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.
3,400 solutions
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: What should I do if I feel burnt out?
I'm a 23 year old developer working for a medium size startup. I made the switch to my current employer about four months ago from a corporate job. While I enjoyed the move for the first three months or so, I do not feel the same now. The reason is that recently one of "star" developers at my current employer was poached by another company. As a result, most of his work (which I had no clue of) came on my shoulders. The code that I inherited is unidiomatic and written in a way that only the author could understand. And now, since I "own" the code, I've been putting extra hours and working on it as much as 15 hours a day to understand it and make fixes (which has become my day job). Despite of all this, I've failed to deliver on most deadlines (as the managers had higher expectations from me). To add to all of this, I've been diagnosed with hyperten
Why it failed: I'm a 23 year old developer working for a medium size startup. I made the switch to my current employer about four months ago from a corporate job. While I enjoyed the move for the first three months or so, I do not feel the same now. The reason is that recently one of "
rsjaaji
- startupShut down2015
MacOS is the new Windows
I'm typing this on my late 2010 MacBook Air. Recently I was starting having problems with it (you know when you type your password and the system does not recognize your key presses, etc.). And I thought, “Oh, ok, I have to accept that we live in a world of planned obsolesce (how else faster-than-a-gigahertz multi-gigabyte-RAM machine could become slow? If it is capable of real-time response to user's actions, it should respond in real-time) and I have to upgrade to get my job done”. So I switched to this new aesthetically marvelous wonder: an early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro. In 5 days I'm using it the machine restarted two (or three?) times "because of problems" though it has much less software installed than my old rock-stable-in-comparison MacBook Air. And now I'm installing an OS update which already restarted my system twice. First it restarted the syste
Why it failed: I'm typing this on my late 2010 MacBook Air. Recently I was starting having problems with it (you know when you type your password and the system does not recognize your key presses, etc.). And I thought, “Oh, ok, I have to accept that we live in a world of planned obsolesce
beyondcompute
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: How do you familiarize yourself with a new codebase?
My question is pretty straightforward: how do you, hacker news enthusiast, familiarize yourself with a new codebase? Obviously your answer is going to be contingent on the kind of work that you do. Some background: What's motivating me to ask is that I am flirting with the idea of trying to add a couple of features to SlickGrid (https://github.com/mleibman/SlickGrid), Michael Leibman's phenomenal javascript grid widget. Unfortunately Leibman got busy and isn't actively supporting it anymore. The codebase is something like 8k lines of javascript, so it's not ludicrously big, but I'm kind of intimidated thinking about trying to make sense of it. My first strategy is just to open up important-looking javascript files (slick.core.js, slick.grid.js) and read through for comprehension. This seems like a pretty slow way to build a mental model of the
Why it failed: My question is pretty straightforward: how do you, hacker news enthusiast, familiarize yourself with a new codebase? Obviously your answer is going to be contingent on the kind of work that you do. Some background: What's motivating me to ask is that I am flirting with the i
roflc0ptic
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: When do you know your startup has failed?
I'm currently going through a mini depression. We've gone without salary for the last 4 months, abandoned our business model to do pay for hire work in the hopes of trying to raise money to keep the lights on. Honestly I feel like I'm going to be evicted from the house. My rent is already up, and as of now I have < $1 :). My partner is fine actually, he has rich parents and doesn't really depend on the startup for income. Which actually gives my friends and family the illusion that we're both killing it. We have almost 0 chance of raising more money, it's much harder to get money it seems if you're in a poor country. So, if you've had a failed startup, how did you know? Did you run out of money and call it quits? If you succeeded, did you have a patch so rough that you were evicted? I'm 25, I feel like I'm losing at life already. It wa
Why it failed: I'm currently going through a mini depression. We've gone without salary for the last 4 months, abandoned our business model to do pay for hire work in the hopes of trying to raise money to keep the lights on. Honestly I feel like I'm going to be evicted from the h
superpi
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: Do I give up now?
