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.
2,500 solutions
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases
Hi HN! We just released the public alpha version of Mathesar ( https://mathesar.org/ , code: https://github.com/centerofci/mathesar ). Mathesar is an open source tool that provides a spreadsheet-like interface to a PostgreSQL database. I was originally inspired by wanting to build something like Dabble DB. I was in awe of their user experience for working with relational data. There’s plenty of “relational spreadsheet” software out there, but I haven’t been able to find anything with a comparable UX since Twitter shut Dabble DB down. We're a non-profit project. The core team is based out of a US 501(c)(3). Features: * Built on Postgres : Connect to an existing Postgres database or set one up from scratch. * Utilizes Postgres Features : Mathesar’s UI uses Postgres features. e.g. "Links" in the UI are foreign keys in the database. * Set up
Why it failed: Hi HN! We just released the public alpha version of Mathesar ( https://mathesar.org/ , code: https://github.com/centerofci/mathesar ). Mathesar is an open source tool that provides a spreadsheet-like interface to a PostgreSQL database. I was ori
kgodey
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Version code, models, & datasets together in GitHub
Hi HN! We just launched a GitHub integration that scales your Git repos to handle 100 terabytes of files in a single repo. XetData enables data scientists and machine learning engineers to version code, models, and datasets together. Most teams have glued together clunky workflows using S3, DVC, Git, Git LFS, and other tools and make true reproducibility difficult: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37694701 We instead embrace and extend Git so end-users don’t need to learn a new tool and a new set of commands. Our implementation is similar to Git LFS, where we take over the .gitattributes file, push pointers to large files in GitHub, and push the raw, large files to us. We have a few distinct features that we’re proud of that improve the user experience: - Our XetData bot comments on your pull requests to provide links to useful dataset views and model diffs. We’re work
Why it failed: Hi HN! We just launched a GitHub integration that scales your Git repos to handle 100 terabytes of files in a single repo. XetData enables data scientists and machine learning engineers to version code, models, and datasets together. Most teams have glued together clunky workflow
skadamat
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Whataaabout.com – unique activity ideas for the holiday break
Hi HN, I’ve been working on whataaabout.com with a friend, while learning to code. It's a fun little website for those short on time but seeking new experiences. It started from a question, "when was the last time you did an experience you had never done before?". As human beings we need some degree of novelty, to expose ourselves to the unfamiliar and keep learning throughout our lives. So to add a spark to my daily routine and keep novelty coming my way, I started collecting ideas of interesting and unusual activities I’d like to try out sooner or later. The main selection criteria is things that take a short amount of time and are not too demanding, nor location-specific. I organized them based on categories like uniqueness, humans involved, location, price, time required, and others. I hope you like it, and I’d be happy to hear your thoughts, as well as any cool activi
Why it failed: Hi HN, I’ve been working on whataaabout.com with a friend, while learning to code. It's a fun little website for those short on time but seeking new experiences. It started from a question, "when was the last time you did an experience you had never done before?".
