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.
1,587 solutions
- startupShut down2011
What should I do with my life?
I'm 20. Never finished high school, did several years of classes at community colleges I took just for fun (mostly art, science, and math). I really just breathed through most of my classes there, and usually would come stoned, just to hangout (and still end up passing classes most of the time). Somehow college seemed like a better alternative to sitting at home watching stupid movies. Worked as a software engineer (Flash/C++) for some time, then was like "fuck it", quit, started freelancing/studying art. Now, I don't know what to do. My lack of degree or specialization makes me feel like I have less of an identity. I don't know what to put in my Facebook profile. I always feel like a drug-addled high-school drop-out, who burned his mind so much he'll end up homeless on the street. Like one of those crazy people who talk about aliens all the time, and such. But then I remember I actually
Why it failed: I'm 20. Never finished high school, did several years of classes at community colleges I took just for fun (mostly art, science, and math). I really just breathed through most of my classes there, and usually would come stoned, just to hangout (and still end up passing classes mo
mannicken
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: My Startup is Going to Die Because I Messed Up
I'm 24. I started a company 7 months ago, planning to bootstrap it with $5,000 borrowed from family. We started working hard at creating our brand. Logos, webdesign, website copy, flyers, and SEO. We divided our time equally between these tasks and selling the product. We were headed to profitability in short order. I quickly learned my cofounder was over his head in personal debt, and could no longer work full time. Some of our borrowed money went to him to try to keep him around for a couple of extra months ($1,200). It didn't work and he had to get a job. We've been floundering back and forth, spent the majority of our money, I invested another $1,000 to help us make one more sales surge to allow us to dedicate more time. We planned to see if this startup would work, setting a sales and spending goal in under 60 days. Success and we continue, failure and we cut our losses. We planned
Why it failed: I'm 24. I started a company 7 months ago, planning to bootstrap it with $5,000 borrowed from family. We started working hard at creating our brand. Logos, webdesign, website copy, flyers, and SEO. We divided our time equally between these tasks and selling the product. We were he
calebhicks
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: Best way to learn the CS background I missed by not going to school?
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask if it's not I apologize. This is my first post to HN.<p>Background: Basically I've been a developer for almost four years now. I started as a front-end developer writing HTML/CSS/JS, but quickly moved to the back-end writing PHP. Before now I've considered myself a decent developer, but lately I've been feeling burnt out and have been looking to move to a position that would make me happier. I've been looking at Ruby/Rails positions on the various job boards and I really feel like I don't have enough CS knowledge to land any of these positions. I'm feeling more and more like a copy and paste PHP developer. I mean, how can I get a job that is asking for engineers to apply? I really got a punch in the face when I read through a post on Stack Overflow about lesser known data structures like Ropes, and Bloom Filters, and Skip Lists. I ha
Why it failed: I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask if it's not I apologize. This is my first post to HN.<p>Background: Basically I've been a developer for almost four years now. I started as a front-end developer writing HTML/CSS/JS, but quickly moved to the back-end writing
brandoncordell
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: How can I quit talking myself out of my own ideas?
I'm sure this is common amongst us developers with ideas. I come up with new ideas for websites all the time. Most of the time I will have 2-3 ideas a week. I will usually invest several hours into each idea. If I know enough to jump right into code, I will. Otherwise I start by researching for the idea. Most of my ideas I am initially excited about. If I'm lucky then I may even be genuinely positive that the idea is "going to work". But, just like clockwork, I eventually begin to doubt the idea and usually end up dropping it. This usually occurs the day or so after the inception of the idea. Usually, my reasoning for dropping an idea is that it seems so useless and minor in the grand scheme of things. I try to picture people using the product and it actually making their life better in some way. This is obviously not an easy thing to do. I think that over the years I've trained myself t
Why it failed: I'm sure this is common amongst us developers with ideas. I come up with new ideas for websites all the time. Most of the time I will have 2-3 ideas a week. I will usually invest several hours into each idea. If I know enough to jump right into code, I will. Otherwise I start by
Skywing
- startupShut down2011
In regards to the opinions about the quality of HN
I've been a long time fan of online community. I've had forums that I attached to and gave them my "blood, sweat and tears." I've made myself a well known member of MMO communities because I enjoyed chatting in the game more than playing it. I turned Blizzard's Battle.net gaming service into an IRC-like hacker chat service because I hadn't discovered IRC yet. I've hosted my own IRC server since 1999 - averaged like ~40 users consistently since then, too! Do you know what the one thing that running this IRC server has taught me over the past 12 years? The people and the purpose behind the server change over time. Initially, the server was full of 14 year old kids, my e-friends from all over the globe, hacking Diablo and Warcraft. I had friends on there that I never thought would leave. Over the period of 12 years things happen, though. Some of them got married. Some got jobs that demanded