I've heard failure is good, but 10 years is a long time. That's how long I've been failing for now. I've worked on failed project after failed project, and now at 25, I'm wondering what the fuck I've been doing with my life - my youth. When I was 15 me and my friend started a little hosting website. It was really fun. I learnt to program, and we even made a little bit of money. In the excitement I began to learn about business, startups and programming. I thought it was going to be so easy to make money. I mean, if I could make a bit of money on the web at 15 without knowing anything about business or programming, I'm going to be great at this startup stuff by 20 right? Well, clearly, I'm not. And I read a lot. And I think even more. I just have no idea why I'm not succeeding. Because for the last 10 years I've worked 16-18 hours a day, e
Why it failed: I've heard failure is good, but 10 years is a long time. That's how long I've been failing for now. I've worked on failed project after failed project, and now at 25, I'm wondering what the fuck I've been doing with my life - my youth. When I was 15
smokesigns
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: My startup has failed. What comes next?
My startup of about two years has failed. We were hanging on for the last couple of months in the hopes of getting a big break. We're out of money now. My motivation levels are also pretty low after so many repeated failures. My question is, for other people that have been in the same situation: What did you do after? Did you start looking for a job? Did you jump straight into your next startup. I'm also considering whether it's possible to pick up small programming jobs on Elance to pay the bills.
Why it failed: My startup of about two years has failed. We were hanging on for the last couple of months in the hopes of getting a big break. We're out of money now. My motivation levels are also pretty low after so many repeated failures. My question is, for other people that have been i
blinduck
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: If I were your dream hire, would you hire me? I live in Somalia
I'm at a dead end career-wise and the job market I'm at does not offer any better alternatives than my current job. The pay is great but I find the work I do pretty depressing compared to the stuff I know I'm capable of. I've tried to demonstrate and explain the value I could be bring if we were to do things differently but I've lost hope that I'll ever get through to anyone. HN has always been inspiring regarding starting your own business and although that is something I want to try, I'm more curious right now about the feasibility of finding a job outside the country. The question is, I don't know if that's even possible. How would a company even determine if I'm worth hiring and going through all the work to get me a work visa if they can't even interview me in person? Would they tolerate my crappy internet if they try to intervi
Why it failed: I'm at a dead end career-wise and the job market I'm at does not offer any better alternatives than my current job. The pay is great but I find the work I do pretty depressing compared to the stuff I know I'm capable of. I've tried to demonstrate and explain t
xtrumanx
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: Sell, open-source, or abandon a $10k/year Mac app?
In 2011 I wrote a low-end GIS program for Mac, called Magic Maps. The idea for the app was to make a simple, Mac-like alternative to ArcGIS and QGIS that makes it easy to plot points, import Shapefiles, and create chloropleth maps and animations without first wanting to open your veins in a bathtub. It was my first desktop app, so the code isn't great, but it's found a loyal user base over the years has netted over $50k since 2011. Unfortunately, Magic Maps is now suffering from neglect and bit-rot, and some of the users are starting to revolt. At the very least, it needs a bit of work to fix crashes, ensure it works smoothly on Yosemite, etc. I'd do this work myself, but I am putting all my time into another app, and as much as it pains me, I just don't have time to invest into Magic Maps any longer. I'm putting this out there because I'm honestly not sure
Why it failed: In 2011 I wrote a low-end GIS program for Mac, called Magic Maps. The idea for the app was to make a simple, Mac-like alternative to ArcGIS and QGIS that makes it easy to plot points, import Shapefiles, and create chloropleth maps and animations without first wanting to open your
EvanMiller
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: Pivoting my startup, how should I submit to AngelList?
