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.
1,395 solutions
- startupShut down2013
Is there any value to a CS degree at 50?
I'm 50. I've been building hardware and programming since I was 18. I live in the Santa Clarita, CA. College was touch-and-go. It was always going too slow for me. By age 20 I was working as an engineer doing both hardware and software. At age 24 I had saved-up enough to buy my first house. I had a good career and was soon making over $100K per year doing the stuff I really enjoyed. I eventually started a tech business in my garage. Within three years it grew out of the garage and into a good size industrial facility with a dozen employees or so, in-house SMT assembly, CNC machining, low volume manufacturing, etc. As is the case with most businesses, there were ups and downs. The economic implosion of 2008 caught me in a perfect storm that ultimately led to killing the business after a two year gut-wrenching attempt to save it any which way I could. At the end of 2010 I had to
Why it failed: I'm 50. I've been building hardware and programming since I was 18. I live in the Santa Clarita, CA. College was touch-and-go. It was always going too slow for me. By age 20 I was working as an engineer doing both hardware and software. At age 24 I had saved-up enough t
random_user
- startupShut down2013
A post-mortem on my first AngularJS project
If you're tired of To-Do lists and Twitter feed examples for AngularJS I can offer a variation. This is a project I did for a t-shirt site and it does quotes using a variety of variables in real time as the user interacts with the UI. I also show how I went back to the existing project to learn how to add unit testing with Karma and Jasmine and a unit testing coverage report with Istanbul. Spoiler: It was pretty easy.
Why it failed: If you're tired of To-Do lists and Twitter feed examples for AngularJS I can offer a variation. This is a project I did for a t-shirt site and it does quotes using a variety of variables in real time as the user interacts with the UI. I also show how I went back to the exist
JohnMunsch
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: How do you find "coders with families" in the Bay Area?
I've read very often on HN about the coders that get rejected from or reject startup jobs because entrepreneurs have unrealistic expectations of work hours (80+) from employees. When I post my jobs for engineers #1 and #2 for my startup, I keep getting younger less experienced coders that are willing to work those unrealistic hours. I don't seem to get those "coders with families" even applying to my jobs. Have they been scared off? Is this happening because it is a small venture-backed startup, so crazy hours/dedication are implied? How do I shake that impression? Is it a function of the skills requested? (1 Ruby data collection and 1 Rails) I would much rather get those experienced coders that will want to work 40 hours. That's plenty of time to get a ton done and if they don't get enough accomplished in that time it's probably my fault as the CT
Why it failed: I've read very often on HN about the coders that get rejected from or reject startup jobs because entrepreneurs have unrealistic expectations of work hours (80+) from employees. When I post my jobs for engineers #1 and #2 for my startup, I keep getting younger less experienc
danpinto
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: I'm 26 and would like to make 100k/yearly before I'm 30. How do I do it?
Like the title says, I am currently 26 and would like to make at least 100k a year by the time I am 30. I am a front-end dev with about three and half years experience but, professionally speaking, I feel like I am stagnating. I have a very deep understanding of html/css and I know enough jQuery/JavaScript to handle DOM manipulation, as well as build out image sliders, tabbed content areas, etc. etc. I am also very knowledgeable about WordPress. As far as locations go, I live in the central US and won't be moving to San Francisco, New York City or any other large coastal city. Taking that into consideration, 100k would be considered more in the central US than somewhere like San Francisco. Basically, I see two options. The first option is to start learning a backend language, something like Ruby/C# and hoping for the best. I seriously doubt I could get enough experience learning a new la
Why it failed: Like the title says, I am currently 26 and would like to make at least 100k a year by the time I am 30. I am a front-end dev with about three and half years experience but, professionally speaking, I feel like I am stagnating. I have a very deep understanding of html/css and I kn
randomnamehere
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: How do you come back from a failed acquisition?
