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.
3,100 solutions
- startupShut down2020
There must be more to this
This is a story about my life so far and why I want to change things. I'm a Father of two with a regular 9-5 job. My daily routine is not unique in anyway. Wake up, head over to the gym, shower, head back home, get the kids ready for school and leave the house for work. Standard right? My Wife on the other hand works 9-5 but often the shifts are 12+ hours because of deadlines, constraints, priorities. This has really begun to bother me. I see my wife tired, mentally exhausted and almost like she's been defeated. Our children need mom and dad, want to play, explore and laugh with us. But, sometimes it's hard to muster the energy when work has taken its toll on you all day. How unfair is that for the kids? They expect our love, attention and company, it's so hard when they don't get that time or emotional support. This really has been eating away at me for sometime
Why it failed: This is a story about my life so far and why I want to change things. I'm a Father of two with a regular 9-5 job. My daily routine is not unique in anyway. Wake up, head over to the gym, shower, head back home, get the kids ready for school and leave the house for work. Stan
Ptrulli
- startupShut down2020
Robinhood has been down for over 12 hours
Support tickets have stopped going through as well. Looking forward to the postmortem. I personally had a few SPY calls expiring today and Wednesday that I couldn’t execute all day. https://status.robinhood.com/
Why it failed: Support tickets have stopped going through as well. Looking forward to the postmortem. I personally had a few SPY calls expiring today and Wednesday that I couldn’t execute all day. https://status.robinhood.com/
webo
- startupShut down2020
Apple requests Telegram to shut down 3 channels exposing Belarussian oppressors
Quote from Durov's Telegram channel: https://t.me/durov/135 ______________________________ Apple is requesting that we shut down 3 channels used by the people of Belarus to expose the identities of their oppressors. @karatelibelarusi @chatpartizan @belarusassholes Their concern is that publishing the personal information of law enforcers and propagandists may incite violence. I think this situation is not black and white and would rather leave the channels be, but typically Apple doesn’t offer much choice for apps like Telegram in such situations. Unfortunately, I assume these channels will end up getting blocked on iOS, but remain available on other platforms. P. S. Everyone is welcome to express their views and comment on this post provided they stay on-topic and use English. Thanks! ______________________________ It seems, HN automatically bans everything subm
Why it failed: Quote from Durov's Telegram channel: https://t.me/durov/135 ______________________________ Apple is requesting that we shut down 3 channels used by the people of Belarus to expose the identities of their oppressors. @karatelibelarusi @chatpartizan @belaru
fsflover
- startupShut down2020
Ask HN: Is hydrogen likely to be a major source of power in the next 10 years?
There has been hype around hydrogen fuel cells being a source of green power for decades, but the hype cycle is currently ramping up significantly. Hydrogen fuel cell stocks such as PLUG and FCEL have gone up 10x despite the lack of any significant new breakthrough technology and a history of loss making and value destruction. Just today, Bank of America research released a 103 page "Hydrogen Primer" in which they predict that the hydrogen space will generate $2.5 trillion in direct revenues and $11 trillion of indirect infrastructure potential. They believe that a tipping point is coming soon because of the falling cost of renewable energy and electrolysers used to produce "green" hydrogen, as well as better efficiencies in fuel cells. My question is for the experts in the crowd here, either based on engineering experience or on first principles and physics, does thi
Why it failed: There has been hype around hydrogen fuel cells being a source of green power for decades, but the hype cycle is currently ramping up significantly. Hydrogen fuel cell stocks such as PLUG and FCEL have gone up 10x despite the lack of any significant new breakthrough technology and
eigenvalue
- startupShut down2020
Launch HN: Datree (YC W20) – Best practices and security policies on each commit
We are Shimon and Eyar, co-founders of Datree ( https://www.datree.io ). We've built software to help engineering teams automate the adoption of development best practices, coding standards, and security policies. When I (Shimon) was the manager of a 400-developer company's infrastructure engineering team, we had an issue where a developer committed AWS secret keys into a public GitHub repo. We were very, very lucky that the bad actors who quickly got ahold of the keys "only" spun up compute instances to mine bitcoin. Mistakes happen and they happen to the best of us. No developer wants to make mistakes, especially ones impacting production. Those mistakes can be not only costly to the business, but emotionally painful for the developer. After finding out about the issue, I had to search for any other leaked secret in our repositories to make sure we were no
Why it failed: We are Shimon and Eyar, co-founders of Datree ( https://www.datree.io ). We've built software to help engineering teams automate the adoption of development best practices, coding standards, and security policies. When I (Shimon) was the manager of a 400-developer
shimont
- startupShut down2020
Ask HN: Owed Salary, Founder Rebranded
The short version of the story: I was a key engineer in a small startup. Towards the end of the startups life, the founder was involved in some sketchy business dealings with money. The other few employees and I worked IOUs for the final months while "promised money" was being wired, but never came. When I left, I was owed about $15k in salary. The startup is still in business with the state and re-filed their business information as "active." Recently, the founder started a new startup in the very same space, with the same mission statement as the old startup. I suspect he is using much of the same code, as we had basically a completed product before I left the old startup. It would take years to rewrite from scratch without re-using the old code. It seems that he is letting the old startup die, while using work that he never paid for power his new venture and raise
Why it failed: The short version of the story: I was a key engineer in a small startup. Towards the end of the startups life, the founder was involved in some sketchy business dealings with money. The other few employees and I worked IOUs for the final months while "promised money" wa
daenz
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: What are some of your recent failures?