I'm in the process of pivoting my startup, and for this new product we'll need to raise money. The product was half built some years ago but the timing was bad and it was shelved. Today the timing is excellent for it. I started filling up an entry in AngelList about the new product, but it's asking for questions about the operation of my company, for which the answers would show we been running for 4 years, while the product even though we built part of it ages ago, it's not in operations and it's nothing more than a landing page. The reason why I wasn't creating the profile with my company name is that if someone look at our company's website, we have other products, including some experimental, lower profile stuff that really doesn't need the funding I'm trying to raise. What should I do? Any advise? This is my company: https://Car
Why it failed: I'm in the process of pivoting my startup, and for this new product we'll need to raise money. The product was half built some years ago but the timing was bad and it was shelved. Today the timing is excellent for it. I started filling up an entry in AngelList about the
pupeno
- startupShut down2015
Assembly is shutting down December 6, 2015
Read more here: http://assembly.com/
Why it failed: Read more here: http://assembly.com/
acadet
- startupShut down2015
Zirtual may have just abruptly shut down
Slack message from my ZA 10 min ago: I'm up late tonight and received an email to my personal email from Zirtual that for financial reasons, they cannot continue as a company effective immediately. I would still like to help you in any way I can! I no longer have access to my Zirtual accounts, including the secure system where I had saved your passwords, but I'm glad I can still access this Slack! I can still access your calendar, too. I would be happy to discuss how to continue our assistant-client relationship if you would like. I'm also sending you an email from my personal email [redacted]. This would be a difficult transition, but once I have access to everything like [redacted] again, we can just continue as we had been before
Why it failed: Slack message from my ZA 10 min ago: I'm up late tonight and received an email to my personal email from Zirtual that for financial reasons, they cannot continue as a company effective immediately. I would still like to help you in any way I can! I no longer have access to m
opendoorryan
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: What is wrong with Reserve Bank of India?
This is a bit of rant but I'm also wondering if there is anything we (the Indian tech community) can do about it? If you're an Indian startup, I'm sure you must know that the Reserve Bank of India has the worst policies when it comes to charging a credit card. 1) In India, you cannot create recurring subscriptions as the RBI prohibits charging the credit card automatically. Not one Indian payment processor (I've talked to a many) gives you the option to create recurring subscriptions. Can you imagine where half the SaaS startups will be without recurring credit card subscriptions? 2) Add to that, Paypal to Paypal transfer within India is prohibited by RBI. Why? Because certain people used to evade tax by purchasing goods directly with their Paypal balance. So, instead of catching the tax evaders the RBI found it easier to ban the whole thing. They could have made it m
Why it failed: This is a bit of rant but I'm also wondering if there is anything we (the Indian tech community) can do about it? If you're an Indian startup, I'm sure you must know that the Reserve Bank of India has the worst policies when it comes to charging a credit card. 1) I
superasn
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: How did you get to your current job/startup?
We all see "success stories" featured on internet blogs (basically every website with the "tech" prefix) and some trends tend to distort how we perceive how people arrived at where they are. I want to know — How did you get your current job or startup? Did you go to college? Dropout? If your did go to college, have you ever failed a course? Did you have to move to a different country? How did you manage that and what was (in general) the biggest obstacle/low-point of your journey so far? Note — Why I'm asking this: Because many of the people in this community may be in a low-point themselves, and reading about how other people persevered and what they did might just make things seem a bit easier for them. Thank you all :)
Why it failed: We all see "success stories" featured on internet blogs (basically every website with the "tech" prefix) and some trends tend to distort how we perceive how people arrived at where they are. I want to know — How did you get your current job or startup? Did you
arsalanb
- startupShut down2015
Ask HN: No time to maintain our project, what do to?