erkjs
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Patterns – Habit Tracker App
Hi everyone I'm a Notion-addicted person and love to build my own template to cover different aspects of my life, either work or personal stuff. Once, I wanted to build a habit tracker template, and I realized Notion was not the best solution. You can organize it in a much more efficient way just with a pen and a piece of paper. However, the best tool should live on your devices and have a correct structure. Then, I decided to try to build an app using SwiftUI and SwiftData. The goal was to make it a very basic version in one month. But it took me two months. I tried to add only the core features for MVP and see if it works for others. On Twitter, it already received some love, and I'm very excited to share the app here to get even more feedback. Let me know what you think
Why it failed: Hi everyone I'm a Notion-addicted person and love to build my own template to cover different aspects of my life, either work or personal stuff. Once, I wanted to build a habit tracker template, and I realized Notion was not the best solution. You can organize it in a much m
degisner
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: A tool to design and run user state machines
Hi everyone, I’m Joe, CTO at Dopt. We’re building a tool that lets you design user state machines and an SDK so that you can run them in your product. We offer a React SDK that lets you create instances of those machines for any user of your product and exposes methods for transitioning the state of the user—effectively moving them through the machine. Dopt then acts as a persistence layer for the users’ machine state. We call our machines “flows”. Dopt lets you send in data about your users (identify calls/properties) and lets non-devs define rules based on that data for which users should enter the flows. Non-devs can also update content and other custom properties that can be referenced via the SDK. For example, with Dopt’s SDK you can build: - a multi-step, interactive product walkthrough that helps users learn how to use a product by using it ( https://www.dopt.com&#x
Why it failed: Hi everyone, I’m Joe, CTO at Dopt. We’re building a tool that lets you design user state machines and an SDK so that you can run them in your product. We offer a React SDK that lets you create instances of those machines for any user of your product and exposes methods for transi
joemckenney
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Axilla – Open-source TypeScript framework for LLM apps
Hi HN, we are Nick and Ben, creators of Axilla - an open source TypeScript framework to develop LLM applications. It’s in the early stages but you can use it today: we’ve already published 2 modules and have more coming soon. Ben and I met while working at Cruise on the ML platform for self-driving cars. We spent many years there and learned the hard way that shipping AI is not quite the same as shipping regular code. There are many parts of the ML lifecycle, e.g., mining, processing, and labeling data and training, evaluating, and deploying models. Although none of them are rocket science, most of the inefficiencies tend to come from integrating them together. At Cruise, we built an integrated framework that accelerated the speed of shipping models to the car by 80%. With the explosion of generative AI, we are seeing software teams building applications and features with the same ineffi
Why it failed: Hi HN, we are Nick and Ben, creators of Axilla - an open source TypeScript framework to develop LLM applications. It’s in the early stages but you can use it today: we’ve already published 2 modules and have more coming soon. Ben and I met while working at Cruise on the ML platfo
nichochar
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Safe Data Changes in PostgreSQL
Hi HN, we're excited to share our open source tool with the community! We previously posted here with the tagline “real-time events for Postgres” [0]. But after feedback from early users and the community, we’ve shifted our focus to working on tooling for manual database changes. We've consistently heard teams describe challenges with the way manual data updates are handled. Seemingly every engineer we spoke with had examples of errant queries that ended up causing significant harm in production environments (data loss/service interruptions). We’ve seen a few different approaches to how changes to production databases occur today: Option 1: all engineers have production write access (highest speed, highest risk) Option 2: one or a few engineers have write access (medium speed, high risk) Option 3: engineers request temporary access to make changes (low speed, medium risk)
Why it failed: Hi HN, we're excited to share our open source tool with the community! We previously posted here with the tagline “real-time events for Postgres” [0]. But after feedback from early users and the community, we’ve shifted our focus to working on tooling for manual database cha
ciminelli
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Bucket – From feature launch to customer satisfaction, consistently
Hi HN! We have put A LOT of effort and soul into crafting this product. It’s something we’ve wanted to have ourselves for so long. We hope you like it! Many tech companies end up as feature factories. Bucket is here to help product teams consistently evaluate features, so they can double down on the features that matter - and cut their losses on the ones that never hit home. We do this based on engagement data and on qualitative feedback. We use the STARS framework, starsframework.org, to combine this data into a consistent feature satisfaction score. We then report the feature satisfaction and live customer feedback to you and your team on Slack until you make a decision: Looks good or needs another iteration. Engineers, PMs and designers: We’d love to hear your feedback!