throwaway and anonyous CTO and cofounder here - we have been around for 2 years, and for the last 2 months in serious talks with a major ($6bn t/o) company to sell our startup. the deal would clearly be great for the founders personally - but also provide fantastic strategic assistance to the startup, propelling our user adoption to insane levels and giving us the financial backing to scale. We were told last week that the VC who backs this large co won't do the deal for internal politics reasons. Bigco (right up to VP level) still want to do it, but can't. we've broken off talks, have lost months of traction and work - aside from the enormous emotional cost, and i'm personally totally despirited. the thought of leaving product alone again and getting into months of further VC courting to raise the money leaves me cold. what's more, our current VCs & ang
Why it failed: throwaway and anonyous CTO and cofounder here - we have been around for 2 years, and for the last 2 months in serious talks with a major ($6bn t/o) company to sell our startup. the deal would clearly be great for the founders personally - but also provide fantastic strategic
droppedcothrow
- startupShut down2013
‘New’ Demonoid D2.vu Quickly Shutdown For Hosting Malware
Text from an email that was sent out: "Dear Demonoid Community Member, We have all read the same news stories: The Demonoid servers shut down and seized in the Ukraine. The Demonoid admin team detained in Mexico. The demonoid.me domain snatched and put up for sale. The Demonoid trackers back online in Hong Kong, but then disappearing. We all wanted to believe that Demonoid would be resurrected once again; but it seems that these events have spelled the end of Demonoid as we have always known it. We all waited to see if Demonoid would return, though its now clear that this time its really gone. Now for some good news: The heart and soul of Demonoid lives on! Through an amazing sequence of unlikely events, the data on those Ukrainian servers has made its way into the safe hands of members of our community and has now been re-launched as d2.vu Invitations to return are being sent out only t
Why it failed: Text from an email that was sent out: "Dear Demonoid Community Member, We have all read the same news stories: The Demonoid servers shut down and seized in the Ukraine. The Demonoid admin team detained in Mexico. The demonoid.me domain snatched and put up for sale. The Demonoid t
bichiliad
- startupShut down2013
How can we get Google Support?
The Symfony project, an Open-Source project (http://symfony.com/), uses Google Groups to host its mailing-lists. The service is free and we really appreciate it, but for no reasons, Google closed our access to one of our mailing-lists (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/symfony2). That happened a few weeks ago and thanks to some inside people at Google, the mailing-list reappeared. As the admin of the list, I received no email about the closing of the mailing-list, no explanations, and not even an email when the mailing-list reopened after a few days of black-out. I was not happy with this situation but I thought it was just a glitch. But then, some days ago, they did it again. The mailing-list is not accessible anymore, not even by me (the admin). There is no way to get support, no way to get in touch with someone at Google. This is really frustrating. Of course, this is a free ser
Why it failed: The Symfony project, an Open-Source project (http://symfony.com/), uses Google Groups to host its mailing-lists. The service is free and we really appreciate it, but for no reasons, Google closed our access to one of our mailing-lists (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/symf
fabpot
- startupShut down2013
Show HN: A Drip of JavaScript
Over the past couple of years, I've been very impressed by Kale Davis's Hacker Newsletter and Peter Cooper's entire newsletter empire. They're clearly meeting people's need to stay caught up on industry news without spending their entire lives watching HN and Twitter. Their success has inspired me to try something similar. So I've just begun publishing a JS newsletter called "A Drip of JavaScript." Rather than focus on the latest JS news (which JavaScript Weekly already does rather well), each issue is just a short article about some aspect of programming in JavaScript. The newsletter is aimed at intermediate JS developers, or beginners at JS who already know another language. Some of you might be wondering why I didn't just start a blog. I've found that there is something terribly compelling about having something just show up in your inbox without having to go looking for it. And I'm h
Why it failed: Over the past couple of years, I've been very impressed by Kale Davis's Hacker Newsletter and Peter Cooper's entire newsletter empire. They're clearly meeting people's need to stay caught up on industry news without spending their entire lives watching HN and Twitter. Their succe
joshuacc
- startupShut down2013
Is this really realistic: self-taught programmer?
So I'm 31, and decided to change careers. I was previously an engineer (not CS), and did well @ a small company, made and saved money, and now I make about 60k per year after tax from my invested money. I live off about 2.5k per month, but can probably live off less, so I'm still saving money per year, but not making any money other than my investments. I made about 20k worth of angel investments via angel.co, so hopefully I win the lottery there, but I'm not planning on it. I have always tooled around with computers, but I'm nowhere near an expert, nor have I ever been a coder. I am currently taking the one month rails course, and also considering something like LPTHW or similar, with the main goal in mind to just make prototypes, then hire the real talent if I get something going. I don't expect to get hired as a dev, but what about getting work or consulting f
Why it failed: So I'm 31, and decided to change careers. I was previously an engineer (not CS), and did well @ a small company, made and saved money, and now I make about 60k per year after tax from my invested money. I live off about 2.5k per month, but can probably live off less, so I&#x
beginagain
- startupShut down2013
Project Loon details from the Christchurch event today
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/IrZFq I went to the Project Loon event today (Sunday June 16) at the Air Force Museum in Wigram, Christchurch, New Zealand. Here's what I learned. (Some of this may be misunderstood or misremembered, so don't take it as absolute truth, and this is all early prototype stuff anyway.) It was quite a big museum-style exhibit with lots of people (it had been on the news), and several members of the team were there answering questions. Currently there are four balloons up. Several have recently been successfully been brought down and recovered from the ocean (land landings are easier to recover but there is no nearby land east of here). The main reasons for testing here are that the stratospheric winds are "boring" (basically all west-east) and this latitude has few countries to coordinate with (they're working with Chil
Why it failed: Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/IrZFq I went to the Project Loon event today (Sunday June 16) at the Air Force Museum in Wigram, Christchurch, New Zealand. Here's what I learned. (Some of this may be misunderstood or misremembered, so don't take it as a
mkl
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: Have you had trouble getting a job after a failed startup?