We are 3, and “MySeeen” is our first project and startup. We have built it from nothing since 2 years, but with a goal: Making an app you just have to open to get a movie you will have fun watching. It could be achieved easily by making a social app allowing you to get movies information (length, casting, posters, …), to share about the movies you have seen or want to see and rate them to finally correctly advice a movie for anyone. MySeeen is available on iOS and Windows Phone. (Info here: http://www.myseeenapp.com) Unfortunately, after 1 great year in the company, as full time job, without knowing how to earn money and how to enhance our baby, we needed money and slowly stopped maintaining our project. Now we haven’t touched the code for 1 year because we all have started a new life and don’t have the time to maintain it. We have a good amount of users, and it still growing d
Why it failed: We are 3, and “MySeeen” is our first project and startup. We have built it from nothing since 2 years, but with a goal: Making an app you just have to open to get a movie you will have fun watching. It could be achieved easily by making a social app allowing you to get movies inf
dimillian
- startupShut down2015
21 year old makes 12k/day selling CS:GO skins
Original article link : http://www.lesaffaires.com/blogues/julien-brault/ce-montrealais-de-21-ans-fait-12-000--par-jour-en-vendant-des-fusils-virtuels/579654?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=16-06-2015&utm_campaign=montrealais-12000-dollars-par-jour The text is in french thoses are the highlights of it : * Artur Minacov 21 co-founder from Montreal * website : OPSkins * 120 000$/day selling volume takes a 10% cut -> 12 000$ / day * The website is selling Counter Strike GO skins which are only a design for a gun no added value * 340 000 users plan to get all of the 6.5 millions users of CS:GO * He will sponsor the next ESWC for a total of 100k$ * Dropout from Cegep (college) at 19 years old * Failed a few startups (2) before OPSkins * Refused VC funding (6% for 50k) Sorry if there is mistake it is a bit late and not my
Why it failed: Original article link : http://www.lesaffaires.com/blogues/julien-brault/ce-montrealais-de-21-ans-fait-12-000--par-jour-en-vendant-des-fusils-virtuels/579654?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=16-06-2015&utm_campaign=montre
akimc
- startupShut down2014
Ask HN: Fail stories? Made a significant project but no one came?
Anyone wants to share stories about how they spent a lot of time crafting interesting projects but eventually it failed? Aka postmortems. Thanks!
Why it failed: Anyone wants to share stories about how they spent a lot of time crafting interesting projects but eventually it failed? Aka postmortems. Thanks!
zura
- startupShut down2014
Ask HN: Product/Market Fit (Customer Dev) as a Service?
"What if everything you think you know about taking products to market is wrong? What would you do differently if you realized that only 1 out of 10 new product introductions result in a profitable business? Would you continue to operate the same way, week after week, year after year?" - Steve Blank, Four Steps to Epiphany Like most startups, I have struggled through the pains of product market fit, multiple pivots and struggling to find customers. What if there was a way to quickly and accurately determine not only if your idea is on the right track but to iterate through product/market fit and even pivots before you endure the sweat and heartbreak of building a few MVP's? Obviously there are lots of challenges to creating such a service, but I think it is a discussion worth having. In the spirit of CD, let's start the ball rolling with some questions: 1. Does y
Why it failed: "What if everything you think you know about taking products to market is wrong? What would you do differently if you realized that only 1 out of 10 new product introductions result in a profitable business? Would you continue to operate the same way, week after week, year a
jwillgoesfast
- startupShut down2014
Coming Soon to Hacker News: Pending Comments
A surprisingly long time ago (2013 was a busy year) I mentioned a new plan to improve the quality of comments on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6009523 Since I'm going to check out of HN at the end of this YC cycle, this was my last chance to get this done. I didn't want the people who are going to inherit HN from me to have to build it as their first project, because it interacts with so many different bits of the code in such subtle ways. So I found time to implement pending comments this past week, and with any luck it will launch tonight. Since it's a big change, I wanted to warn HN users in advance. Here's how it currently works. From now on, when you post a comment, it won't initially be live. It will be in a new state called pending. Comments get from pending to live by being endorsed by multiple HN users with over 1000 ka
Why it failed: A surprisingly long time ago (2013 was a busy year) I mentioned a new plan to improve the quality of comments on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6009523 Since I'm going to check out of HN at the end of this YC cycle, this was my last chance t
pg
- startupShut down2014
We’re Shutting Down and I’m Scared – The Aftermath
Between here and Hacker News, it took me two days just to go through all of the awesome words of wisdom and support. I read everything — three times. I even read those of you who told me to “quit whining” and to “man up”. Thank you, ALL, for your support. I’m not yet ready to reveal my company or name, I may never be. But, for all of you who offered your advice, I want to at least share with you how things turned out.