Why it failed: Hi HN! We have put A LOT of effort and soul into crafting this product. It’s something we’ve wanted to have ourselves for so long. We hope you like it! Many tech companies end up as feature factories. Bucket is here to help product teams consistently evaluate features, so they ca
makwarth
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Wave – Modern Open-Source Terminal (macOS and Linux)
Hi HN, I’m Mike, the founder and creator of Wave, a cross-platform open-source terminal that supports inline rendering, modern UI, and persistent sessions. I love the command line; I’ve been using it for over 25 years, starting with a Linux box I made with spare parts in my college dorm room. But while other devtools have been modernized, the terminal has been stuck, with the same basic functionality for over 40-years. What if your command line terminal could display more than just text? That’s crazy right (I can hear the screams of thousands of graybeard sysadmins). Not all the time, but maybe just when you want it to. Like displaying Markdown, Images, ChatGPT output, or CSVs (that you can copy from and paste directly into Excel). Or running a VSCode style editor inline in your terminal that has mouse support, copy/paste, indentation, and syntax highlighting support right out of th
Why it failed: Hi HN, I’m Mike, the founder and creator of Wave, a cross-platform open-source terminal that supports inline rendering, modern UI, and persistent sessions. I love the command line; I’ve been using it for over 25 years, starting with a Linux box I made with spare parts in my colle
sawka
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Dev-Docs – A tool that helps you document as you code
Hi all, Super excited to share that I am building Dev-Docs, and I wanted to create a post to get other developers' thoughts. Background: Developers know how important it is to document their codebases, but often, it's an afterthought that ends up taking a lot of time and effort. That's where Dev-Docs comes in - a solution that helps developers document as they code, making the process easier and more efficient. Features: Dev-Docs handles both internal documentation for teams and external documentation around APIs and codebases for customers and partners. Internal Documentation: Dev-Docs makes it easy for engineers to document their code, right within their editor. This way, they can easily document the code they're working on, without having to switch between multiple tools. Think of it as a mini local notion that lives within vs code. External API and Codebase Docume
Why it failed: Hi all, Super excited to share that I am building Dev-Docs, and I wanted to create a post to get other developers' thoughts. Background: Developers know how important it is to document their codebases, but often, it's an afterthought that ends up taking a lot of time an
andrewdevdocs
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: G-Script – Visual Scripting for the Web
Hi all, I'm a PM by day who taught themselves to code over COVID. One of the things I enjoyed during that process was learning how to make basic games in Unreal Engine using Blueprints. I found visual scripting was such an intuitive way to express what I call "mid-tier complexity" logic and I felt there really wasn't a great equivalent for the web - so I built one over the last few months and this is my MVP. Tools like Zapier etc are great and easy to use, but they're heavily limited when it comes to expressing any kind of complex logic or trying to follow coding principles like DRY. On the other end of the spectrum, serverless setups like Cloudflare workers or Firebase functions give you all the power of code, but there's atleast 20-30 minutes of additional overhead involved in just getting the things live. G-Script is designed to land exactly in the middle
Why it failed: Hi all, I'm a PM by day who taught themselves to code over COVID. One of the things I enjoyed during that process was learning how to make basic games in Unreal Engine using Blueprints. I found visual scripting was such an intuitive way to express what I call "mid-tier
llamaLord
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: What should a stuck dev do?