The article about the successful female Japanese entrepreneur got me thinking. I've been working for the man my whole life. When I was younger, I had someone turn me down for a programming job because they said my GPA was too high . I thought that particular employer was an idiot but it is their call. I'm curious if there are similar biases that are faced by failed entrepreneurs. Someone can have a bias that if you did a startup once, you will likely not be a stable employee and quit after a little while to do your next startup. I'm not worried about the major markets (Silicon Valley and New York) but about the rest.
Why it failed: The article about the successful female Japanese entrepreneur got me thinking. I've been working for the man my whole life. When I was younger, I had someone turn me down for a programming job because they said my GPA was too high . I thought that particular employer was an
throwaway1979
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: Twitter/Posterous - The Archive Team needs more time to save 1.3M blogs
TL;DR Posterous is shutting down in a week and the Archive Team needs more time else 1.3 million blogs will essentially disappear. -- I've been following an exchange between Jason Scott (Archive Team / Internet Archive) and Sachin Agarwal (Posterous) [1]. It appears that Posterous gave the Archive Team some dedicated servers to hit but it wasn't sufficient to download the amount that's going to be deleted. I don't know all of the details but saving content to a historical archive is invaluable. Offering the ability for users to download their content is great but it serves a very different purpose than what the Archive Team and Internet Archive does. Additionally, it's certain that much of the content will disappear because users didn't receive the shutdown email, 30 days wasn't long enough or simply didn't bother to do anything. The public content there is still valuable. [1] https://tw
Why it failed: TL;DR Posterous is shutting down in a week and the Archive Team needs more time else 1.3 million blogs will essentially disappear. -- I've been following an exchange between Jason Scott (Archive Team / Internet Archive) and Sachin Agarwal (Posterous) [1]. It appears that Posterou
jmathai
- startupShut down2013
Aaron Swartz (and others)
The suicide of Aaron Swartz is a tragedy. There have been many others who have "chosen" to end their lives, e.g. Sam Roweis (http://www.cs.nyu.edu/csweb/People/samroweis.html and http://samroweis1972-2010.blogspot.ca). I put "chosen" in quotes because one thing they have in common is Clinical Depression. This condition is not the sort of hipster malaise / ennuye that we like to attribute to "Genuises", or "Artists" as some kind of "Creativity" well. Clinical Depression is a biological cluster bomb to the brain, a paralysing, life-threatening condition that we should think of as the mental equivalent of a spinal cord injury ... not a "mid-life crisis" or emotional "funk". Aaron's death highlights an issue that has been in the forefront of the US newsmedia in recent months, mental health care (or lack thereof) in our society. We have been focusing on tragedies like the shooting of Gabby Gi
Why it failed: The suicide of Aaron Swartz is a tragedy. There have been many others who have "chosen" to end their lives, e.g. Sam Roweis (http://www.cs.nyu.edu/csweb/People/samroweis.html and http://samroweis1972-2010.blogspot.ca). I put "chosen" in quotes because one thing they have in commo
plg
- startupShut down2012
Ask HN: How do aquihires work?
As I understand it, an "aquihire" is an acquisition of a startup by a large company where the acquirer is not interested in the startup's product, technology or userbase, but only in its employees, who will presumably be shifted to work on the acquirer's own projects while the startup's work is abandoned. The impression I get from HN is that this is fairly common and explained as such employees being very valuable since they have proven the ability to create something. But what is the advantage of a (presumably rather costly - or does it happen only to failed startups with low valuations?) acquihire over simply "poaching" those employees? After all, the employees could leave the acquirer ASAP (especially if there is resentment over the product they had worked on being abandoned), and the founders and early employees (who have proven their ability the most) get a lot of money via their sh
Why it failed: As I understand it, an "aquihire" is an acquisition of a startup by a large company where the acquirer is not interested in the startup's product, technology or userbase, but only in its employees, who will presumably be shifted to work on the acquirer's own projects while the st
brazzy
- startupShut down2012
Ask HN: I am shutting down. And starting up, again? What do you think?
