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 down2010
Ask HN: What do you do to relax?
One thing I do is work out. But I'm trying to find something I can do every night to wind down and have a bit of fun. I'm thinking I might watch a movie (or part of one) a few nights a week. Maybe a tv show. Maybe read. What else? What do you do?
Why it failed: One thing I do is work out. But I'm trying to find something I can do every night to wind down and have a bit of fun. I'm thinking I might watch a movie (or part of one) a few nights a week. Maybe a tv show. Maybe read. What else? What do you do?
oldmanstan
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: whither Billmonk?
My roommates and I have been happily using Billmonk (http://www.billmonk.com) for years. Today, it appears to have vanished. I knew the service wasn't really being actively developed since the Obopay acquisition, but that's OK, it was perfect for us as it was! I don't recall seeing any "we're shutting down" message, and there's no status blog I could find - the company blog has been dormant for over a year. So, with that: 1) Does anyone here know what's up with Billmonk - are they just having a nasty server problem that they're not motivated enough to fix, or has the plug been pulled sans announcement? 2) Anyone have contact info for the [former] Billmonks? (I believe they were a YC company? Not 100% sure.) My roommates and I have some valuable (to us, no one else) data in there... at a minimum, we'd like to have our final totals so we can settle up; ideally, we'd love to have our histor
Why it failed: My roommates and I have been happily using Billmonk (http://www.billmonk.com) for years. Today, it appears to have vanished. I knew the service wasn't really being actively developed since the Obopay acquisition, but that's OK, it was perfect for us as it was! I don't recall seei
kgrin
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: What is your workflow for saving bookmarks?
Interested in hearing the various services/methods folks use to save url's. Especially with delicious likely shutting down (which I used), I'm interested in hearing about this. The only requirement is that the url's are available everywhere and not (just) stored locally. Thanks.
Why it failed: Interested in hearing the various services/methods folks use to save url's. Especially with delicious likely shutting down (which I used), I'm interested in hearing about this. The only requirement is that the url's are available everywhere and not (just) stored locally. Thanks.
mr_november
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: "Is that work?"
It's a commonly heard phrase in my office. I'm the only developer where I work, based in a [car] dealership, which is one of the franchise locations of a car dealer group which owns [more than a few] (or so) other dealerships in quite a large area of the United Kingdom. For the record, I am not writing this on company time [half an hour lunch break, although he still does this even if I AM on my lunch break] I build websites, web apps, microsites, soon to be Android Apps and iPhone apps. I am in charge of slicing and dicing photoshop templates which we get from our designer (Who sits behind me in the same office) into HTML templates to use with Drupal, CakePHP et al. I am in charge of inputting the copy for said microsites and websites from MS Word documents, this copy is written by the "Marketing Manager", who currently sits behind and to the right of me. To the right of where I sit, is
Why it failed: It's a commonly heard phrase in my office. I'm the only developer where I work, based in a [car] dealership, which is one of the franchise locations of a car dealer group which owns [more than a few] (or so) other dealerships in quite a large area of the United Kingdom. For the r
throwaway_burn
- startupShut down2010
Awesome email advice from a friend on how to learn programming.
Let's start with the first and most important rule of learning to code. Read everything and understand what you're reading. Do not skip or skim words or communication of any kind. Don't read something assuming you know what it means; if you don't understand it, look around, ask someone, or google until you understand what you've just read. Then, you can move on. The reason for this is that programming involves comprehension, not knowledge (more on that below). Failure to follow this will make you a sucky programmer. You'll write buggy code. You'll piss yourself off when you think nobody wants to help you. Then, you'll end up really pissed because everything you thought you knew how to do falls apart, and you finally realize you're a bad programmer. This happened to me about 7yrs ago -- so, I'm trying to save you the trouble. After I realized this, and, after I learned how to program, not
Why it failed: Let's start with the first and most important rule of learning to code. Read everything and understand what you're reading. Do not skip or skim words or communication of any kind. Don't read something assuming you know what it means; if you don't understand it, look around, ask s
nav
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: What is Gravity?
