The graveyard of good ideas
Solutions that were tried, and what stopped them.
Patents that were rejected or abandoned, products that shut down, projects that went quiet. Borrow the idea, avoid the dead end.
1,095 solutions
- 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Buy Me a Coffee (YC W19) – Give your audience a way to thank you
Hi HN! We’re Joseph, Aleesha, and Jijo, the founders of Buy Me A Coffee ( https://www.buymeacoffee.com ). We make it super easy to accept contributions and recurring memberships from your audience. A bit of backstory - Joseph and I grew up in India. When I was 12, I started making a little bit of money from my blog, and it had a huge impact on my life. I got to buy books and gadgets, pay for web hosting, none of which I could’ve afforded otherwise. We built our first product in 2010. It was an ad network for bloggers called AdIndigo. There were a bunch of Adsense alternatives doing well at that time, and it grew to serve 6 million impressions at its peak. We later had to shut it down because of the expenses. Buy Me A Coffee is our third (and only successful) attempt at building for the creators. When we started working on Buy Me A Coffee as a side project, it was a quick way to
Why it failed: Hi HN! We’re Joseph, Aleesha, and Jijo, the founders of Buy Me A Coffee ( https://www.buymeacoffee.com ). We make it super easy to accept contributions and recurring memberships from your audience. A bit of backstory - Joseph and I grew up in India. When I was 12, I sta
jijosunny
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: zeroheight (YC S19) – UX design docs that stay up-to-date
Hi HN! We’re Jerome and Robin, the founders of zeroheight ( https://zeroheight.com/ ). zeroheight is an online editor that lets companies create a wiki site to document their design process. The documentation is integrated with their design tools so that it’s always up-to-date, which enables large design and development teams to stay on the same page, ship faster and deliver consistent user experiences. Documentation is the first piece of the puzzle – our vision is to enable any company in the world to have a "design system": a system of reusable UX and front-end components, tools and guidelines. We want companies that don’t have the resources of design giants like Salesforce, IBM and Shopify to be able to create design systems which are just as powerful e.g. https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com (Salesforce), https://www.carbondesignsystem.co
Why it failed: Hi HN! We’re Jerome and Robin, the founders of zeroheight ( https://zeroheight.com/ ). zeroheight is an online editor that lets companies create a wiki site to document their design process. The documentation is integrated with their design tools so that it’s alway
jdelafargue
- 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: 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: 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
Show HN: Open sourcing my email sending startup
Hi all, I've posted a few times here about Maildown, a startup that I've been trying to validate lately. Due to lack of time to focus on this, I've taken the decision to abandon the project as a startup, but to make it available as an open source solution instead. The (still very basic) github repository is here: https://github.com/chris104957/maildown Maildown now exists as a simple CLI wrapper for Amazon SES which bakes in Markdown and styling support, making it much easier to get transactional mails up and running in any project Thanks for looking, Chris
Why it failed: Hi all, I've posted a few times here about Maildown, a startup that I've been trying to validate lately. Due to lack of time to focus on this, I've taken the decision to abandon the project as a startup, but to make it available as an open source solution instead.
chris140957
- 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
- 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
Launch HN: Point (YC W19) – First Debit Card with Points
Hi HN community, We’re Patrick, Kenan, and Sid, the founders of Point ( https://trypointbank.com ), a consumer digital bank focused on rewards. After being fed up with the poor customer experience and tactics of traditional banks, we did some digging into why we put up with our own subpar banks. We've discovered that the way most people end up with their current bank is by default (ex: parents set it up for them), rather than by choice. The complete opposite was the case for credit cards; credit cards were actually chosen based on their qualities. We began to wonder why a solution that combined the rewards and benefits of a credit card, with the simplicity of a bank account didn’t exist. After extensive research and testing of various existing products, we determined that everything came up short for our personal needs. That was the problem. Whether it was simply the lack
Why it failed: Hi HN community, We’re Patrick, Kenan, and Sid, the founders of Point ( https://trypointbank.com ), a consumer digital bank focused on rewards. After being fed up with the poor customer experience and tactics of traditional banks, we did some digging into why we put up
patrickmro
- startupShut down2019
Launch HN: Lofty AI (YC S19) – Real estate investment with alternative data
Hi Hacker News Community, My name is Jerry, and I’m one co-founders for Lofty AI ( https://www.lofty.ai/ ). We use machine learning to help identify homes where values are likely to appreciate, and we help home buyers buy them. People can partner up with us to buy a recommended property. If they do, we are willing to cover any potential losses on the property. In exchange, the buyer agrees to share some of the future profit on the home with us. The agreement lasts 3 years. Before starting this company, my co-founder and I had tried to invest in homes. However, we quickly got tired of realtors telling us to make offers based on very little data. We wanted to figure out a way to buy affordable homes that had the highest growth potential via a data driven approach. We realized there was a wealth of new alternative data out there, which could be used to predict both neighborho
Why it failed: Hi Hacker News Community, My name is Jerry, and I’m one co-founders for Lofty AI ( https://www.lofty.ai/ ). We use machine learning to help identify homes where values are likely to appreciate, and we help home buyers buy them. People can partner up with us to buy
loftyai
- 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
Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
Hi there, I'm at the end of my MSc. studies in CS. At the moment, I can choose to graduate in a month or two, or stay-on for another 9 months doing research in interactive theorem proving that will potentially lead to a PhD opportunity. I'm doing my MSc in a foreign country and I'm very unhappy here. Another ~9 months seems like a huge hurdle to me. The current situation is if I choose to graduate soon, I will likely surrender my chance for a PhD. I don't particularly love studying. I think interactive theorem proving is quite cool, but the actual practice of studying/research hasn't been that enjoyable to me, but I enjoy having the knowledge once I've acquired it. In many ways it seems like "the future" to me, and it'd be really neat to be one of the first passengers on that train, so to say. I have no desire to become a professor/r
Why it failed: Hi there, I'm at the end of my MSc. studies in CS. At the moment, I can choose to graduate in a month or two, or stay-on for another 9 months doing research in interactive theorem proving that will potentially lead to a PhD opportunity. I'm doing my MSc in a foreign cou
foopdoopfoop
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Is anyone still using Meteor framework?