Why it failed: I've been a long time fan of online community. I've had forums that I attached to and gave them my "blood, sweat and tears." I've made myself a well known member of MMO communities because I enjoyed chatting in the game more than playing it. I turned Blizzard's Battle.net gaming
Skywing
- startupShut down2011
Google's Android Market is crippling small development teams
I've been a long time lurker on Hacker News. I apologize for the somewhat sensationalist title, but it really is rather true. Out of Milk started off as a dedicated Android project as our attempt to create an application for Android phones that absolutely screamed quality. We looked at the apps currently available on Google's Market and realized that there is a lack of quality applications with dedicated developers. We have spent a lot of money and a lot of time trying to prove that Android is a robust and high-quality platform. Unfortunately, Google is making this extremely difficult. I am a developer / co-founder of one the most popular Shopping List and Productivity applications on the Android Market. Our application is called Out of Milk (https://Market.android.com/details?id=com.capigami.outofmilk). As of right now, we are currently nearing 1 million downloads, a gigantic install ba
Why it failed: I've been a long time lurker on Hacker News. I apologize for the somewhat sensationalist title, but it really is rather true. Out of Milk started off as a dedicated Android project as our attempt to create an application for Android phones that absolutely screamed quality. We loo
CCapigami
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: Would you share your story of a failed startup, please?
I am working on a new project. I think it could be of interest for the public. It's a place where you can share your story about your failed startup. It will be a detailed review of the project from its start to its end. There is a good approach to think that there is no bad experience. You are not a loser if you have a startup that didn't pay out with money or success. You with your experience can be a more valuable professional than the one who never faced all the hurdle of developing and promoting a startup. More than that, if there are only fewer than 10% of startups take become successful, why there is so little information on the remaining 90%? Together we can fill in this source providing images, statistics, interviews, images. It can then help new entrepreneurs make their decisions more wisely as well as it will make the whole image of startups life clearer. I have almost done th
Why it failed: I am working on a new project. I think it could be of interest for the public. It's a place where you can share your story about your failed startup. It will be a detailed review of the project from its start to its end. There is a good approach to think that there is no bad expe
cosmorocket
- startupShut down2011
Spamhaus Nightmare: Domain Shut Down, No Notice, Over A Million Pages Down
I am writing this here on HN, because at the moment you cannot access our blog. Our domain name was shut down this morning, and I'm trying to get it back. Here's what happened... Our company provides tools to help people put together pages for their businesses. Our free tool has been used to create over million page tabs on Facebook. Unfortunately but predictably, sometimes bad people use our app. Like spammers. Overnight, our domain was blacklisted by Spamhaus because one of our pages contained spam. (Anybody want a free iPad?) We run our infrastructure on Heroku, and use Bluehost for domain names. Well, as soon as Bluehost recieved notice from Spamhaus, they shut off the DNS for our domain. All million plus pages, gone in the blink of a DNS propagation. Thankfully we were able to switch over to [appname].heroku.com for now and most of the pages are back, but we have paying customers wh
Why it failed: I am writing this here on HN, because at the moment you cannot access our blog. Our domain name was shut down this morning, and I'm trying to get it back. Here's what happened... Our company provides tools to help people put together pages for their businesses. Our free tool has
jpadvo
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: I'm giving away my startup taketake.com for free - who wants it?
I could go in a long explanation of the personal reasons why my co-founder and I have decided to give away our startup, but let's just say in a nutshell that we've burned out. We're looking for at least two people to give it away to. Preferably a team with both tech and UI/UX experience. We're running on our own PHP framework. You'd need to master nginx, redis, resque, Node, MySQL and MongoDB as well. You will get the majority stake after a vesting period. You'd be in charge of everything and it would be your startup to do with as you see fit. My co-founder and I would retain a minority equity stake in the startup and have an advisory role. We thought of shutting down everything, but would rather "give" the startup to another team to take over. We believe in taketake a great deal and have some solid ideas for its business model. We are looking for a team who are ready to fully dedicate t
Why it failed: I could go in a long explanation of the personal reasons why my co-founder and I have decided to give away our startup, but let's just say in a nutshell that we've burned out. We're looking for at least two people to give it away to. Preferably a team with both tech and UI/UX exp
heymatty
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: How do you stay focused on one idea?