While watching a documentary that mentioned gravity (forgive me the particulars escape me at the moment) my 8yo son reached across my lap and tapped the space-bar pausing the video. He then turned toward me and asked, ‘what is gravity?’ Now, in our house we require explanations for actions because we are becoming, sadly too late in life, convinced that being on purpose is paramount. Because it is our opinion that if you do not understand, even at the most base level (epistemological questions aside), why you are doing something then you will never have any power over what you do. When any of us does something that results in negative consequences we try to be in the habit of either tracing down the root of our reasoning or admitting that we had none. To this end we have made much of the distinction between description and explanation. Briefly; all explanations include description but not
Why it failed: While watching a documentary that mentioned gravity (forgive me the particulars escape me at the moment) my 8yo son reached across my lap and tapped the space-bar pausing the video. He then turned toward me and asked, ‘what is gravity?’ Now, in our house we require explanations f
shawndumas
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: How would you spend $1-2K a month in marketing/ads for a web app?
We have a web app/service (http://nextproof.com) that is about 18 months old. It has a solid user base, a steady number of signups, and is profitable. However, most of the signups are coming from existing customers of our other services (we offer it when they signup). I'd like to start bringing in new customers directly. I've set aside $1-2k per month for marketing, ad campaigns, etc. Anyone have creative suggestions on how to spend this money? Ideas so far include: - AdWords - Facebook ads - Niche ads on industry-related sites, blogs, and forums - Paying someone to blog steadily I also don't mind spending on related tools and apps. I'm looking into things like Kissmetrics, AdGrok, etc.
Why it failed: We have a web app/service (http://nextproof.com) that is about 18 months old. It has a solid user base, a steady number of signups, and is profitable. However, most of the signups are coming from existing customers of our other services (we offer it when they signup). I'd like to
callmeed
- startupShut down2010
TellHN : Go Test It is closing down on 22nd March
This is a mail I received from Amir Chaudhry (amir@go-test.it) : Hello, As a registered user of Go Test It, I'm writing to inform you that Go Test It is shutting down. The service will cease sometime after 5pm on Monday the 22nd of March and we encourage you to back-up your test scripts as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any disruption this may cause you. A lot has happened over the last few weeks and this decision has been a difficult one. We have every intention to work alongside our users to minimise the impact and have included a brief list of other automated testing services you might find useful. If you need help with backing up your scripts, please email us on support@go-test.it We really appreciate your support and patience at this time. If you have questions, please direct them to the email address above. Best wishes, Amir - Alternative Services - Some alternative s
Why it failed: This is a mail I received from Amir Chaudhry (amir@go-test.it) : Hello, As a registered user of Go Test It, I'm writing to inform you that Go Test It is shutting down. The service will cease sometime after 5pm on Monday the 22nd of March and we encourage you to back-up your test
dan_sim
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Where do I go from here?
While I've never been actively engaged in the Hacker News I do know what a tremendously helpful and intelligent community it is. Time and time again I've seen people asking for help and being overwhelmed with the supportiveness from fellow members. It is with that said that I myself am in need of some guidance. My story goes like this: One lazy afternoon, while a sophomore in high school, I watched the movie Antitrust; after which I immediately knew what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a developer of some sort. This lead me to George Mason's Computer Science programming. Prior to which I'd only fooled around with C++ and Java for a year. In May I graduated from George Mason University with a B.S. in Computer Science and a Minor in Business. Going through college I worked on a networking team (mostly helpdesk) for 5 years and considered it to be my career choice, n
Why it failed: While I've never been actively engaged in the Hacker News I do know what a tremendously helpful and intelligent community it is. Time and time again I've seen people asking for help and being overwhelmed with the supportiveness from fellow members. It is with that said that I mys
ArashEE
- startupShut down2010
HN Rant: Come and Go Voting
So I log into HN and read the wonderful essay about healthcare and end-of-life costs. I was going to comment and vote on some of the comments, but I can't downvote. Must have ticked somebody off, I guess. I upvote a few of the better comments and move on. Then I go and read about the new Chrome HN extensions. Nice job! Now I can upvote and downvote. I go back to the healthcare essay. Still no ability to downvote. Does anybody here besides the coders of HN want to support the idea that the user can have abilities come and go on a whim and this is going to make for a enjoyable user experience? HN keeps getting more and more nuanced about who can do what when, and, quite frankly, all it seems to do is intermittently piss me off. If it's making things better I can't see it. And even if it is, you don't screw around with system behavior without notifying your user of what's going on. I'm sure