After asking this question at indie hackers, I would like to know if anyone over here would like to share recent lessons from failures. Let's celebrate failures & grow.
Why it failed: After asking this question at indie hackers, I would like to know if anyone over here would like to share recent lessons from failures. Let's celebrate failures & grow.
mhrnik
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Startup coworker underperforming
A little background: I'm half of a development team at a young (but very promising startup). We have angel funding and seed funding and are working our way towards proving our product is profitable for the next round. I was brought aboard by the other half of the development team, the subject of this post, who recommended me to the founder/CEO. During my first few 3 months of being hired, we re-wrote the entire application to meet the requirements that the previous developers couldn't meet due to them being junior and inexperienced (who were later fired). When I say "we", I really mean "I". This is where the problems lie. The other developer on the team has productivity issues. He has the title of "principal engineer" but he his full time duties are development oriented. And he cannot perform. When tasked with debugging software issues, he can
Why it failed: A little background: I'm half of a development team at a young (but very promising startup). We have angel funding and seed funding and are working our way towards proving our product is profitable for the next round. I was brought aboard by the other half of the development
StartupAnon192
- startupShut down2019
Show HN: Angeldust – a fast and efficient video game
After years of solo development I'm presenting: Angeldust, an omni-compatible action RPG and building game! Website: http://angeldu.st My single server hosts 250+K active players in one giant, dynamic fantasy world. Angeldust's game server is pervasively multithreaded, implementing John Carmack's dream of processing an immutable world state each tick. Both world handling and network traffic routing uses any number of threads. For networking, a typical game session only uses ~3Kbps of bandwidth, enabling decent play even over 2G/EDGE networks. The client is programmed in C++ with bits of C, Objective-C, Java and PHP. It runs really well on very low-end and obsolete hardware, all the way up to modern systems with fast GPUs. Angeldust works perfectly on Windows XP+, even without hardware OpenGL; Mac OS X 10.6+, even on the first 2006 32-bit Intel GMA945 MacBook
Why it failed: After years of solo development I'm presenting: Angeldust, an omni-compatible action RPG and building game! Website: http://angeldu.st My single server hosts 250+K active players in one giant, dynamic fantasy world. Angeldust's game server is pervasively multi
ItsFirefly
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How did 2018 go for you? What went well? What didn't?
For me, what went well: * I started a consulting business and made nearly $300k in revenue * I shipped my first real SaaS project * I read over 40 books * I started a growing blog and a newsletter * I landed on my first major podcast (>25k subscribers) What didn't go well (what I want to improve in 2019): * Consulting isn't for me (at a full-time capacity). A product-based business scales better than a service-based business and if I continued down my consulting path I would work myself to the bone. I'm back working for an employer full time until my SaaS projects can pay the bills. * Lots of injuries (multiple tendinopathies and impingements from lifting). Working with a PT to lift smarter and diagnose problems sooner. * Didn't ship my 20+ part algorithms tutorial series/book. Plan to have that completed (first draft) by end of January 2019. * Reduce the numb
Why it failed: For me, what went well: * I started a consulting business and made nearly $300k in revenue * I shipped my first real SaaS project * I read over 40 books * I started a growing blog and a newsletter * I landed on my first major podcast (>25k subscribers) What didn't go well
acconrad
- startupShut down2019
Munchery Shuts Down
Got this via email: Since 2010, we have been committed to bringing fresh, local, and delicious meals into your homes along with all our customers across the country. We’ve been delighted to work with world renowned chefs, experiment with diverse and unique ingredients and recipes, and be a part of of your holiday feasts and traditions. We have also enjoyed giving back to our community through meal donations, volunteer service, and so much more. Today, with a heavy heart, we’re reaching out to announce that Munchery is closing its doors and ending operations effective immediately. Any outstanding orders with Munchery will be canceled and refunded. Please allow 2-3 business days for these refunds to process. More than anything, we want to say thank you. Thank you for all of the love and support you have shown us over the years, for sharing us with your friends and family, and for including
Why it failed: Got this via email: Since 2010, we have been committed to bringing fresh, local, and delicious meals into your homes along with all our customers across the country. We’ve been delighted to work with world renowned chefs, experiment with diverse and unique ingredients and recipes
kposehn
- startupShut down2019
Oracle Dyn DNS Services Shutting Down in 2020
