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.
1,395 solutions
- startupShut down2019
Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?
Using throwaway for obvious reasons... I'm feeling pretty bad. Until now (I'm 45, SE for 20 years) I've been able to be successful by working hard and never quitting but I think that personality trait has been my demise this time. I've worked full-time on a bootstrapped SaaS (niche academic domain) for over 3 years now. Went live on January 1 with 50 or so beta testers (free account and support for a year) which gave me plenty of encouragement, feedback, features, etc. Officially launched in July and everything has gone silent. I don't think I can convert any of the original testers as they've all gone to ground. I've produced some excellent content and tried my best to get it out there but it seems no one is interested (plenty of reads but no sharing, no likes, no backlinks, no conversions, no comments, nothing). I'm 100% sure we offer a way bette
Why it failed: Using throwaway for obvious reasons... I'm feeling pretty bad. Until now (I'm 45, SE for 20 years) I've been able to be successful by working hard and never quitting but I think that personality trait has been my demise this time. I've worked full-time on a bo
throw_your_boat
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Mozilla Persona Post-Mortem
As far as I can tell, the demise of Mozilla Persona has left a vacuum in terms of user-controlled identity solutions. Why did Persona fail? What else is happening in this area? What's coming up on the horizon?
Why it failed: As far as I can tell, the demise of Mozilla Persona has left a vacuum in terms of user-controlled identity solutions. Why did Persona fail? What else is happening in this area? What's coming up on the horizon?
pc2g4d
- startupShut down2018
Show IH: A 7 day livestream on Twitch of me building a startup, fully open
Hey folks! Long time listener, first-time caller. For the last month or so I've been meaning to start yet another project of building a scrappy startup and seeing where it takes me. About two weeks ago, I came across Pieter Level's concept of 'open' metrics and got inspired. Yesterday, I went live for Day 1 with a Twitch & YouTube stream to share every step of my journey over the next 7 days of building and launching my project, an eCommerce service business for providing professional & short 'store reviews'. In fact, I'll be live when this post goes up > https://www.twitch.tv/thecoppinger/ Thanks to feedback from folks on Reddit and Indie Hackers, I've created a 'Day 1' recap video which can be viewed here (I'll be doing one each morning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOT1B6rpXc&
Why it failed: Hey folks! Long time listener, first-time caller. For the last month or so I've been meaning to start yet another project of building a scrappy startup and seeing where it takes me. About two weeks ago, I came across Pieter Level's concept of 'open' metrics an
thecoppinger
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Help (no life thread)
Hello all, I made this burner acc on HN to try and ask people without showing exactly who I am. So in short, I am going down the hill, I am starting to loose interest in almost anything but sitting and staring at the wall. Now I am in this state in which nothing really interests me, I do not cook anymore, I do not go to the gym, hell if I leave my flat.. What is wrong with me? I am a 26 year old, have been working in web dev since 19 trying to make a startup for the past 2-3 years, but I fail to see any progress. I just do not know how this life thing works! I have ambitions, I do not want to remain in a 40-60k job (this is Europe) for the rest of my life, but through my work experience I was always seen as the young one and given no choice but to quit and get a new job in order to advance a bit further. On the other side, I have made 3-4 projects, first solo and then with other people a
Why it failed: Hello all, I made this burner acc on HN to try and ask people without showing exactly who I am. So in short, I am going down the hill, I am starting to loose interest in almost anything but sitting and staring at the wall. Now I am in this state in which nothing really interests
burnerAddress
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: How have you handled existential crisis in your life?