Why it failed: So I log into HN and read the wonderful essay about healthcare and end-of-life costs. I was going to comment and vote on some of the comments, but I can't downvote. Must have ticked somebody off, I guess. I upvote a few of the better comments and move on. Then I go and read about
DanielBMarkham
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Problem finding/choosing an idea to work on
TL;DR: Bad at coming up with startup ideas, or possibly just think about them too critically and don't pursue them. Advice? To give context: I'm 17 and just started college (web dev. with design degree). Got my first computer at 13. Have been interested in startups and designing/coding for a couple of years. Had a job at a web dev. company in Summer '09. They offered me a full-time job as a front-end designer for when I finished high school (Summer '10), but I gracefully declined as I wanted to pursue my own projects and go to college. Debated about going to college and eventually decided to go for the networking aspect - and since my country has a free educational system, it's not as if going would put me in debt like in the US. But I have this ongoing problem. At first, I just thought I was bad at generating good startups ideas, but now I'm starting to think maybe the problem is over-t
Why it failed: TL;DR: Bad at coming up with startup ideas, or possibly just think about them too critically and don't pursue them. Advice? To give context: I'm 17 and just started college (web dev. with design degree). Got my first computer at 13. Have been interested in startups and designing/
throwAway741
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: How to be successful online without SEO bullshittery?
This is a hot topic near and dear to my heart. I create a site 4 years ago that I've been writing on every since... there are probably near 2000 articles on it. Everything from fixing your MTU settings on your Q1000 modem to Java framework tips I find handy to years worth of game and movies reviews to hilarious cat pictures. It's just anything and everything I've ever found interesting written in a slightly more professional manner than "stream of thought" with a small amount of attention paid to titles and internal links only when appropriate and valuable (I HATE how sites like Engadget inner-link every keyword for Google sake). My understanding was always that "If I wrote it, they will come". 4 years later and that's not the case at all... I seem to be hitting a goddamn glass ceiling that I cannot figure out for the life of me why it exists or who is imposing it and I want to scream. T
Why it failed: This is a hot topic near and dear to my heart. I create a site 4 years ago that I've been writing on every since... there are probably near 2000 articles on it. Everything from fixing your MTU settings on your Q1000 modem to Java framework tips I find handy to years worth of game
rkalla
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Looking for cofounders, I'll pay the bills
Summary: I am looking to create a team of three to live and work together in preparation for the next round of YC. Launching prior to YC or applying to other similar programs are also options but, think the benefits of YC are worth the extra work. Details: After researching the pros and cons of hiring, Angel investing, and finding cofounders have decided the last option is best. I will be looking for two cofounders over the next couple of months to begin work on a minimum viable product. This product will be used in our application to the next round of Y-Combinator. During this time I am offering to pay all standard expenses (rent, food, internet, development costs) as this is the most common objection to starting in my experience. I currently live in San Diego walking distance from UCSD. I would be willing to relocate to the Bay area to build the right team. I have a couple of ideas (an
Why it failed: Summary: I am looking to create a team of three to live and work together in preparation for the next round of YC. Launching prior to YC or applying to other similar programs are also options but, think the benefits of YC are worth the extra work. Details: After researching the p
omni50
- startupShut down2010
Tell HN: Denver Meetup of HN
We're throwing a meetup of HN fans in Denver, Colorado next week, on Thursday October 7th. If anyone is interested, please come join us. Ideally you live in Colorado but if you're just visiting, that's cool too. Very informal, just to say hello, chat, network, maybe enjoy a beer or two. Starts at 6:30pm at the Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Denver, off 16th Street. Myself and evo_9 are organizing it. A few of us will have an orange-and-white HN badge on our shirt, or standup card on a table, so you know what group to look for. If you can't make this one, there will be more in the future, at different times and locations so that everybody gets a chance to make it. Please email me if you plan on coming, just so I know what to expect. Email in my HN profile. Thanks, and I think we'll have fun! Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&
Why it failed: We're throwing a meetup of HN fans in Denver, Colorado next week, on Thursday October 7th. If anyone is interested, please come join us. Ideally you live in Colorado but if you're just visiting, that's cool too. Very informal, just to say hello, chat, network, maybe enjoy a beer
mkramlich
- startupShut down2010
Plea HN: Any work?
