardt, founder of Execute Program, an interactive platform for learning programming languages and other programming tools. Our "Python for Programmers" course is in a free open beta for the next week or so. We don't normally do open betas, but the
gary_bernhardt
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Supaglue – open-source unified API
Last month, we open-sourced Supaglue (https://github.com/supaglue-labs/supaglue) as a developer toolkit for building customer-facing Salesforce integrations. Since then, we've been iterating on our approach with users and are re-launching Supaglue as an open source unified API, starting with CRMs. With our re-launched public alpha you can: - Interact with HubSpot and Salesforce through a unified REST API - Sync data from HubSpot and Salesforce into a local Postgres cache and make reads against a normalized CRM schema - Make writes (POST and PATCH) to HubSpot and Salesforce using the unified API - Open source MIT license so anyone can self-host for free Today we support reads, creates, and updates for Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunities for HubSpot and Salesforce. In the coming weeks, we plan to add more connectors and features like configuring sync frequ
Why it failed: Last month, we open-sourced Supaglue (https://github.com/supaglue-labs/supaglue) as a developer toolkit for building customer-facing Salesforce integrations. Since then, we've been iterating on our approach with users and are re-launching Supaglue as an o
tomkit
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How do you give back?
I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make helping other people a bigger part of my life. Curious to hear what other HackerNews people have come up with. For context, I’m a software engineer (mostly front-end) and also have a law degree.
Why it failed: I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make helping other people a bigger part of my life. Curious to hear what other HackerNews people have come up with. For context, I’m a software engineer (mostly front-end) and also have a law degree.
yonibot
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: ‘Following’ Other HN Users?
I’m conflicted about even asking this. I do really love that HN is only very lightly curated for me, and I’m evenly exposed to the opinions of a fairly random sample of people on a daily basis. It’s easily the standout feature of this site. But still… It does often feel too ephemeral. I sometimes wish I were able to easily keep track of what some people are posting on here and interact more directly. It’s easy enough to sort of keep up with some of the more prolific accounts because they’re often almost hard to avoid, but that’s about it. As an example, I ran into a few people in a thread once that live nearby (statistically fairly unlikely!) and there was talk of meeting up, but that was the end of it, because how else could we coordinate? I can’t even find that thread now, but I’m still up for some beers, gorge residents! Anyway, sorry, I’m rambling. Really I was just wondering if anyo
Why it failed: I’m conflicted about even asking this. I do really love that HN is only very lightly curated for me, and I’m evenly exposed to the opinions of a fairly random sample of people on a daily basis. It’s easily the standout feature of this site. But still… It does often feel too ephem
fisherjeff
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Details on 04/2021 DigitalOcean data breach?
In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breach happened and if they would publish a postmortem for this event. They assured me that they would share more information once their investigation is complete. In September of that year, they started ignoring my requests for an update, and I haven't heard back from them since. While this is a relatively minor event in the grand scheme of things, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Did anyone dig deeper into this and got more information on what actually was the cause for this leak? Maybe there's a DigitalOcean employee around who can shed light on this? [1] https://www.securityweek.com/digita
Why it failed: In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breac
s_weber
- startupShut down2023
Painful Lesson: Always 'Show and Tell' Your Product Before You Develop It
It's said that amazon asks their product makers to write a press release about the release of the product and work backwards from there. Working backwards has its uses... I recently wanted validation on a product I had already finished developing I thought I needed it so others will too. I put in a lot of time architecting it, designing it with careful UX and UI. When it came time to show and tell through a demo video i couldn't create a simple enough one that explains what it does. So anyway I posted it in some communities and people we just confused and nobody signed up. So I had to abandon the project as there were no takers Cut to about a week back where I had another idea... This time instead of simply developing it further, I jumped straight to see if I can create a explainer video of the product. So with zero expectations about it working I made one without audio or musi
Why it failed: It's said that amazon asks their product makers to write a press release about the release of the product and work backwards from there. Working backwards has its uses... I recently wanted validation on a product I had already finished developing I thought I needed it so oth
anticlickwise
- startupShut down2023
Re: Did AT&T leak their email list publicly?