I have been working on one startup or another since I was in my teens. Not one has been super-successful, but that's ok because I expect that as an entrepreneur. I've learned a lot along the way. What I can't seem to do, however, is stay focused on just one idea. I am a developer and an ok designer. I'm good at what I do (in general, as a developer) and am constantly coming up with new ideas. I have a few that I really like, and I've spent serious time on a few of them, but I find myself becoming bored of each idea before too long, and then I am off thinking about or looking into some other new and exciting idea. How do you stay focused on just one idea? It feels like any decent idea could be profitable enough to help me leave my job with enough persistence, but I can't seem to stay focused or excited about just one idea. What I want is independence and to build something that other peop
Why it failed: I have been working on one startup or another since I was in my teens. Not one has been super-successful, but that's ok because I expect that as an entrepreneur. I've learned a lot along the way. What I can't seem to do, however, is stay focused on just one idea. I am a developer
bry
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: Why are a majority of companies not-open to hiring remote developers?
I have worked in all types of settings. Fortune 250. 5 person startup. Mid-size companies. I have managed remote teams that have built amazing technology. I have been a part of local teams that can't get their head straight. In speaking with job prospects recently, it seems like very few companies (~ 5%) are open to some type of remote work. Now please understand, I am not looking to work remote b/c I want to live in the French Riviera. I have personal commitments where I am that prevent me from leaving (at least temporarily). As a Ruby developer (from what I hear and see), my skills are in high demand. Take this awesome recruiter email to me: -- start email ---- I am a recruiter here in the Bay Area working with several significant consumer-focused internet tech companies. What's going on in the Bay Area right now (and why I am writing you) is a major shortage of qualified Ruby engineer
Why it failed: I have worked in all types of settings. Fortune 250. 5 person startup. Mid-size companies. I have managed remote teams that have built amazing technology. I have been a part of local teams that can't get their head straight. In speaking with job prospects recently, it seems like
mdink
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: I'm considering leaving a startup to look for big-company jobs (really).
I know this decision may not be popular around here, but I think the quality of advice that I'll get is good, so I'm going to ask for it. I'm a talented programmer who is now considering leaving a startup and moving back into the big-company fold. My savings are near zero-- that rules out another startup-- and a part of me thinks that a big-company job for a while might not be the worst thing in the world. I've decided to leave a startup in which I was a founder, although the partnership was always a bit unequal (I'm the youngest and don't have any contacts to potential customers or VCs) and our CEO often takes the attitude of it being a one-man show (i.e. he tends to get "set" in decisions without appeal, he makes shitty comments if we take a long lunch, and we deal with 2-4 status checks per day). I've been treated enough like an employee that my motivation has crashed and I essentiall
Why it failed: I know this decision may not be popular around here, but I think the quality of advice that I'll get is good, so I'm going to ask for it. I'm a talented programmer who is now considering leaving a startup and moving back into the big-company fold. My savings are near zero-- that
throwaway4921
- startupShut down2011
Tell HN: Why I want to start a startup
I love my life. No kidding. I do. I'm a young guy in his early twenties and I'm doing great in college. I'm going to grad school next year, that’s exciting! I love Computer Science. I'm having fun with friends. I ride my bike, even when it’s freezing. Does that mean I’m healthy and in shape? You’re right. I have grand plans for the future and everything is fine. Still, I get written off all the time and I guess I’m not the only one. Personally, I just try to not let it get to me. Here’s why. How I got written off: phase one It all started when I was in my final year in high school. One day, my math teacher asked me what I wanted to study. I’ve always been pretty determined and told him the truth. I’d like to study Computer Science in college, sir. Go for a master’s degree. He laughed at me, in my face. Point blank. I studied economics and languages back then, and I admit, the math I was
Why it failed: I love my life. No kidding. I do. I'm a young guy in his early twenties and I'm doing great in college. I'm going to grad school next year, that’s exciting! I love Computer Science. I'm having fun with friends. I ride my bike, even when it’s freezing. Does that mean I’m healthy a
philipDS
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: How to overcome strong feelings of worthlesness and inadequacy
I need help HN. I have been stuck in a dead end job for the past few years and I've forgotten what's it like to have a passion for development, I've forgotten what's it like to have the ability to create something. A bit of background first: I have been programming for the past 6 years, mostly I've been doing pretty much the same job for the past six years (1 year repeated 6 times) even though I somewhat enjoyed it I never learned anything besides the typical CRUD apps. Very few times I had to develop something from scratch, my job consisted mostly of fixing bugs and the new feature every now and then, so even though I have 6 years of "programming" experience I feel unable to build stuff, I am far far away from being a truly experienced developer. I graduated with an information technology degree where I was not exposed to a lot of computer science, however I never really saw it as a fla
Why it failed: I need help HN. I have been stuck in a dead end job for the past few years and I've forgotten what's it like to have a passion for development, I've forgotten what's it like to have the ability to create something. A bit of background first: I have been programming for the past 6
dazedconfused
- startupShut down2011
Tell HN: Our VC turned the process of getting acquired into a nightmare
I run a startup I co-founded on the east coast, which is about as specific as I can be right now. The past three months has been some of the worst in my life but also provided some of the most valuable lessons learned. I thought I would use a throwaway account to blow of some steam and hopefully get some valuable feedback. This is the situation: My startup is profitable with a team of 10 or so people and with a very happy and loyal customer base. But after five years in business I have come to accept that it has failed to yield any really high growth. This has forced us to take a step back and look at how we can reframe our business. We need to find a new product/market fit to kick in the next gear and get back on track to higher growth. Three months ago, a favorable acquisition offer comes along. Part cash part equity, favorable terms. Because of our dwindling growth it is lousy timing
Why it failed: I run a startup I co-founded on the east coast, which is about as specific as I can be right now. The past three months has been some of the worst in my life but also provided some of the most valuable lessons learned. I thought I would use a throwaway account to blow of some ste
throwaway5317
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: What do people do with the code from failed startups?