Hey guys, I've been around enough for quite some time to see people excited about building new things and then some shutting the very same business down a year or two later. It's just a thing that happens and is most likely a smart call to make in most of these cases. Today, I made the decision to shut down my business. Something I've worked on for over 2 years right after quitting an insanely well paid job at Microsoft. I am running my bank accounts dry (there's something left, no worries) and did not succeed in pushing my revolution enough. I am starting a new project called urbanvisitor.com and I wanted to see what you guys think beforehand. Opinions are always to be treated with caution, but the last time, I was the only one who was 100% sure I'll succeed, so that didn't work out well. So quickly: I want to build a real-time scheduling/meeting slots application centered around the id
Why it failed: Hey guys, I've been around enough for quite some time to see people excited about building new things and then some shutting the very same business down a year or two later. It's just a thing that happens and is most likely a smart call to make in most of these cases. Today, I ma
mittermayr
- startupShut down2012
Facebook shuts down page of lead DADT repeal group based on fake complaint
Hello HN - Anyone have contacts at Facebook? They killed our page facebook.com/outserve on a false claim of IP infringement from a fictitious person. Any help from this group would be much appreciated. Thanks! -Ty Walrod OutServe Co-Founder http://outserve.org
Why it failed: Hello HN - Anyone have contacts at Facebook? They killed our page facebook.com/outserve on a false claim of IP infringement from a fictitious person. Any help from this group would be much appreciated. Thanks! -Ty Walrod OutServe Co-Founder http://outserve.org
tywalrod
- startupShut down2012
Thank HN: Claim your personal Screenleap handle until April 30
Hey Hacker News, You have been really good to Screenleap since our soft launch here back in February and we would like to give back to you. We are launching user accounts with handles next week and wanted to give the Hacker News community first dibs on claiming their handles. For a limited time only (until midnight on April 30, 2012), you can claim your free user handle by signing up using our Hacker News promo at http://www.screenleap.com/signup?referer=hn A handle is a username link that can be provided to friends (i.e., http://www.screenleap.com/pg) as an easy way to initiate a screen session with someone. We only support public sharing (broadcasting) right now with handles but will be adding private sharing soon too. In addition, in the coming weeks we will be adding support for creating a friends list with the ability to quickly share your screen with a friend by clicking on their n
Why it failed: Hey Hacker News, You have been really good to Screenleap since our soft launch here back in February and we would like to give back to you. We are launching user accounts with handles next week and wanted to give the Hacker News community first dibs on claiming their handles. For
ttruong
- startupShut down2012
Ask HN: Where would you go if HN shutdown for 1 month?
From all the talks about HN lacking in many areas for some users, I was wondering where HN folks visit for quality content/comment/userbase? Side question: Would you come back if it shutdown for a month?
Why it failed: From all the talks about HN lacking in many areas for some users, I was wondering where HN folks visit for quality content/comment/userbase? Side question: Would you come back if it shutdown for a month?
leak
- startupShut down2012
Ask HN: Finding work for a significant other
Hello! Long-time lurker - first time asker. Seeking a bit of advice wrt helping a significant other find a job. We recently relocated from Chicago to the Bay Area (around August of 2011). The decision to move was largely my own and I perhaps softened the blow of leaving 'home' a bit by assuring my significant other that she'd have no issue finding something here in the valley. She's got a rock solid resume and wonderful dotcom experience - it seemed like a no-brainer. In fact, I went so far as to convince her to quit a great gig back in Chicago (knowing she could work remotely) because she'd grown a bit tired of it after a number of years - and the West - if nothing else - still holds the romanticism of a fresh start (at least for me.) So here we are, six months in - and she's still looking for an opportunity. She's had a couple of interviews thanks to some of the folks funding our endea
Why it failed: Hello! Long-time lurker - first time asker. Seeking a bit of advice wrt helping a significant other find a job. We recently relocated from Chicago to the Bay Area (around August of 2011). The decision to move was largely my own and I perhaps softened the blow of leaving 'home' a
iwritecode
- startupShut down2012
Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)
Hello HN. I like this community a lot and want to see if there's anything I can do to make you a little more successful. No strings. To give you an idea of what I might be able to help you with, let me tell you a few things I've done to help others recently... - I'm an early-adopter and enjoy seeing new technology and ideas being put into action. If only to get access sooner, I'd be more than happy to critique and share my opinion on all things design, customer development, software, entrepreneurship, family, creativity, or productivity. - I'm participating with a team of other students in the Stanford Technology Entrepreneurship online course and helping people learn to apply the Business Model Canvas along with lean startup methodologies as well as attempt to bring our own product to market. (On the side, our team published an ebook that helped other groups in the course to effectively
Why it failed: Hello HN. I like this community a lot and want to see if there's anything I can do to make you a little more successful. No strings. To give you an idea of what I might be able to help you with, let me tell you a few things I've done to help others recently... - I'm an early-adop
mikegreenberg
- startupShut down2012
7 years and no success. I need help.