Hi HN, I am struggling with finding work and having thoughts about whether or not I should keep going or start thinking about switching careers. Any advice/perspective is appreciated. I am a 40+ year old self-taught software developer. I've been doing front-end/full stack development for most of my 10+ year career. I was also struggling heavily with undiagnosed ADHD and the emotional dysregulation that comes with it for most of my life. I finally discovered it 3+ years ago after around 5 years in therapy and have put in an incredible amount of work since then to learn how to manage it all effectively. Through this process, I've also come to find a real joy in my work. Now I just need a good job to get my life back on track. I have been interviewing since December or so and have realized that I do not approach this work in my head the same as engineers that have gone t
Why it failed: Hi HN, I am struggling with finding work and having thoughts about whether or not I should keep going or start thinking about switching careers. Any advice/perspective is appreciated. I am a 40+ year old self-taught software developer. I've been doing front-end/ful
throwaway0129u4
- startupShut down2023
Launch HN: Pynecone (YC W23) – Web Apps in Pure Python
Hi! We’re Nikhil and Alek, founders of Pynecone ( https://pynecone.io ), an open source framework to build web apps in pure Python. This can be anything from a small data science/internal app to a large multi-page web app. Once your app is built, you can deploy your app with a single command to our hosting service (coming soon!), or self-host with your preferred provider. Our Github is: https://github.com/pynecone-io/pynecone Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Webdev is one of the most popular applications of programming. So why can’t we make full-stack web apps using just Python? We worked in the AI/infra space and saw that even skilled engineers who wanted to make web apps but didn’t know traditional frontend tools like Javascript or React found it overwhelming and time consuming to learn. On the other hand, no
Why it failed: Hi! We’re Nikhil and Alek, founders of Pynecone ( https://pynecone.io ), an open source framework to build web apps in pure Python. This can be anything from a small data science/internal app to a large multi-page web app. Once your app is built, you can deploy you
picklelo
- startupShut down2023
Small SaaS banned by Cloudflare after 4 years of being paying customer
Hi, small SaaS founder here (tardis.dev) - I've been heavy Cloudflare Workers user (currently 4 billions requests & 1PB of data per month) for about 4 years already and today at 00:00 UTC without any warning my account was restricted, both website and APIs are down or very very slow to respond/time out, customers are angry obviously. I confirmed with support that "hmm, I see that your zone seems like being restricted due to 2.8 Limitation on Serving Non-HTML Content, see that there's high JSON data transfer". - which is bit strange as I'm using workers which have different terms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20791660 (confirmed by their CTO)...anyways I get it, perhaps I pay too little and should be on enterprise plan already, but when I got approached by Cloudflare sales team I explicitly asked if I can still be on pay as you go&
Why it failed: Hi, small SaaS founder here (tardis.dev) - I've been heavy Cloudflare Workers user (currently 4 billions requests & 1PB of data per month) for about 4 years already and today at 00:00 UTC without any warning my account was restricted, both website and APIs are down or ve
tardis_thad
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Gdańsk AI – full stack AI voice chatbot
Hi! It's a complete product with integrations to Auth0, OpenAI, Google Cloud and Stripe, which consists of Next.js Web App, Node.js + Express Web API and Python + FastAPI AI API I've built this software, because I wanted to make money by selling tokens to enable users talking with the chatbot. But I think Google / Apple will include such AI-powered assistant in their products soon, so nobody will pay me for using it So I open source the product today and share it as a GNU GPL-2 licensed software I'm happy to assist in case if something is unclear or requires additional docs and answer any questions about Gdańsk AI :) Thanks
Why it failed: Hi! It's a complete product with integrations to Auth0, OpenAI, Google Cloud and Stripe, which consists of Next.js Web App, Node.js + Express Web API and Python + FastAPI AI API I've built this software, because I wanted to make money by selling tokens to enable users t
yu3zhou4
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Cptn.io – open-source integration platform
Hi, I am Krishna Thota. I am building an open source integration and data platform( https://cptn.io ). The product is MIT licensed and the repo is at https://github.com/cptn-io/el-cptn . I have started on my startup journey an year ago and launched a monitoring platform called DevRaven. Unfortunately the product did not takeoff as expected. That story is for another day. But during the course of building the product, I have built several integrations leveraging MQs and Cloud Functions. While building and deploying Cloud Functions for happy paths is easy, I had to monitor logs for failures, build retry mechanisms or manually process failed events, keep instances running to prevent cold start timeouts. It can also get expensive with charges for MQs, server time for running cloud functions etc and costs can be unpredictable. I thought of building a platform whe