I'm apparently on this list: DONOTUSEPOD1NON@list.att.com Here are some screenshots of the debacle [edit: properly redacted now] https://imgur.com/a/MWV2wmk https://imgur.com/a/yRJCKUn It started out when someone wrote to that mailing list with > This is a test to see if external users can email AT&T's internal email list with the most recent email mishap. followed by other responses like > I guess so… > So far, based on the number of unique domains coming back directly to me (and replying all), it appears to be mostly business customers. I am assuming business because I also used my gmail for my business when I set up an AT&T account. Time will tell of course but there's definitely not an insignificant number of people on this list as far as I can tell. > We’re just lucky there aren’t multiple people with vacatio
Why it failed: I'm apparently on this list: DONOTUSEPOD1NON@list.att.com Here are some screenshots of the debacle [edit: properly redacted now] https://imgur.com/a/MWV2wmk https://imgur.com/a/yRJCKUn It started out when someone wrote to that mailing
patneedham
- startupShut down2023
What SWE job hunting is like right now
I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It's now been two months, and I have no leads. I will call out the exact situation I've run into. I have received nearly 20 calls from a dozen different recruiting firms all for the same two back-fill jobs at Charter in St. Louis. I interviewed with them once, and it's not a match. .NET, Knockout, and TSQL... They weren't interested in me either. I'm not exactly offended by that. I get two calls a day about Charter at this point. I've been told, "they just finished a round of interviews, and didn't find anyone." At this point, I have to ask straight away to anyone that c
Why it failed: I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It
eglove
- startupShut down2023
Jobs for the formerly incarcerated rises again, this time with AI help
I'm the founder and ex-CEO of 70 Million Jobs (1st national, for-profit employment platform for people with criminal records). We helped thousands of deserving men and women land jobs, but when the pandemic hit in force, it destroyed our business. Several months ago I announced with great sadness that I was ceasing operations. Both the HN and Y Comb. (I was in S17) were incredibly supportive. I'll never forget that. But I'm not done with my work. Like most, I'm amazed at the potential of AI. I know that employing it to help people with records land jobs would be enormously effective, so I am planning to launch a new company, SecondChance AI. Most of the people coming out of prison have no clue on how to land a job; how to create a resume and cover letter, where to look, how to apply, etc. And that's assuming they have the most basic of tech skills--which many don
Why it failed: I'm the founder and ex-CEO of 70 Million Jobs (1st national, for-profit employment platform for people with criminal records). We helped thousands of deserving men and women land jobs, but when the pandemic hit in force, it destroyed our business. Several months ago I announ
RBBronson123
- startupShut down2023
OpenAI to discontinue support for the Codex API
Just received this email, can't find a blog post yet? On March 23rd, we will discontinue support for the Codex API. All customers will have to transition to a different model. Codex was initially introduced as a free limited beta in 2021, and has maintained that status to date. Given the advancements of our newest GPT-3.5 models for coding tasks, we will no longer be supporting Codex and encourage all customers to transition to GPT-3.5-Turbo. About GPT-3.5-Turbo GPT-3.5-Turbo is the most cost effective and performant model in the GPT-3.5 family. It can both do coding tasks while also being complemented with flexible natural language capabilities. You can learn more through: GPT-3.5 model overview Chat completions guide Models affected The following models will be discontinued: code-cushman:001 code-cushman:002 code-davinci:001 code-davinci:002 We understand this transition may be te
Why it failed: Just received this email, can't find a blog post yet? On March 23rd, we will discontinue support for the Codex API. All customers will have to transition to a different model. Codex was initially introduced as a free limited beta in 2021, and has maintained that status to da
thejosh
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Teddit has been de facto shut down
It appears that Teddit has been effectively shut down via extreme rate limits by Reddit rendering the app unusable. HTTP Error 429 is now returned nearly 100% of the time.
Why it failed: It appears that Teddit has been effectively shut down via extreme rate limits by Reddit rendering the app unusable. HTTP Error 429 is now returned nearly 100% of the time.
