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 down2013
Ask PG: Did the WWDC shut HN down?
HN went down for like an hour. It's back now, but some comments links still don't work and display the nginx error page. Was this because of the WWDC event?
Why it failed: HN went down for like an hour. It's back now, but some comments links still don't work and display the nginx error page. Was this because of the WWDC event?
csomar
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: I failed a lot, what should I do?
I somehow got in to a top 5 CS program. I got D's in a lot of classes because they didn't want to give me F's. It was very hard following lectures and reading and understanding test questions. I graduated about a year ago. I did interviews and each one I got I was mercilessly shot down with tough CS questions. I got a job in sales, I was fired for paperwork errors. I am now unemployed, occasionally making web sites for people. It turns out my doctor says I probably have ADHD and I have been working with him on getting this diagnosed correctly but it takes time and I am already on medication, I don't want more. I can't get to grad school, I am having a hard time finding a job. I don't know what to do, I narrowed it down to either 1) going back to school for another degree taking on more loans to improve grades 2) trying my hand at a startup but I have about $
Why it failed: I somehow got in to a top 5 CS program. I got D's in a lot of classes because they didn't want to give me F's. It was very hard following lectures and reading and understanding test questions. I graduated about a year ago. I did interviews and each one I got I was
lemaudit
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: I can't think straight, my life is in limbo, and I want to end it now
I have absolutely no idea why I am still posting this right now. Maybe I am just less resilient than most people. Maybe I am sick mentally. Maybe I just don't belong. For the past 20 years, my life has been a joke. I live in B.C, Canada. A few years ago, I traveled 21 hours by plane to see what my father looked like. He didn't want me, didn't even call me his son. My 9 cousins and 3 aunts/uncles don't know I exist. My grandmother died without knowing I existed. My mother and I have moved 30 times, and I've been doing my best to help provide for our lives. I made the first big mistake of my life and gave up a full scholarship to law school because I wouldn't be able to provide for my mother. I dropped out of college after 1 year so she (being at such an old age) could have a decent standard of living, and see her happy for once in her life. Then the seco
Why it failed: I have absolutely no idea why I am still posting this right now. Maybe I am just less resilient than most people. Maybe I am sick mentally. Maybe I just don't belong. For the past 20 years, my life has been a joke. I live in B.C, Canada. A few years ago, I traveled 21 hours
goodbyeworld
- startupShut down2013
I Resent My Cofounder
I've written and deleted this post more than once, and I've worked very hard to not be judgmental and make invalid assumptions, but today I just couldn't stop writing, and I think it's finally time to sit on the therapy couch that is HN. I've been working with my co-founder for a number of years. We're great friends, and we have a lot in common. We both have passion for what we do and for our road ahead. I don't think I'd be where I am today without her, but at the same time, I'm starting to see we're not the same people we used to be. I put in around 60-70 hours/week on our startup. She puts in maybe 60-70% of that. I obsess over it 24/7. She seems content to let me do that. When we have new ideas, they are always mine. There are many times I've thought about holding them back in order to build them on my own. That alone tells me I need to do something about it. I have to constantly pul
Why it failed: I've written and deleted this post more than once, and I've worked very hard to not be judgmental and make invalid assumptions, but today I just couldn't stop writing, and I think it's finally time to sit on the therapy couch that is HN. I've been working with my co-founder for a
anotherfork
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: PHP vs. Node.js vs. Go for a new startup?