From time to time, more often than I would like, I have a full blown existential crisis. It can be triggered by something as simple as a YouTube video, suggested to me by YouTube, that is a cancer patient talking about their final days. That's what it was today. Given we're (largely) engineers and science minded folks here, I ask HN: How do you handle deep existential questions? More specifically, here are some questions I really struggle with: - How do you deal with the fact that we don't know why anything at all exists? Why, for instance, do atoms, subatomic particles, etc, exist AT ALL? Why not NOTHING? - How do you deal with the fact that your life is meaningless. You will die and - at best - leave behind a legacy for history books. More likely, you will die and it will be completely insignificant. To put it another way: How do you deal with the fact that your life is
Why it failed: From time to time, more often than I would like, I have a full blown existential crisis. It can be triggered by something as simple as a YouTube video, suggested to me by YouTube, that is a cancer patient talking about their final days. That's what it was today. Given we
erigin
- startupShut down2018
Internet Archive Announces Lead Eng. Role for Archive.org
Dream role? Preserve & Empower digital freedom. The Internet Archive just announced a lead tech position for their main Archive.org website. Be one of five engineers behind one of the world's top 260 websites. ## Champion "Universal Access to All Knowledge": - Non-profit w/ engineering salary (what?!) - Great power, great responsibility (3.5M uniques/day) - Help millions internationally access books, open access papers, and more - Work in SF, near golden gate park, in massive temple of public knowledge (remote possible!) - Free Friday lunches & frequent civic-natured events, e.g. decentralizedweb.net - php, js, react, less; front-end, accessibility, design systems ## At a glance Have enormous impact, ship code used by millions, help grow a community of contributors, be a key stakeholder in the design & direction of archive.org, work with a small team
Why it failed: Dream role? Preserve & Empower digital freedom. The Internet Archive just announced a lead tech position for their main Archive.org website. Be one of five engineers behind one of the world's top 260 websites. ## Champion "Universal Access to All Knowledge": -
mekarpeles
- startupShut down2018
Launch HN: Deepgram (YC W16) – Scalable Speech API for Businesses
Hey HN, I’m Scott Stephenson, one of the cofounders of Deepgram ( https://www.deepgram.com/ ). Getting information from recorded phone calls and meetings is time-intensive, costly, and imprecise. Our speech recognition API allows businesses to reliably translate high-value unstructured audio into accurate, parsable data. Deepgram started when my cofounder Noah Shutty and I had just finished looking for dark matter (while in a particle physics lab at University of Michigan). Noah had the idea to start recording all audio from his life, 24/7. After gathering hundreds of hours of recordings, we wanted to search inside this fresh dataset, but realized there wasn’t a good way to find specific moments. So, we built a tool utilizing the same AI techniques we used for finding dark matter particle events, and it ended up working pretty well. A few months later, we made a singl
Why it failed: Hey HN, I’m Scott Stephenson, one of the cofounders of Deepgram ( https://www.deepgram.com/ ). Getting information from recorded phone calls and meetings is time-intensive, costly, and imprecise. Our speech recognition API allows businesses to reliably translate hi
stephensonsco
- startupShut down2018
Launch HN: Numericcal (YC.S18) – Lifecycle Management for ML Models on the Edge
Hey HN, We’re Ranko and Shaoyi, co-founders of Numericcal ( https://numericcal.com ). We’re building developer tools to simplify building, optimizing and maintaining Machine Learning models for embedded, mobile and IoT applications. This platform is the result of our own struggles while helping on two ML powered projects; one using Computer Vision and one Voice Recognition. In both cases running models in the cloud was too expensive and slow for a good user experience. Moreover, it was not clear whether the training data our Data Science team had, at the beginning of the project, was representative of the data to be encountered in production. The solution for cost and speed was to run inference on some end-device. However, we did not know which device would be feasible, nor did we know what model the Data Science team would end up with. We initially considered two options: * Po
Why it failed: Hey HN, We’re Ranko and Shaoyi, co-founders of Numericcal ( https://numericcal.com ). We’re building developer tools to simplify building, optimizing and maintaining Machine Learning models for embedded, mobile and IoT applications. This platform is the result of our ow
radoye
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: What do you look for in a software engineering candidate?
Hi HN, I am at my wits end trying to find a job and considering giving up. I graduated 11 months ago from a leading university, an active contributor and open source maintainer on Github (with libraries of my own) and have written apps that is live on the App Store. Been doing over 20 algorithm challenges a day (10 on leetcode, 10 on HackerRank) and I still keep getting no response or an immediate rejection from companies big and small. Went through one company which lead me on with first a phone interview then a hacker rank challenge then a take home project then a onsite interview with a whiteboard programming challenge and a final interview. I never heard back from them, only to find out later on that I had been rejected without them telling me! For me this has happened so many times that this was the last straw for me after 30+ interviews from several companies I applied for. It'