I see a good amount of failed startup stories come across HN and I always wonder what they do with the code after they have called it quits. I haven't really seen a case of someone open-sourcing their code and uploading on github or something. I know that this is easier said than done, there are probably some legal issues around it. Nonetheless, I am just curious in what people actually do. Do they destroy it? Archive it? Print it out and burn it?
Why it failed: I see a good amount of failed startup stories come across HN and I always wonder what they do with the code after they have called it quits. I haven't really seen a case of someone open-sourcing their code and uploading on github or something. I know that this is easier said than
bobbywilson0
- startupShut down2011
Offer HN: I'll help you become a hacker
I want to help people make things, and I want to become a better hacker, teacher, and writer. Teaching people to become hackers over email kills all three birds with one stone. :) So if you are a non-technical HNewser who wants to start hacking, I want to help you. The idea is that we'll figure out what you want to learn, then three times a week we'll correspond via email. And over time, you'll learn technical skills -- and more importantly, I'll help you learn how to learn technical skills. What to expect from me: - Help choosing learning materials - Answers to your questions. - Help coming up with projects (homework!) - Comments on the work you do - Commitment for 30 days, then we'll reevaluate Here are things I can help you with. Server side: - PHP - Ruby on Rails, - MySQL, - Apache administration Client side: - HTML - CSS - JavaScript ( jQuery optional ) - Design - Usability Basics:
Why it failed: I want to help people make things, and I want to become a better hacker, teacher, and writer. Teaching people to become hackers over email kills all three birds with one stone. :) So if you are a non-technical HNewser who wants to start hacking, I want to help you. The idea is th
jpadvo
- startupShut down2011
Ask HN: Tell me about your failed startup.
Inspired by this post - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2086218 - which mentions the fact people only focus on success stories which are actually the minority. I think it would be good to hear some personal stories of startup failure so we can all learn from them. What went wrong? What did you learn for next time and can pass on? How did you recover and what are you doing now? Having failed once, would you try again?
Why it failed: Inspired by this post - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2086218 - which mentions the fact people only focus on success stories which are actually the minority. I think it would be good to hear some personal stories of startup failure so we can all learn from them. What went w
SimonPStevens
- startupShut down2011
The Untold Story of Chegg PT 1
My name is Ousama Haffar and I was one of the early guys at Chegg. While Chegg isn't a Zynga or a Facebook story that attracts the oohs and ahhs of Silicon Valley, I would love to share a bit with you about what I learned about entrepreneurship and being scrappy during my time at Chegg as founding member of the team from 2006-2010 and how we went from $0 to over $100M in revenue. Chegg originally start its life as a college classified site that attracted 60,000 students across the country to buy and sell your everyday college type items; t-shirts, mini fridges, old beat up Pontiacs, etc. Our team was about 5-7 people, mostly engineers and I focused mostly on product, marketing and whatever odd jobs that needed a hand. In our early days we attracted a couple hundred thousand visitors to our website each month, mostly buy building a campus marketing team and doing your traditional marketin
Why it failed: My name is Ousama Haffar and I was one of the early guys at Chegg. While Chegg isn't a Zynga or a Facebook story that attracts the oohs and ahhs of Silicon Valley, I would love to share a bit with you about what I learned about entrepreneurship and being scrappy during my time at
dotmatrix
- startupShut down2011
Open letter to FB from protest leaders in macedonia.