This is a throwaway account. My main is a fairly high karma HN account that's been here for years. I've met some of you in real life. I recently took a lower paying (but much lower stress) job to allow me more time to bootstrap my own startup. This made our budget tighter, but between my income and my wife's, all the necessities were at least covered. Fast forwarding to now, my wife just lost her job, making my leaner budget entirely unworkable. I have no idea how I'm going to cover the bills that we have, much less have any money left over for Christmas for my family. I'm a competent Python web developer, and have familiarity with Django, Tornado, Mongo, MySQL, SQLite, Nginx, et al. I have decent design skills, though I am nowhere near a master, understand HTML, XHTML, CSS and am dabbling with HTML5. I can slice PSDs, develop web pages end-to-end. I build solid UI/UX interfaces that are
Why it failed: This is a throwaway account. My main is a fairly high karma HN account that's been here for years. I've met some of you in real life. I recently took a lower paying (but much lower stress) job to allow me more time to bootstrap my own startup. This made our budget tighter, but be
throwaway911
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Do the benefits of the Valley outweigh the costs?
This might seem like a no-brainer for those of you who live in Silicon Valley, but coming from way, way outside the Valley (as in Melbourne, Australia) I would love to hear your views on whether the benefits of building a startup in the Valley outweigh the high costs of living there. I have some idea of the advantages. Here are three that come to mind: access to venture capital, networking and jobs (i.e. if my company failed in the Valley I could probably get an equivalent executive role with a technology company, whereas such opportunities are thin on the ground in Australia, let alone Melbourne.) Or am I wearing a pair of rose colored glasses?
Why it failed: This might seem like a no-brainer for those of you who live in Silicon Valley, but coming from way, way outside the Valley (as in Melbourne, Australia) I would love to hear your views on whether the benefits of building a startup in the Valley outweigh the high costs of living th
annajohnson
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Help, Investor wants money back in 7 days "Or else"
We recently sold a total of 22% share of our established company to an investor that also wanted to work for us as director of Sales. The person had a large rolodex in a segment of our market that we had not been able to tap and felt they could bring a lot to the table as an employee. So we put together some additional vesting based on rev targets all tied to being employed. The investment granted preferred shares and a seat on the board, voting is with ownership % and it takes 67% to pass. So here we are 8 weeks after the deal, and things could not have gone worse. From day 1 the employee made it clear they did not intend to do sales, but instead had a "vision" for the company and wanted to run it. They first tried to buy out the CEO and president to do so, but we refused. After that they refused to work the sales plan we had developed, refused to be accountable to any touches/sales goa
Why it failed: We recently sold a total of 22% share of our established company to an investor that also wanted to work for us as director of Sales. The person had a large rolodex in a segment of our market that we had not been able to tap and felt they could bring a lot to the table as an empl
anon0264
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: how many years have you "wasted" on failed startups? And any regrets?
Over the last few days I've seen people post their lists of failed startups. What is not clear, however, is how many man-hours (or man-months or man-years), that were spent on these failed startups: were they working full-time on them, burning their own finances, or were these side-projects while working in full-time employment? So I was wondering: how many man-hours (man-months, man-years etc) have you spent on your "failed" projects? And do you have any regrets? (NB: I use the terms "wasted" and "failed" loosely).