Why it failed: Hi HN, I am at my wits end trying to find a job and considering giving up. I graduated 11 months ago from a leading university, an active contributor and open source maintainer on Github (with libraries of my own) and have written apps that is live on the App Store. Been doing ov
trycatcthrowawy
- startupShut down2018
Launch HN: EnvKey (YC W18) – Smart Configuration and Secrets Management
Hi HN! I’m Dane, the founder of EnvKey ( https://www.envkey.com ). EnvKey is an end-to-end encrypted 1Password-like service that lets dev teams manage API keys, credentials, and configuration easily and securely. For some background, you can check out https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/27/envkey-wants-to-create-a-s... as well as a Show HN from when EnvKey first launched: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15330757 . The Show HN is what got EnvKey its first batch of production users, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten into YC without it. So thanks HN! I owe a hell of a lot to this community. On where the idea came from: I had the first inklings at my last job. We were in the MVP stage, so we ended up with a bunch of separate apps and services as we experimented. These were split between CloudFoundry and Heroku, and we also had an in-ho
Why it failed: Hi HN! I’m Dane, the founder of EnvKey ( https://www.envkey.com ). EnvKey is an end-to-end encrypted 1Password-like service that lets dev teams manage API keys, credentials, and configuration easily and securely. For some background, you can check out https://
danenania
- startupShut down2018
Launch HN: MAC'D (YC S18) – Fast-Casual, Build-Your-own Mac and Cheese
Hi HN! We’re Chen-Chen and Antony from MAC’D, a fast-casual, build-your-own mac & cheese restaurant. Pick one of our six cheese sauces, a pasta base, add unlimited toppings like roasted broccoli and mushrooms, and top it off with anything from truffle oil to hot cheetos. We’re currently in San Francisco and Portland. MAC’D was inspired by a mac & cheese restaurant called Homeroom, which Chen-Chen frequented while at Cal. Fast-casual has consistently been the fastest growing segment in the food and bev industry, so it made sense to apply that spin to an old-school comfort food like mac & cheese. It’s a social, nostalgic, late-night meal that’s both familiar in taste and unique in experience. After graduating from Berkeley, Chen-Chen was a management consultant, but quickly realized that consulting wasn’t the career for him. Together with a part-time partner, he began drafting
Why it failed: Hi HN! We’re Chen-Chen and Antony from MAC’D, a fast-casual, build-your-own mac & cheese restaurant. Pick one of our six cheese sauces, a pasta base, add unlimited toppings like roasted broccoli and mushrooms, and top it off with anything from truffle oil to hot cheetos. We’r
antonybello
- startupShut down2018
Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane alternative to jail
Hi HN, We are Phaedra and Diana of Promise ( http://joinpromise.com/ ). We provide a cost-effective, more humane alternative to incarceration. We work for government agencies to monitor and support individuals who would otherwise be in jail or who are under some form of community supervision. There are almost 2.3 million people behind bars in the US and another 4.5+ million people on probation or parole. Almost 450,000 people are in jails pretrial, meaning they have not been convicted of the crime for which they were arrested. The majority of these individuals remain in custody because they cannot afford to pay for their release. This is costly for governments and devastating for the individuals who remain in jail who can lose their job, housing, children and more while incarcerated. Believe it or not, many of these people never even end up being charged with or convicted
Why it failed: Hi HN, We are Phaedra and Diana of Promise ( http://joinpromise.com/ ). We provide a cost-effective, more humane alternative to incarceration. We work for government agencies to monitor and support individuals who would otherwise be in jail or who are under some fo
dfrappier
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Getting over interview anxiety?
Hi HN! So recently I applied for a software engineering role at a startup. A week and a bit ago I had an interview where they and I chatted for a bit and got to know each other a little, which I thought went swimmingly. Yesterday however, was my technical screen. I was confident but nervous beforehand, but when it started that's when my mind froze, I couldn't think at all and I was just a bumbling mess. It was by no means a difficult problem and almost immediately afterwards and when the pressure was gone the solution became obvious to me, but by then I knew it was too late to change anything. Stuff like this happens to me all the time. Not every time I'm being judged in person, but every time I'm being judged where I need to think and I _need_ to succeed and I'm not in a position of power. I just get so much anxiety and my mind completely shuts down. It has caus
Why it failed: Hi HN! So recently I applied for a software engineering role at a startup. A week and a bit ago I had an interview where they and I chatted for a bit and got to know each other a little, which I thought went swimmingly. Yesterday however, was my technical screen. I was confident
JessicaTG
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Started a new job and their existing code sucks. What to do?