Open Letter to Facebook Re: Protests against Policy Brutality in Macedonia (June 2011) Dear Facebook, We are writing to express our concern over the swift deletion policy that has been imposed on the facebook pages and events that we as participants in a protest against policy brutality in Macedonia are currently dealing with. We have been made aware by the press secretary for the Ministry of Interior that their administrators are responsible for reporting the groups for calls for violence and hate speech, but considering that we know the content of those pages and deny the allegations made by press secretary Kotevski, we wonder how your administrators confirm those allegations before you delete the pages. Do you confirm them at all? The systematic deletion especially of events that bring people together in peaceful protests adds significantly to the climate of fear created by those we a
Why it failed: Open Letter to Facebook Re: Protests against Policy Brutality in Macedonia (June 2011) Dear Facebook, We are writing to express our concern over the swift deletion policy that has been imposed on the facebook pages and events that we as participants in a protest against policy br
Gabriel_Martin
- startupShut down2011
.ly domain reseller suspended by SoftLayer citing US/UN Sanctions
My contact at libyanspider.com has informed me that his hosting and DNS service at SoftLayer.com has been shut down citing UN/US/ Presidential Order of sanctions against Libya. Some ~12,000 sites owned by ~5000 Libyan and International customers are offline or unreachable, 20 employees out of work. LibyanSpider is the largest reseller I think of .ly domains. They also offer other DNS and internet services. Softlayer was kind enough to add "Best of luck in your future endeavors." to their notice before even shutting off his support system account. *wince [quote] Unfortunately, your account has been reclaimed due OFAC violations. With the current situation abroad and subsequent changes to the list, your account has been deactivated immediately. OFAC: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx Best of luck in your future endeavors, SoftLayer Accounting [/
Why it failed: My contact at libyanspider.com has informed me that his hosting and DNS service at SoftLayer.com has been shut down citing UN/US/ Presidential Order of sanctions against Libya. Some ~12,000 sites owned by ~5000 Libyan and International customers are offline or unreachable, 20 emp
strebel
- startupShut down2011
Show HN: Fitocracy, an RPG for fitness
My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself up." XKCD has a pretty well known comic to this effect: http://xkcd.com/189/. We find that the metaphor of workout out as leveling up in a video game resonates with quite a few people, so Fitocracy is an attempt to bring that to life. On Fitocracy, tracking your workouts earns you points/levels, unlocks special achievements, and fulfills "quests", which are basically exercise milestones that aim for workout variety and progression. As you progress in your training, Fitocracy offers more quests, increases the level up requirements, etc. We also try to make the experience as com
Why it failed: My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel betwee
brianmwang
- startupShut down2011
Show HN: "Never wait on hold again" service built with Rails and Twilio
My buddy paulsingh and I have been working on this for a few weeks, got something up and running and wanted to show you. The problem we're solving: When you need customer service (your flight got canceled, strange fees on your bill, etc) you just want to talk to a real person. Waiting on hold wastes your time AND your concentration; you can't be coding in the zone when part of your brain is waiting for an operator. Our solution: We wanted to make it "one click" to reach a real person. How it works: You click on who you want to talk to (even a specific department, like the billing dept at AT&T) and we take it from there. Our system dials in, presses whatever buttons need pressing and waits on hold for as long as it takes. Only when we have an actual operator on the line do we call you. Website version: http://www.fastcustomer.com (free) iPhone: http://itunes.com/app/FastCustomer (99 c
Why it failed: My buddy paulsingh and I have been working on this for a few weeks, got something up and running and wanted to show you. The problem we're solving: When you need customer service (your flight got canceled, strange fees on your bill, etc) you just want to talk to a real person. Wa
ekanes
- startupShut down2011
Mixpanel - Internships. A story.
Mixpanel is looking for summer interns. In 2008, I interned at Slide, Inc and it was one of the most valuable summers of my life. I went from college hacker interested in starting a company to learning deeply about product design and what it was like to work on a team. That summer I was fortunate enough to work with an awesome PM, Adora (who taught me the essentials of product development) and Max Levchin. I am still not sure why Max ended up working so closely on the product we working on. Our product was new and had the least business value of all the things Slide was working on but it was still exciting. If I had to say, I think he just liked that we worked so hard on it. At Slide, I was determined to work hard. I wanted to know if hard work paid off so I worked from 10am to 12am. It did: Slide offered me a full-time but I declined. At the end of the summer I had huge takeaways: - I k
Why it failed: Mixpanel is looking for summer interns. In 2008, I interned at Slide, Inc and it was one of the most valuable summers of my life. I went from college hacker interested in starting a company to learning deeply about product design and what it was like to work on a team. That summe
suhail