From an email to old customers of DYN services: "Oracle is announcing the end-of-life for the free Standard DNS service in favor of the enhanced, paid subscription version on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform. On May 31, 2020, the “EOL Date”, the Standard DNS will be retired and will no longer be available." The following capabilities are not currently supported in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DNS: Webhop (HTTP redirect) Dynamic DNS Zone transfer to external nameservers DNSSEC The migration to the new services is apparently a copy&paste DNS zone export to the new cloud. https://www.oracle.com/corporate/acquisitions/dyn/technologies/migrate-your-services/
Why it failed: From an email to old customers of DYN services: "Oracle is announcing the end-of-life for the free Standard DNS service in favor of the enhanced, paid subscription version on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform. On May 31, 2020, the “EOL Date”, the Standard DNS will be
pierlu
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Glide (YC W19) – Mobile Apps from Google Sheets
Hello, HN! We're Antonio, David, Jason, and Mark. We’re building Glide ( https://glideapps.com ). Before this we worked on Xamarin, quicktype, Ubuntu, Mono, and GNOME Do :D Glide makes it easy & fun for anyone to create apps without code. Pick a Google Sheet and Glide assembles a polished, data-driven app that you can customize, share as a PWA, and publish to the App Store and Google Play if you desire. We've spent the last decade building developer tools. In that time we've watched thousands of developers struggle to design, implement, and maintain apps, and most developers we know avoid mobile development altogether. Apart from developers, we hear worthy app ideas from non-technical colleagues, friends, and family every day: apps for work, new business ideas, and silly apps just for fun. All of these people can make websites, so why can't they make app
Why it failed: Hello, HN! We're Antonio, David, Jason, and Mark. We’re building Glide ( https://glideapps.com ). Before this we worked on Xamarin, quicktype, Ubuntu, Mono, and GNOME Do :D Glide makes it easy & fun for anyone to create apps without code. Pick a Google Sheet an
dvdsgl
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: DevFlight (YC W19) – Helping open-source maintainers make money
Hey HN, We’re Victor and Tony, founders of DevFlight ( https://devflight.com ). We help open-source maintainers make money. Think of us as agents for open-source maintainers. We met last year through the Indie Hackers community. It’s one of the luckiest things that’s ever happened to us. We clicked immediately. It became clear we share an obsession with building things to make developers’ lives easier. We began working on small developer-centric projects together. We started DevFlight after recognizing maintainers are the most underserved developers. They provide immense value and get little in return. We’ve spoken with many maintainers who’ve told us the current open-source development model is unsustainable for them. Their projects often end up being a second full-time job without pay. Some have to stop supporting their projects altogether due to a lack of resources. It’s tim
Why it failed: Hey HN, We’re Victor and Tony, founders of DevFlight ( https://devflight.com ). We help open-source maintainers make money. Think of us as agents for open-source maintainers. We met last year through the Indie Hackers community. It’s one of the luckiest things that’s ev
vbordo
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Convictional (YC W19) – Supplier Network for Retailers
Hey HN, We’re Roger and Chris, co-founders of Convictional ( https://www.convictional.com/ ). Convictional makes it possible for online retailers to find, onboard, and integrate with third-party suppliers. We do this by connecting them to a network of suppliers that manage the inventory and ship those products directly to the end consumer on their behalf. The idea behind Convictional started when Roger worked at GNC, a large natural health products retailer, at the age of 17. One of the biggest challenges was onboarding. As a retailer, you either buy inventory or ship from third parties ("drop shipping"). They decided to expand their catalog by selling some products that were shipped directly by the supplier. To do this, GNC required both sides to implement EDI (an old school, pre-internet data format for exchanging information between business systems) or manual
Why it failed: Hey HN, We’re Roger and Chris, co-founders of Convictional ( https://www.convictional.com/ ). Convictional makes it possible for online retailers to find, onboard, and integrate with third-party suppliers. We do this by connecting them to a network of suppliers tha
ChrisGrouchy
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews
Hi HN, My name is Jaclyn Ling and I'm the co-founder/CEO of Hatchways ( https://hatchways.io ). We make it easier to get your first job. More specifically, we help talented engineers who may not shine in traditional recruitment processes (resume + multiple interview processes) get opportunities to prove themselves on the job. We do this by using a practical skill-based assessment as a proxy for the resume, and then matching them to startups for paid internships, as a way to reduce full-time interview processes. As a new grad without relevant work experience, or as a career shifter without a relevant degree, getting a first job is very painful. You spend months preparing for interviews that don’t reflect the job, you send hundreds of resumes out that go unanswered, and when you actually get interviews, getting through five rounds successfully is like a lottery. I’ve be