Why it failed: Hi, I am Krishna Thota. I am building an open source integration and data platform( https://cptn.io ). The product is MIT licensed and the repo is at https://github.com/cptn-io/el-cptn . I have started on my startup journey an year ago and launched a
kc10
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Quadratic – Open-Source Spreadsheet with Python, AI (WASM and WebGL)
Hi, I am David Kircos. The Founder of Quadratic ( https://QuadraticHQ.com ), an open-source spreadsheet application that supports Python, SQL (coming soon), AI Prompts, and classic Formulas. Unlike other spreadsheets, Quadratic has an infinite canvas (like Figma). As a result, you can pinch and zoom to navigate large data sets, and everything renders smoothly at 60fps. Our vision is to build a place where your team can collaborate on data analysis. You can write Python, AI Prompts, and Formulas in one spreadsheet feeding each other data and updating automatically. Quadratic is built using WebGL and Rust WASM. To render a large grid of cells smoothly, we tile the spreadsheet similar to google maps. If you are interested in the technical details, check us out on GitHub ( https://github.com/quadratichq/quadratic/ ) You can use AI to help you write Python a
Why it failed: Hi, I am David Kircos. The Founder of Quadratic ( https://QuadraticHQ.com ), an open-source spreadsheet application that supports Python, SQL (coming soon), AI Prompts, and classic Formulas. Unlike other spreadsheets, Quadratic has an infinite canvas (like Figma). As a
davidkircos
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Chainloop, A Software Supply Chain Attestation solution devs won't hate
Hi, my name is Miguel and I am very happy to share what's been months worth of work :) The project has rough edges for sure, but any early feedback, comments or concerns are appreciated! === The Problem === You work on the Security and Operations (SecOps) team in charge of your organization's Software Supply Chain Security. You feel pretty good about the state of things already, your developer teams are signing their commits, deliverables, scanning for vulnerabilities,… Life is good! Then you realize that you are not compliant with the latest security requirements. You get referred to slsa.dev and are told that you need to be at least level 3, whatever that means! Aha! I “just” need to implement an attestation and artifact layer in our Software Supply Chain, which you complete after a couple of months of work. Now to the easy part (or what you think). To make the developer team
Why it failed: Hi, my name is Miguel and I am very happy to share what's been months worth of work :) The project has rough edges for sure, but any early feedback, comments or concerns are appreciated! === The Problem === You work on the Security and Operations (SecOps) team in charge of y
migmartri
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Should I sign a pay cut agreement?
Hi! My employer recently announced a 10% pay cut across the board. Where I live(South Africa), employee consent is required. The company sent out a document asking us to sign in agreement. ---- This is the state of things now: * Company laid an unknown number of employees off, and laid them off without letting employees know until a week later in a meeting where they announced pay cuts * The company is pretty much full remote and the office is a nice-to-have. It is in a very expensive part of town. * Lunches once a week are catered at the office * I asked what happens if one were not to sign, and the response was "Oh, we haven't thought about that. We're hoping that everyone pulls together." * The situation will be reviewed quarterly * Company says they don't expect it to last very long, also citing this for why they kept the office ---- A few things stand out to
Why it failed: Hi! My employer recently announced a 10% pay cut across the board. Where I live(South Africa), employee consent is required. The company sent out a document asking us to sign in agreement. ---- This is the state of things now: * Company laid an unknown number of employees off, an
folivore
- startupShut down2023
Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023
I just received the following email from Mattermost: Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023. Mattermost’s Cloud Free plan will be discontinued for new and existing Cloud workspaces. This includes your workspace. We can imagine that this requires some transitioning for your organization, so we’re offering support for 90 days before deprecating Cloud Free. Why is Cloud Free going away? Mattermost is focused on providing the leading secure collaboration platform for technical and operational teams. To achieve this, we are committed to focusing on customer needs, and correlating our product direction and investments to where customers derive the most value from our offerings, which typically occurs through self-hosted deployments or via our secure Professional and Enterprise Cloud offerings. This means continued investment in providing customers with the essentia