I am coming back to the IT industry after about 6 years of being involved in something completely unrelated. My partner and I are starting a startup that’s going to make a online blogging application for a niche market. If we are successful, the application would need to be able to scale to handle a lot of users (100k visitor per day if we are successful, nothing like FB levels or something). Because it’s going to be a blogging platform with a business model similar to squarespace.com, the load will be distributed over many different domains, making it easier to scale. Both my partner and I have good knowledge of PHP. However, due to the complexity of the project, we will have to find additional developers anyway. From what I read online Node.js and Go are the in thing right now, and scale much better than PHP. My question is, should we stick with the “Devil we know,” PHP, or dive into l
Why it failed: I am coming back to the IT industry after about 6 years of being involved in something completely unrelated. My partner and I are starting a startup that’s going to make a online blogging application for a niche market. If we are successful, the application would need to be able
x0054
- startupShut down2013
Startup CEOs: you are overestimating your tech talent
I have been struck recently over many conversations with different VC-funded startup CEOs (series A or B money, all at least $5M) at how strong the CTO/tech team rockstar/ninja kool-aid seems to be. "Our tech guys are smarter than everyone else in the world" seems to be a pervasive sentiment. Generally speaking, the CTO/tech team also seems to believe that about themselves, and usually the CEO is personally self-effacing and does not have that kind of personal arrogance. I know that there are dark days and uncertainty within a startup, and that you do have to "fake it until you make it", but there's a real danger in drinking that kool-aid and missing out on the fact that everything reverts to the mean, and not everyone can even be "above average", let alone the smartest people in the world. The reality is that your startup that's sur
Why it failed: I have been struck recently over many conversations with different VC-funded startup CEOs (series A or B money, all at least $5M) at how strong the CTO/tech team rockstar/ninja kool-aid seems to be. "Our tech guys are smarter than everyone else in the world" s
joeemison
- startupShut down2013
Unhappy with career, please help.
I'm at crossroads in my career. I'm looking for some advice. My case should be fairly typical, so I expect the responses I get to be useful to others in my situation too. First, some context: I work for a big company on a popular online service. I have a masters degree and my field is machine learning. I'm smarter than all my peers at work. I started off with a my-code-is-going-to-change-the-world attitude. I remember my heart racing the first time I was looking at results of my code processing petabytes of data. Then, slowly my smart, idealistic, I-will-create-perfect-AI self started bumping into reality. Rather than math/ML challenges, I was faced with problems like technical debt, missed deadlines, unmet expectations, unhealthy peer competition, endless frog-eating, fragmented days, daily scrums... to cut a long story short, it has been a long time since I did anything that I'm proud
Why it failed: I'm at crossroads in my career. I'm looking for some advice. My case should be fairly typical, so I expect the responses I get to be useful to others in my situation too. First, some context: I work for a big company on a popular online service. I have a masters degree and my fie
kannappan
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: Going back to programming
I'd like to get opinions on whether going back to programming as a career in my late 30s is a good idea or not. I was a web programmer in the first four years of my career; however then I thought I could make more money doing things like project management and spent the next ten years pushing paper. I've done a couple of side projects in the meantime as the thought of going back to programming has kept coming back. I even attempted to do a SaaS startup but failed to get any traction. Anyways, at this point I'm sick of pushing paper and want to go programming full-time. A few things are holding me back though: * I can't leverage the last 10 years of my career; it would basically become a lost decade for me * my technical skills are rusty; I'd have to most likely get a huge pay cut and start at a junior-level position * I think recruiters are going to give me a wei
Why it failed: I'd like to get opinions on whether going back to programming as a career in my late 30s is a good idea or not. I was a web programmer in the first four years of my career; however then I thought I could make more money doing things like project management and spent the next
teekay
- startupShut down2013
Tell HN: My first protest
I'm 27 years old and I've never really been bothered to protest before. Sure, I've volunteered. I've participated in political campaigns. I've signed petitions and written my Congressmen. I've voted. But nothing had ever felt quite so bad to me that I needed to march. Other people would take care of that, as they always have, and the system would fix itself. Something's changed. A little over a year ago today I enlisted in the Army National Guard. In a week I head to SD for "Phase 1" of Officer Candidate School. (I don't purport to represent the military). Perhaps the reality of putting my life on the line for our country has made me take political change more personally. Of course, the past decades' worth of restrictions on our freedoms hasn't helped. I've seen many comparisons here between warrantless spying and past oppr
Why it failed: I'm 27 years old and I've never really been bothered to protest before. Sure, I've volunteered. I've participated in political campaigns. I've signed petitions and written my Congressmen. I've voted. But nothing had ever felt quite so bad to me that
joshdotsmith
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: Should I go to Sweden for work?