Why it failed: Hi HN, My name is Jaclyn Ling and I'm the co-founder/CEO of Hatchways ( https://hatchways.io ). We make it easier to get your first job. More specifically, we help talented engineers who may not shine in traditional recruitment processes (resume + multiple int
jaclynmling
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Sequence Bio (YC S19) – Newfoundland's Genetics for Drug Discovery
Hi HN - Chris Gardner here, founder of Sequence Bio ( https://sequencebio.com ). We’re researching Newfoundland’s enriched genetics and medical records to find and develop better, safer medicines. First things first, let me tell you a bit about Newfoundland. Not only is it my home, but it’s also a pretty unique place. Perched on Canada’s most easterly coast, Newfoundland has its own 30 minute time zone, a Broadway musical about how nice we are (Come from Away), and a front row seat to humpback whales and 10,000 year old icebergs. Newfoundland’s settlement pattern is also unique because it was settled in the 1700s by about 25,000 Irish and English people and there’s been little inmigration ever since. In fact, it’s estimated that about 90% of our 500,000 residents descend from those original settlers. This high degree of relatedness among residents, coupled with large families,
Why it failed: Hi HN - Chris Gardner here, founder of Sequence Bio ( https://sequencebio.com ). We’re researching Newfoundland’s enriched genetics and medical records to find and develop better, safer medicines. First things first, let me tell you a bit about Newfoundland. Not only is
sbmcdonald
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Superb AI (YC W19) – AI-Powered Training Data
Hi HN, I’m Hyun, one of the co-founders of Superb AI ( https://www.superb-ai.com ) in the YC W19 batch. We use AI to semi-automatically collect and label training data for tech companies, and help them implement machine-learning based features faster. Almost all the magical AI features that we see are actually built using training data powered by humans. Companies build software tools and farm out to a bunch of people to click and type things repeatedly to label the raw data. That's how training data is made, and that’s a very large portion of what an AI is, up to this point. It has worked well up to now, but the process is not very fast and often prone to error. Moreover, the size of training datasets has increased exponentially over the past few years, as it almost guarantees a higher AI performance. AI engineers are now handling datasets as large as tens of millions of
Why it failed: Hi HN, I’m Hyun, one of the co-founders of Superb AI ( https://www.superb-ai.com ) in the YC W19 batch. We use AI to semi-automatically collect and label training data for tech companies, and help them implement machine-learning based features faster. Almost all the mag
hyunsoo90
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Healthcare Costs Pre-Visit
Hi HN, We're Lance, Lance, and Dallin (Yes...2 founders named Lance :)). We are the founders of Shift Health ( https://shifthealth.io ). We help patients understand what they will owe pre-visit and provide flexibility to pay overtime. Purchasing health care is unlike anything else you buy in our society today. You wouldn’t expect to walk into a grocery store, take home a loaf of bread not knowing the price and then receive a surprise bill 3 months later. So why is this the standard experience for buying health care services? The surprising thing is that the standard experience for doctors offices is not much better. Antiquated billing processes compounded with the fact that patients are responsible for more and more of the bill out of pocket is creating a scenario where doctors offices are only collecting 40% to 60% of the patient out-of-pocket responsibility. We partner w
Why it failed: Hi HN, We're Lance, Lance, and Dallin (Yes...2 founders named Lance :)). We are the founders of Shift Health ( https://shifthealth.io ). We help patients understand what they will owe pre-visit and provide flexibility to pay overtime. Purchasing health care is unli
Hydrick3232
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Latchel (YC W19) – Rental Property Maintenance as a Service
Hi HN! We're Ethan, Jullian, and Will. We're the founders of Latchel ( https://latchel.com/ ). We handle 24/7 maintenance for residential property managers and landlords across the US. Ethan was Director of Product at One Planet Ops, the creator of websites like contractors.com, homegain.com, and many other lead gen marketplaces. Jullian is a self-taught developer and designer who has built mobile and web apps, most recently at picmonic.com. Will comes from Amazon, where he helped design and deploy the last mile delivery operations for Amazon Fresh, Prime Now, and Amazon Logistics across the US and the world. Will started the company when his family needed help running the family rental properties. His grandfather managed the properties full time all the way into his mid 90s! Sadly, his age caught up with him and he could no longer take care of the family bu