I remember they made quite a fuzz 5 years ago, but now after I checked it after some years it seems they are done. Anyone knows how MDG the company is doing? It seems this startup have failed. They seemed so promising at the time...
Why it failed: I remember they made quite a fuzz 5 years ago, but now after I checked it after some years it seems they are done. Anyone knows how MDG the company is doing? It seems this startup have failed. They seemed so promising at the time...
natashas
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: What’s Your ROI in Browsing Hacker News?
I currently feel like I’m in a place where the cool stuff is something I can’t use because it’s too technical, not fully dependable, or just a cool concept at the end of the day. What value have you gained from hacker news submissions or comments that has helped you in your life? This is not meant to make HN look bad.
Why it failed: I currently feel like I’m in a place where the cool stuff is something I can’t use because it’s too technical, not fully dependable, or just a cool concept at the end of the day. What value have you gained from hacker news submissions or comments that has helped you in your life?
slipmagic
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Are You Hopeful About the Environment?
I guess this is sort of an open-ended question, but I just wanted to know if people on HN were hopeful about solving environmental change/damage. Last June is now officially the hottest June ever recorded. I guess you can add that to the laundry list of environmental issues we have. My worry is that its looking more and more like we need some sort of technological miracle (or everyone everywhere just stops buying most stuff ). And tech seems to be a step function - sometimes you get big things like the Internet and the Engine which can spawn lots of smaller things. But those big things historically have seemed to come about by chance and happenstance as much as hard work. I sometimes worry that we might not solve the environmental crisis because we just won't get lucky. Does anyone else feel this way? Or are people here mostly hopeful that this thing will all work itself out (p
Why it failed: I guess this is sort of an open-ended question, but I just wanted to know if people on HN were hopeful about solving environmental change/damage. Last June is now officially the hottest June ever recorded. I guess you can add that to the laundry list of environmental issues
_fol8
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Startup failed after years of work – Can I even get a job now?
I quit college to work on my startup. After 7 years of work, it's almost game over (will be shutting down in a few weeks). I haven't worked for anyone in years and I don't have a degree, but I've been coding for a long time, shipping real products to real customers... How do you think I should prepare for the job market? I'm 31 if it matters at all.
Why it failed: I quit college to work on my startup. After 7 years of work, it's almost game over (will be shutting down in a few weeks). I haven't worked for anyone in years and I don't have a degree, but I've been coding for a long time, shipping real products to real cust
perfect_loop
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
I keep categorizing ideas that I really want to execute into groups like work, personal life, projects etc, and then try to allocate time to them. But even when I try to focus and narrow the list of things I want to do, life still gets in between. So how do you go about it? In the end I spend more time reorganizing my ideas than working on them >.<
Why it failed: I keep categorizing ideas that I really want to execute into groups like work, personal life, projects etc, and then try to allocate time to them. But even when I try to focus and narrow the list of things I want to do, life still gets in between. So how do you go about it? In th
mezod
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: How to get a job after a failed startup?
I worked it for 8 months. I've now completely exhausted my savings. Our product is live but the growth is super slow. There is no way I can see it reaching product market fit. Investors are not interested with such low numbers. I am a product guy with moderate level tech skills. Should I keep the startup on my resume (with reason for shutting down + lessons)? Or should I leave it out from my resume and instead add the product we built as a 'project'? I'm looking at product management jobs or software engineering jobs.
Why it failed: I worked it for 8 months. I've now completely exhausted my savings. Our product is live but the growth is super slow. There is no way I can see it reaching product market fit. Investors are not interested with such low numbers. I am a product guy with moderate level tech ski
startuplife01
- startupShut down2019
Show HN: Recordings of phone screenings for employment
I have installed a program on my phone called ACR, which records all incoming and outgoing phone calls. I have recorded 26 phone screens from the past 3 or 4 months of trying to find a job as a full stack web developer. Some of the interviews are non-technical screens, some of them get technical. I have not gone through and beeped out any names or personal details. I maybe should have, but it was bad enough I had to live through these moments once, I didn't want to have to relive them by listening through them again to add in the beeps. Some people may get mad at me for giving away their company's interview details, but it is what it is. The main reason why I'm posting them is because there's this myth that is commonly spoken about on the internet that the unemployment rate is at an all time low, and that companies are dying to hire developers, and if you're a de
Why it failed: I have installed a program on my phone called ACR, which records all incoming and outgoing phone calls. I have recorded 26 phone screens from the past 3 or 4 months of trying to find a job as a full stack web developer. Some of the interviews are non-technical screens, some of th
freework