I have been freelancing from home in Moscow, Russia for 4 years now as a frontend developer and as a self-taught UI/UX specialist. There were good and bad times in regard to work/life balance, money, clients and myself. I am not a famous rockstar freelancer, but during recent 2 years I have been earning $7-$10k per month average, making my clients quite happy and being able to support my wife and our two children. Before starting freelancing I had been working for 8 years at a local publishing house where I got from an ordinary designer to a head of IT dept serving 20+ daily/monthly editions. Now I feel like I am ready to perform a next step in my life, in regard to my career. Recently I have received a job offer from a company in Stockholm doing a software as a service, for a position of a frontend developer. I had a talk via Skype with a couple of representatives of the
Why it failed: I have been freelancing from home in Moscow, Russia for 4 years now as a frontend developer and as a self-taught UI/UX specialist. There were good and bad times in regard to work/life balance, money, clients and myself. I am not a famous rockstar freelancer, but during
cosmorocket
- startupShut down2013
Ask HN: Where are all the programming jobs?
I am getting frustrated. I have a really good job at the moment. I am a software engineer for the new york stock exchange. I am seeking something in the USA which would allow me to relocate with a H1B to live and work in America. Finding potential employers isn't so hard. But finding something which actually fits under the topic of programming and not glorified web development is much, much harder. Every time I see a challenge these days as part of a job interview process, I end up having to go off and write something in rails, asp.net or even PHP. Where in the world are all the C / C++ and Java roles that used to be available in America? It has gotten so bad that there are literally thousands of employers moving to Europe to in order to get hold of programmers who develop code for these native languages. There has to still be some employers who wish to hire for these roles IN America, I
Why it failed: I am getting frustrated. I have a really good job at the moment. I am a software engineer for the new york stock exchange. I am seeking something in the USA which would allow me to relocate with a H1B to live and work in America. Finding potential employers isn't so hard. But fin
AncoraImparo
- 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
Exec Shuts Down Non-Cleaning Service
Just received this email: Dear Exec Errands Customers, Thank you for being great customers of Exec. Sadly, Exec Errands will be shutting down on Friday, September 20. Exec as a company will continue to operate our cleaning service. Errands that have already been scheduled for after September 20 we will unfortunately not be able to perform. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes. Thanks for using Exec. Best Regards, Justin Kan CEO, Exec
Why it failed: Just received this email: Dear Exec Errands Customers, Thank you for being great customers of Exec. Sadly, Exec Errands will be shutting down on Friday, September 20. Exec as a company will continue to operate our cleaning service. Errands that have already been scheduled for aft
nicklovescode
- 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
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: I actually need a job now
I've been working in startups for the last few years, using a lot of the latest tech that startups often use (Rails, Node, Mongo, Angular etc.). Now I'm back in my home town (failed and can't afford to be out in London doing this any more), and seeking any job for a developer. But all I see is PHP, .NET, VB, Java and everything that HN seems to hate. I actually haven't touched this stuff since school, and everything I've learned and used over these last few years seems to be useless in the corporate world here. I'm renting alone and therefore need a job quickly. My options are finding a quick job (e.g. waiter, shop assistant) while brushing up on PHP (or maybe something else has better career opportunities?) in the evenings, or just doing something completely different. Truth is I want a stable career now and care little about whether we're coding in Er
Why it failed: I've been working in startups for the last few years, using a lot of the latest tech that startups often use (Rails, Node, Mongo, Angular etc.). Now I'm back in my home town (failed and can't afford to be out in London doing this any more), and seeking any job for
berrypicker
- 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
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
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
‘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
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
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
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