Hello HN, I'm a regular here, but for personal reasons I'll be using a throwaway account. For the last 7 years I've been trying the entrepreneur game. I've have failed miserably with 6 failed startups under my belt. For the last year or so I was working for a company that can no longer pay me and I'm for the first time in years without any income (last 7 years my income was extremely low since I was investing everything in my ventures). At this point I'm very frustrated and have no clue what to do. I'm not a hacker, I'm a marketing guy. I know about usability, product, copywriting, lead generation and all those fancy things we marketing guys must know. Yet somehow, I can't get clients for myself (I'm trying the consulting route for SMB's but no luck). I have two degrees, two masters, have travelled most of the world, yet I feel like a total failure. When it comes to building stuff and ma
Why it failed: Hello HN, I'm a regular here, but for personal reasons I'll be using a throwaway account. For the last 7 years I've been trying the entrepreneur game. I've have failed miserably with 6 failed startups under my belt. For the last year or so I was working for a company that can no
fffuuu1234
- startupShut down2012
Help I'm Losing My Writing Ability
Hello everyone; I don't know if this question is in the right place or not, but I think that most of you would have probably experienced this at one point or another in your life, so do offer some wisdom and advice. However, if the content here is unsuitable, please remove it. Anyways, here's the current situation that I'm facing: * I was able to write very well since young (ever since I begin learning English), and my writing ability was well above the average. My style of writing was considered original and unique to me. * I was able to compose essays and stories very fluidly and improvise plots and arguments in an ad hoc manner. However, this ability has recently deteriorated, and I find myself cracking my head open even for simple arguments and story-lines. * When I wrote in the past, my pen moved almost as fast as the sentence forming in my head. My pen just had a mind of it's own,
Why it failed: Hello everyone; I don't know if this question is in the right place or not, but I think that most of you would have probably experienced this at one point or another in your life, so do offer some wisdom and advice. However, if the content here is unsuitable, please remove it. An
haploredux
- startupShut down2012
Show HN: Churches + The Internet
Hey HN, wanted to introduce FaithStreet to you all. This has been a huge undertaking for us as we've brought together a huge trove of poorly organized information over the last year and built a service that connects thousands of people to churches across the US. Link: http://www.FaithStreet.com/ If you have ever experienced a church website or considered attending a church, you may have already realized that its a space sorely lacking decent tech. We don't think that faith and technology are mutually exclusive, and the 7000+ churches who have signed up in the last two months seem to be coming around as well. Would love your feedback. Much respect for the community that is HN. p.s. On Tuesday, PandoDaily covered us. Here's a link if you're interested: http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/27/startup-faithstreet-lives-at-the-corner-of-tech-and-christianity/
Why it failed: Hey HN, wanted to introduce FaithStreet to you all. This has been a huge undertaking for us as we've brought together a huge trove of poorly organized information over the last year and built a service that connects thousands of people to churches across the US. Link: http://www.
glennericksen
- startupShut down2012
Freelance dev market
Hi everyone, I've been working for 5 years on oDesk.com. So far i am doing very well, but looks like i hit the limit: there is extremely little work (coding: Java, Actionscript, JS) priced over $35/h gross there, and while i am easily pitching customers on this kind of rates, i was unable to get anything more than that yet. But: overwhelming part of the projects i do are total nonsense. Like, i did 4 very different clones of the infamous chatroulette, last 2 years after the original one (while even the original one failed to take off), i did stupid looking Flash games for which there are zillions clones around, etc. Only 'real' work i can remember doing in 5 years was some rather complex scrapers for a guy who is in sports betting business (sure they are making him a ton of money and were fun to implement as well), and some distributed network analysis software for a well-funded Valley s
Why it failed: Hi everyone, I've been working for 5 years on oDesk.com. So far i am doing very well, but looks like i hit the limit: there is extremely little work (coding: Java, Actionscript, JS) priced over $35/h gross there, and while i am easily pitching customers on this kind of rates, i w
anovikov