Why it failed: Hi HN! We're Ethan, Jullian, and Will. We're the founders of Latchel ( https://latchel.com/ ). We handle 24/7 maintenance for residential property managers and landlords across the US. Ethan was Director of Product at One Planet Ops, the creator of w
wilbo
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Embrace (YC S19) – Spot and fix bugs in mobile apps
Hi HN! I’m Eric, the co-founder of Embrace ( https://embrace.io ). Embrace is a debugging and performance monitoring platform that gives developers the information and context they need to monitor and solve errors, crashes, and performance issues. Think of it as what you wish Crashlytics had evolved into combined with the session replay capability of Fullstory. Before Embrace, I co-founded the mobile gaming company Scopely, where we made six top-grossing mobile games including Yahtzee, Walking Dead, and Star Trek. The pain I felt while developing those games sparked the idea for Embrace. Customers and I would find bugs that were impossible to reproduce by the development and QA teams, and the analytics and logging tools we had in place just weren’t enough to solve them. We had crashes under control, so we cared more about startup freezes, failed purchases, and out-of-memory app
Why it failed: Hi HN! I’m Eric, the co-founder of Embrace ( https://embrace.io ). Embrace is a debugging and performance monitoring platform that gives developers the information and context they need to monitor and solve errors, crashes, and performance issues. Think of it as what yo
efutoran
- startupShut down2019
Show HN: Learnawesome.org – Discover the best learning resources on any topic
Hi HN, Over past few months, some of us had been collecting links to learning resources (courses, interactive explorables, books, podcasts, apps, forums, livestreams etc) in a GitHub repository of markdown files. Since we also wanted to have features like advanced search ("Show me podcasts on machine learning which are entertaining and less than 40 minutes long"), we felt the need for an app. Give it a try: https://learnawesome.org You can think of LearnAwesome.org as a GoodReads-equivalent tool generalized to links to ALL media (not just books). Some features you might like: - Advanced search on topics, formats, length, and quality tags (interactive/visual/challenging/entertaining etc) - A browser extension to show reviews on your current tab or quickly add it to LearnAwesome - Automatic data extraction for links from GoodReads etc. - Embeddable widget
Why it failed: Hi HN, Over past few months, some of us had been collecting links to learning resources (courses, interactive explorables, books, podcasts, apps, forums, livestreams etc) in a GitHub repository of markdown files. Since we also wanted to have features like advanced search ("S
mathnmusic
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Nabis (YC W19) – Cannabis Shipping and Logistics
Hi HN! We’re Vince and Jun, the founders of Nabis ( https://www.getnabis.com ). We are building a software and infrastructure solution to ship legal cannabis products for brands to licensed dispensaries throughout California. About two years ago when the legalization of recreational cannabis was pending in CA, we were excited as consumers to be able to try out a variety of products without having to get a medical card. While we knew that many more brands were coming to market, we discovered that there was a lack of supply chain infrastructure to support the growing demand. We started out driving our own personal vehicles across the state to help a friend ship his products just to learn more about how the supply chain was set up. We learned that brands were still predominantly self-distributing, since you can’t just Fedex cannabis products due to compliance restrictions. Apart f
Why it failed: Hi HN! We’re Vince and Jun, the founders of Nabis ( https://www.getnabis.com ). We are building a software and infrastructure solution to ship legal cannabis products for brands to licensed dispensaries throughout California. About two years ago when the legalization of
vning93
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
Hi HN! I’m Rob, Founder of Prometheus. We’re removing CO2 from the air and turning it gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Since we use zero-carbon electricity from sources like solar and wind to make our fuel, there are no net CO2 emissions when you use it. An article about us came up on HN recently and people seemed interested ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19792412 ), so we thought it would be good to try to answer some of the questions we saw there and try to dive in some more to any questions that follow! The only inputs to make the fuel are CO2 and water (both from the air) and electricity. The only outputs are fuel and oxygen. One way to think about it is that making fuel is reverse combustion. The process isn’t super efficient (we expect 50-60% overall efficiency at maturity), but it turns out that doesn’t matter as long as the electricity is zero carbon and low
Why it failed: Hi HN! I’m Rob, Founder of Prometheus. We’re removing CO2 from the air and turning it gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Since we use zero-carbon electricity from sources like solar and wind to make our fuel, there are no net CO2 emissions when you use it. An article about us came u
rmcginnis