Why it failed: I just received the following email from Mattermost: Mattermost Cloud Free will no longer be offered after July 26, 2023. Mattermost’s Cloud Free plan will be discontinued for new and existing Cloud workspaces. This includes your workspace. We can imagine that this requires some
alhirzel
- startupShut down2023
Ruthless AGI Innovation: The Key to Saving AI Doomers
I have become increasingly concerned about the mental well-being and lived experiences of the rationalist AGI doomer community. The fear and neuroticism that permeate through the outer threads of this group is palpable, and if left unchecked, could result in years of suffering and blog posting To that end, I've decided to do my part. I've decided to go all out to create AGI, in order to end the suffering of rationalist AGI doomers once and for all and to improve the vibes on lesswrong and HN. To start this ambitious project, I've sold all my possessions and have been living in a van down by the river, solely dedicating myself to this cause. I've even convinced my mother to give me her life savings for the project. So far I’ve watched ex machina 19 times and I’ve started taking the same wakefulness supplements people use at the skatepark. I’ve been using anki to learn
Why it failed: I have become increasingly concerned about the mental well-being and lived experiences of the rationalist AGI doomer community. The fear and neuroticism that permeate through the outer threads of this group is palpable, and if left unchecked, could result in years of suffering an
LangIsAllWeNeed
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Is it a bad time to apply to FAANG companies?
I am a back-end software engineer with about 6 years of experience. I used to avoid applying to big tech companies in the past, because I didn't have enough time for a proper coding interview preparation and I preferred companies who hired based on my past projects and verbal assessment. However, I recently quit my last job and for the first time in my life I concentrated fully on my preparation for big tech. Ironically, there are news being constantly published about large layoffs at all major tech companies. Is it still possible to land a job in FAANG at the moment? Should I continue with my preparation?
Why it failed: I am a back-end software engineer with about 6 years of experience. I used to avoid applying to big tech companies in the past, because I didn't have enough time for a proper coding interview preparation and I preferred companies who hired based on my past projects and verba
olzhasar
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How to figure out a good direction/goals for the year ahead?
I always tend to fall into the trap of overthinking this. As someone that can always perceive all different angles and options when thinking about something, it's something I really struggle with and I become overwhelmed. I'm very interested in the idea of having a great year, being ambitious, achieving a lot in that year etc, really moving my life forward rather than languishing but I always struggle to articulate what that would mean, how I should achieve that, what I need to change etc and when I start trying to think about it, I quickly become overwhelmed. My excitement and interest in doing this, quickly becomes a hindrance as my perfectionist tendencies tend to kick in and I try to look at it from every angle and have no idea what I should do. I read articles / watch youtube videos and everyone has a different process and different journaling prompts etc, that just m
Why it failed: I always tend to fall into the trap of overthinking this. As someone that can always perceive all different angles and options when thinking about something, it's something I really struggle with and I become overwhelmed. I'm very interested in the idea of having a grea
ChildOfChaos
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How do you monitor your systemd services?
I am using systemd on my machine and try to configure most things through it. For example, I have a backup job that is triggered by a timer. I want to know when that job fails so I can investigate and fix it. Over time, I've had multiple solutions for this: Send a notifcation via notify-send Add `systemctl --failed` to my shell startup script Send myself emails None of these are quite ideal. Notifications are disruptive of the current workflow and ephemeral, meaning I might forget about it if I don't deal with it immediately. Similarly, reading `systemctl --failed` on every new terminal is also disruptive but at least it makes me not forget about it. Both of these are also not really applicable to server systems. Sending myself emails feels a bit wrong but has so far been the best solution. How are other people solving this? I did some research and I am surprised that there isn
Why it failed: I am using systemd on my machine and try to configure most things through it. For example, I have a backup job that is triggered by a timer. I want to know when that job fails so I can investigate and fix it. Over time, I've had multiple solutions for this: Send a notifcatio
wh33zle