Why it failed: Between here and Hacker News, it took me two days just to go through all of the awesome words of wisdom and support. I read everything — three times. I even read those of you who told me to “quit whining” and to “man up”. Thank you, ALL, for your support. I’m not yet ready to rev
nciske
- startupShut down2014
Ask HN: How to Find a Developer Job with a Felony?
Background: In 2011, I was arrested for violating the CFAA (I found that Sylint Corporation [usinfosec.com] was running a very out-of-date and publicly vulnerable DotNetNuke for the Infragard Tampa Bay website and raised the alarm publicly, and well, they didn't quite appreciate that) and sentenced to probation in 2012. I'm currently in a period of limbo following the end of the contract portion of a temp-to-perm gig, and I've been trying to find something a little more certain. I live in Orlando, FL, and I never have the opportunity to speak with a company directly. Instead, everyone outsources their talent acquisition to IT recruiters/headhunters that, as a third party, refuse to represent me to prospective employers because of this blemish on my record. The recruiters' oligarchy on the job openings in the area have created a sort of impenetrable barrier. (Iron
Why it failed: Background: In 2011, I was arrested for violating the CFAA (I found that Sylint Corporation [usinfosec.com] was running a very out-of-date and publicly vulnerable DotNetNuke for the Infragard Tampa Bay website and raised the alarm publicly, and well, they didn't quite apprec
sarciszewski
- startupShut down2014
Ask PG: Postmortem of the outage?
Clarification: This is not meant with any ill-will towards PG or any of the other individuals who help run HN. It is a simple request for a postmortem eventually . Perhaps it's an unneeded request, but I think a lot of HNers echo the sentiment.
Why it failed: Clarification: This is not meant with any ill-will towards PG or any of the other individuals who help run HN. It is a simple request for a postmortem eventually . Perhaps it's an unneeded request, but I think a lot of HNers echo the sentiment.
lukeqsee
- startupShut down2014
Joyent us-east-1 rebooted due to operator error
Due to an operator error, all compute nodes in us-east-1 were simultaneously rebooted. Some compute nodes are already back up, but due to very high load on the control plane, this is taking some time. We are dedicating all operational and engineering resources to getting this issue resolved, and will be providing a full postmortem on this failure once every compute node and customer VM is online and operational. We will be providing frequent updates until the issue is resolved.
Why it failed: Due to an operator error, all compute nodes in us-east-1 were simultaneously rebooted. Some compute nodes are already back up, but due to very high load on the control plane, this is taking some time. We are dedicating all operational and engineering resources to getting this iss
hypervisor
- startupShut down2014
IMPORTANT: Justcoin is shutting down. Withdraw your funds
Dear Justcoin user, Deposits are closed. Trading will close tomorrow, October 29th. We urge all users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible. Final deadline for withdrawals is November 11th. You may find useful information on wallets at https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. Please allow up to 24 hours for your withdrawals to process. We will manually batch withdrawals of all currencies. Cancelling a requested withdrawal will put you in the back of the line. Justcoin is shutting down all operations. Our bank has notified us that it will no longer accept businesses dealing with digital currencies. The same goes for other Norwegian banks. Without a bank account we have no business and need to shut down. This event demonstrates the need for decentralized payment networks. That it happens right after the tfPartialPayment issues is just coincidental. Holds on XRP
Why it failed: Dear Justcoin user, Deposits are closed. Trading will close tomorrow, October 29th. We urge all users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible. Final deadline for withdrawals is November 11th. You may find useful information on wallets at https://bitcoin.org/en&
SandroG
- startupShut down2014
Ask HN: Founders whose startups failed, what happens to VC/angel relationships?
Do they keep in touch with you? Are they open to new ideas? How do you keep your relationships going post failure?
Why it failed: Do they keep in touch with you? Are they open to new ideas? How do you keep your relationships going post failure?
BIackSwan