How do you guys deal when you start a new programming job and the company's existing code needs a full refactoring (or to be totally rewritten)? I started this new job and the current code is so spaghetti that it's almost an Italian restaurant. No good practices are being followed, there are no tests, huge components that should be modularized, no organized architecture at all. The current developers working on that code aren't very experienced and, even though they acknowledge that some refactoring is necessary, they don't think that's a priority (and that we should focus on bug fixing). However, the thing is so messy that they've been spending the last few months just bug fixing - while refactoring the code would have solved most of their problems. What would you do? Just don't care and keep doing what you're told to do (bug fixing/closing G
Why it failed: How do you guys deal when you start a new programming job and the company's existing code needs a full refactoring (or to be totally rewritten)? I started this new job and the current code is so spaghetti that it's almost an Italian restaurant. No good practices are bei
riwasabi
- startupShut down2018
Reverse Job Search: I will pay to work at your company
I am a coding bootcamp graduate who is having a hard time finding my first dev job. PROBLEM: Most internships want students who are in college (I'm not) and most junior positions want people with at least 2 years of experience. I'm looking for my first front-end development job. ABOUT ME: - I changed careers from the medical field. - I'm African-American. - I live in NYC. - I graduated from a good coding bootcamp, so I know basic HTML, CSS, and JS. - I briefly helped a friend with a React / Redux app, so I know the fundamentals of React. Because I've had a hard time finding my first job, I was thinking about going back to take more web development classes to build up my portfolio. The school I was looking into is about $10K and it lasts 7 months. So instead of that, I wanted to see if there are any companies out there that I can pay who is willing to let me learn
Why it failed: I am a coding bootcamp graduate who is having a hard time finding my first dev job. PROBLEM: Most internships want students who are in college (I'm not) and most junior positions want people with at least 2 years of experience. I'm looking for my first front-end develop
NYC-dev
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: My country is getting worse. Where to go?
I am 20 y.o, I live in Indonesia. I don't know what's going on with my country, but it looks like everything is getting worse. I don't see a bright future here, so I am looking for a better country. I am willing to move abroad. The problems are, I don't know where to go, and how much does it cost. Right now, I have around $1,000 in my bank account. It's all the money that I save from my job. Unfortunately, I don't have any degree. I am a high school graduate. But I'm good at design and good enough at front-end dev. I am also into fitness, I workout alot, mostly calisthenics. I'm thinking about to move to Canada or Japan. But I don't think I have the money. Probably some of you can help me. I just want to get out. Where to go? Thank you!
Why it failed: I am 20 y.o, I live in Indonesia. I don't know what's going on with my country, but it looks like everything is getting worse. I don't see a bright future here, so I am looking for a better country. I am willing to move abroad. The problems are, I don't know w
richsaunders
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: How do you manage all your interests, hopes, dreams?
I am interested in so many things, and feel a sickening dread that I won't have the time to explore them all. I'm actively resentful of my job for taking me away from the things I want to learn and get good at. When I get home, I'm overwhelmed with possibility, so I always question whether I'm spending time on the right thing. I often don't end up doing anything due to this analysis paralysis. If you're like me, what do you do? Do you try to whittle down your interests and commit only to a few, accepting that one cannot do everything they want to in life? Do you try to cram them all in somehow? Do you focus on one at a time and trust that, eventually, you will be able to get to them all? Do you quit your job and take a sabbatical year to do a deep dive on all these things, provided you have the means (I don't, necessarily, but could eventually). This ha
Why it failed: I am interested in so many things, and feel a sickening dread that I won't have the time to explore them all. I'm actively resentful of my job for taking me away from the things I want to learn and get good at. When I get home, I'm overwhelmed with possibility, so
ambivalents
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Not feeling it from the CEO. What can I do? (equity split)
I joined a startup as CTO that is 9 months old (5 months with me) and has VC funding. I now have equal equity to the CEO. Now that I know how much I will continue to contribute that is core to my expertise & experience, I think I should have more like 3:2 or 2:1 (CTO:CEO), and that the CEO is really CMO/COO material. Is there something like an Equity-Split Consultancy I can use for help? The startup is complex VR software that I have 19 years experience in. I'm formerly a tenured academic leading a research group in this area. I've also worked on big-name projects as a SWEng in this area. I have won awards for my work and know the tech & product very well. I've also iterated similar "products" with customers. I have taught project management, founded a successful online business, a PhD in exactly what we are doing, and 10 years of building toward bre
Why it failed: I joined a startup as CTO that is 9 months old (5 months with me) and has VC funding. I now have equal equity to the CEO. Now that I know how much I will continue to contribute that is core to my expertise & experience, I think I should have more like 3:2 or 2:1 (CTO:CEO), an
njens
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: In a bad spot right now in life, need advice
I am in a pretty bad spot right now, and I do not know simply what do with my life. I am from Spain, 19, and M. I graduated from HS 1 year ago and went to a what is considered a 2nd-tier Uni here in Spain to study CS, because my grades in HS and the SAT were bad. I had never actually “coded” or had done anything remotely CS related before I went to Uni. I chose CS mainly because I’ve always been interested in tech but just let’s just say in the “consumer-oriented” aspect of it, never really having acquired a useful skill throughout all the years I’ve spent in front of a PC being an introvert in HS, other than I guess ENG. And so, during my 1st semester I failed all of my finals. I also don’t know how to study or actually learn things by the way. I failed all of my finals because of a combination of reasons, but I’d say the biggest one by far is my own laziness and lack of will to actuall
Why it failed: I am in a pretty bad spot right now, and I do not know simply what do with my life. I am from Spain, 19, and M. I graduated from HS 1 year ago and went to a what is considered a 2nd-tier Uni here in Spain to study CS, because my grades in HS and the SAT were bad. I had never actu
SpanishConf
- startupShut down2018
Ask: How do you apply “programmer’s” efficiency in everyday life things?