Why it failed: Over the last few days I've seen people post their lists of failed startups. What is not clear, however, is how many man-hours (or man-months or man-years), that were spent on these failed startups: were they working full-time on them, burning their own finances, or were these si
resdirector
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: Review My Startup - Hypernumbers The Team Spreadsheet
Please review my startup: http://hypernumbers.com We finally have a ‘quantum of utility’ - a product like a spreadsheet but better at doing some things... I would love to get your thoughts and opinions on what a native-web spreadsheet should be like - and in which ways hypernumbers meets (or fails to meet) your expectations. BACK STORY When I started writing this submission I googled for Paul Graham’s 'Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund' No 22 - web spreadsheet ( http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html ) from 2008 – so I could point out we started full time work on it in 2007. Through the miracle of Google I found this article of Paul’s from 2005 ( http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html ) which predates us. I have no idea if I read that article at the time :( That got me thinking. Reading Paul’s articles today it all seems so simple and obvious
Why it failed: Please review my startup: http://hypernumbers.com We finally have a ‘quantum of utility’ - a product like a spreadsheet but better at doing some things... I would love to get your thoughts and opinions on what a native-web spreadsheet should be like - and in which ways
gordonguthrie
- startupShut down2010
Tell HN: I got screwed by my employer
Premise: this story is in part my fault too, but I will leave it here to warn other people on this subject: bootstrapping a startup while employed. I worked in a consulting company in my country of origin and I was bootstrapping a startup in the meanwhile. A few weeks ago I moved to another job in another country. Now I have to close my startup because my employer does not allow it. There are posts like this one http://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html that tell you that usually things go well in this regard. While I don't doubt it, it wasn't my case. If you want to start a startup while employed, be very careful on this matter. Actually everything seemed ok with this at first. I was hired in my current position because of my startup (I have an iPhone developer position here and the only iPhone development I ever made was in my startup) and during the interview I was asked if I wa
Why it failed: Premise: this story is in part my fault too, but I will leave it here to warn other people on this subject: bootstrapping a startup while employed. I worked in a consulting company in my country of origin and I was bootstrapping a startup in the meanwhile. A few weeks ago I moved
DeusExMachina
- startupShut down2010
Tell HN: I can't even get a job offering to work for free
This is a short, funny but tragic story about my quest for a job. (Apologies for the length and writing style, its half story / half venting). Background: I’m 23, graduated last year with a business degree. I have a bunch of startup experience, having projects mentioned on Techcrunch, TIME, CNet, CBSNews, and more. After a summer of working on a startup with my friend and technical partner, he decided to get a job with one of the big mobile handset developers. That left me with a choice; do something on my own (with limited technical ability) or get a job and learn something. In September, I decided to give it shot and sent email out to the CEO of a local startup. I figured I wanted to be a part of the growing social product space, so a social analytics company made sense. I kidd you not, the subject of my email was “I want to work for you for free!”. It worked, and I got the attention I
Why it failed: This is a short, funny but tragic story about my quest for a job. (Apologies for the length and writing style, its half story / half venting). Background: I’m 23, graduated last year with a business degree. I have a bunch of startup experience, having projects mentioned on Techcr
coryl
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: YC interviewees coming from outside US
We're getting on a plane from Edinburgh in about 24 hours and flying over for our YC interview this week. We want to make the most of our time out there and meet other startups, angels, find out about meetups etc. I thought it might be useful if I did a public shoutout for: 1) Anyone with a couch or floor to put up YC interviewees 2) Recommendations for which coffee shops are good to work in 3) Recommendations for good meetups over the next week 4) Anyone who wants to play tourguide or chill and work together. -- edit: from jkaljundi: 5) Also any of the other teams for YC want to meetup? email me at 'sam at getbloop dot com' and I'll try and coordinate something between us if there's demand.
Why it failed: We're getting on a plane from Edinburgh in about 24 hours and flying over for our YC interview this week. We want to make the most of our time out there and meet other startups, angels, find out about meetups etc. I thought it might be useful if I did a public shoutout for: 1) An
samcollins
- startupShut down2010
Ask HN: I feel my dream slipping away
They say advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Well, I'm not looking for hang-in-there-buddy-advice but rather employment ideas or immigration hacks from someone in my situation or who understands it. I'm an Engineer working at a big corp in California - a job I so hate but have been needing to hold on to for green card purposes (I'm a foreign citizen). I'm still at least 2 years away from getting it. Meanwhile, in my spare time, I've been hacking away on my boostrapped startup idea. I released a MVP two months ago and it has been gaining steady traction. I intend to hit ramen profitability by early next year. This is where it gets hard on me. In spite of spending many waking hours working on it, moonlighting often translates to slow progress. At the end of a full 10 hour day working for the man, creativity and productivity are not at their peak wh
Why it failed: They say advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Well, I'm not looking for hang-in-there-buddy-advice but rather employment ideas or immigration hacks from someone in my situation or who understands it. I'm an Engineer working at a big corp i
whatnext
- startupShut down2010
End-of-Life Warning at $618,616 Makes Me Wonder Was It Worth It
Solid long-format article about the costs of healthcare for a dying husband.
Why it failed: Solid long-format article about the costs of healthcare for a dying husband.
AdamN