housemusicfan
- startupShut down2023
Unemployable and Uninvestable
It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough time for everyone considering the massive layoffs in our sector, but I have been jobless for a year, and counting. I’m not asking for a handout, but rather advice. I’ve had a few failed startups due to a lack of investment, while I see grifters like SBF raking in billions. I have had my ideas be realized by other companies, years after I attempted, because I lacked capital. I have had my pitch decks dismissed without a second thought. What is the secret sauce here? Is it a matter of who you know, rather than what you know? Every other day I see companies with no clear mission raising capital with little more than ma
Why it failed: It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough tim
anyadvicewilldo
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Webstudio Beta Prelaunch – open-source alternative to Webflow
Webstudio is getting ready for the Beta Click "Notify me" here to get notified when launch goes live on Product Hunt https://producthunt.com/products/webstudio Deep dive into Webstudio: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SbE5dx1vV9U Try it yourself: https://webstudio.is Follow for updates: https://twitter.com/webstudiois It's still early, but we already got some nice things done: 1. Design Tokens instead of classes. Instead of classes you build with design tokens. No specificity issues, better composability. Local by default, no need to name anything if you don't need to reuse them. 2. Designed to be dynamic. Install or write components that run on the edge, server-side and client-side, which talk to remote 3rd party services or databases. This is the core of the architecture, but it's not yet available. 3. It&
Why it failed: Webstudio is getting ready for the Beta Click "Notify me" here to get notified when launch goes live on Product Hunt https://producthunt.com/products/webstudio Deep dive into Webstudio: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SbE5dx1vV9U Try it yo
oleg009
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Alternative to Firebase FCM
This is the message I received from Firebase on FCM deprecation: "We’re writing to let you know that starting June 20, 2024 the legacy Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) APIs will be discontinued. What do you need to know? On June 20, 2024, we’re reducing the number of Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) legacy register APIs and legacy send APIs that provide similar functionality. This step will allow us to provide you with a more consistent experience and align with Google security standards to improve security, reliability and performance. Because of these API decommissions, some already-deprecated SDKs and features will stop working after June 20, 2024. Please consult the tables below to find which Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) APIs and corresponding services/SDKs/features will be discontinued and replaced with new alternatives. This one is more relevant to me in the email Disc
Why it failed: This is the message I received from Firebase on FCM deprecation: "We’re writing to let you know that starting June 20, 2024 the legacy Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) APIs will be discontinued. What do you need to know? On June 20, 2024, we’re reducing the number of Firebase
diazc
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: I built a domain name marketplace for folks (like me) who hoard domains
Problem: I (accidentally) hoard domains :') 1. I get excited about a new project 2. I buy a domain 3. I get busy, and the domain collects a thick layer of dust I know I'm not alone in this, either So, I had the idea of creating a simple and casual marketplace for folks like me to list their domains at a fair price with a nice community feel to free up these caged domains It felt like a great project for me to pick up some new skills, so I got to it All up, it took me about a month, and I built the whole thing live on Twitch I've always sat on the design, marketing and front-end side of the fence, so this was my first attempt at making a 'full' web app Here's the stack I used: - SvelteKit ( https://kit.svelte.dev/ ) - Supabase ( https://supabase.com/ ) - Resend ( https://resend.com/ ) - ShadCN Svelte ( https:/
Why it failed: Problem: I (accidentally) hoard domains :') 1. I get excited about a new project 2. I buy a domain 3. I get busy, and the domain collects a thick layer of dust I know I'm not alone in this, either So, I had the idea of creating a simple and casual marketplace for folks
thecoppinger
- startupShut down2023
Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds
Received via email: Hello, Since 2020, new purchases of magazines have not been available in Google News and very few users now regularly access their magazine subscriptions. We wanted to inform you that support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning on December 18, 2023, which means access from Google News apps or news.google.com to the library of magazines you previously purchased or subscribed to will be removed. To continue to access previously purchased magazine content, you must export and save each purchased issue before December 18, 2023.
Why it failed: Received via email: Hello, Since 2020, new purchases of magazines have not been available in Google News and very few users now regularly access their magazine subscriptions. We wanted to inform you that support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning
anymouse123456
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
Our entire lives get spent pursuing outcomes. We keep grinding, hoping we'll achieve X and then we'll be content forever, only to find merely emptiness on the other side. The new shiny badge of honor barely takes days to get normalized and the void kicks in again. What exactly are we going after? Is there even an end to this?
Why it failed: Our entire lives get spent pursuing outcomes. We keep grinding, hoping we'll achieve X and then we'll be content forever, only to find merely emptiness on the other side. The new shiny badge of honor barely takes days to get normalized and the void kicks in again. What
undopamine
- startupShut down2023
Tell Cloudflare: You're Breaking Tor/VPN/Shared IPs Again
Right now if anyone tries to load a Cloudflared website over Tor or any "bad" IP, they get a captcha which breaks something like 90% of the time. It seems to only be "under attack mode" websites, by the fact that only a fraction of Cloudflared websites are doing this. We click the checkbox and it just shows a spinning wheel forever. If this is meant to be a block then show an actual block page instead of dodging the issue and wasting everyone's time (I'm sure you already know about the problem). It also breaks when our IP changes now, which is a regression from the other 8 years you blocked Tor for (so please fix that too, don't just fix one thing and leave a new bug). I searched "list of sites behind cloudflare" and got hunter.io which exhibits this behavior. The catpcha page now contains a mix of embarrassingly wrong statements and nonsense
Why it failed: Right now if anyone tries to load a Cloudflared website over Tor or any "bad" IP, they get a captcha which breaks something like 90% of the time. It seems to only be "under attack mode" websites, by the fact that only a fraction of Cloudflared websites are doi
uconnectlol