I notice myself towards fellow human beings that I try to optimize simple everyday tasks. “They” mainly try to optimize certain events, by using Google Maps for the shortest route. But I try to do this with numerous things, from filling up the dishwasher, to taking out the thrash, to (quite often to irritation to my SO), postponing things: to add things up and then to everything in one-efficient go. Some of these moundaine tasks are “repeated” items with a reminder of a todo-app. Or by paying all bills every 2 weeks, instead of when they come in. My wife (2 kids) cleans the house basically constantly. While when I’m alone, I just do it at the end of the day, cause it doesn’t matter to clean up multiple times the toys. I buy things that don’t expire (like toothpaste) in bulk. While she buys them by one. Do you guys/girls have similar instincts and events happening? It’s really not ab
Why it failed: I notice myself towards fellow human beings that I try to optimize simple everyday tasks. “They” mainly try to optimize certain events, by using Google Maps for the shortest route. But I try to do this with numerous things, from filling up the dishwasher, to taking out the thrash
5_minutes
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Which dev laptop to buy?
I was planning on switching my work laptop sometime around next year, which could change a bit the landscape(macbook pro keyboard...), but I have an opportunity to get one right now from the US which makes things much cheaper for me, so I wanted some input. Currently I own a 15" Dell (don't remember the version). I really like the 15" display, seems much better for my work (I usually don't use a external monitor) than 13", it has a decent keyboard (I love that it has a numpad) a decent trackpad and display. The display is touchscreen which makes it gather much more dust than usually and I have never used it. I have had trouble getting linux to work well with it's trackpad sometimes and shutting down, hibernation, suspension has also been troublesome. This is the only laptop I have used for heavy development duty. I was considering getting a mac this time aro
Why it failed: I was planning on switching my work laptop sometime around next year, which could change a bit the landscape(macbook pro keyboard...), but I have an opportunity to get one right now from the US which makes things much cheaper for me, so I wanted some input. Currently I own a 15&q
hcoura
- startupShut down2018
How to permanently leave Facebook
I despise facebook, i don't want to be any part of it. I do not use it for anything other than messenger. Yet it is like a physical reflex... everytime i open up my phone or browser i end up going to the site. Anybody have any interesting way they blocked out this addiction from their life?
Why it failed: I despise facebook, i don't want to be any part of it. I do not use it for anything other than messenger. Yet it is like a physical reflex... everytime i open up my phone or browser i end up going to the site. Anybody have any interesting way they blocked out this addiction
akabaka777
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: What are you using as an issue tracker in 2018?
I went through two startups and decided to use Redmine for both. Tried GitHub once and later migrated over, due to data ownership concerns and bad usability for project management. Tried self-hosted GitLab for a small group but abandoned it later due to inconsistency with internal workflow. Redmine also has its own shortcomings. As a Xoogler occasionally I really miss the ease of use of Google's internal bug tracker. I've also heard people using Phabricator if they were in FB. But I never had the chance to give it a try.
Why it failed: I went through two startups and decided to use Redmine for both. Tried GitHub once and later migrated over, due to data ownership concerns and bad usability for project management. Tried self-hosted GitLab for a small group but abandoned it later due to inconsistency with interna
xjia
- startupShut down2018
Ask HN: Client won't pay me my invoice and disputed Paypal payment 3 months ago
I have been working with a client now for 6 months. He has paid me around 3k each month. While my invoices were well above the prescribed amount. He chose to do that saying that we would add it to equity later. Sweat equity. Just a week ago, we had a falling out and closing up my work, I sent him an invoice for 17k. After which things got worse. He has attacked me, my family and called me names. He is trying to intimidate me. He also took the stance that he doesn't want to speak to me anymore. After which, I did threaten to share the details of this with his client base and all his buyers. He wasn't happy with that. I did not do so, but now he is unwilling to talk. After him shutting down communication, I reached out to his investors, which got him talking again. He has since said he is only willing to pay me $3500 on my invoice. Second, he disputed 3k he paid me in March, so I
Why it failed: I have been working with a client now for 6 months. He has paid me around 3k each month. While my invoices were well above the prescribed amount. He chose to do that saying that we would add it to equity later. Sweat equity. Just a week ago, we had a falling out and closing up my
spoiledtechie