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
Ask HN: Anyone else having bitflips in Azure Network traffic?
It seems we are having bit flips inside of packets coming into Azure (Germany West Central) via our Express Route. Anyone else seeing this?
Why it failed: It seems we are having bit flips inside of packets coming into Azure (Germany West Central) via our Express Route. Anyone else seeing this?
klaas-
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Do you have a digital end of life plan?
My dad died a few years back due to unexpected circumstances so wasn't able to talk to him beforehand which made digging through his digital stuff difficult until I stumbled upon a text file on his PC with all his U/Ns and PWs. Of course thats not the best way to do it but it sure was super helpful. Bunch of stuff I didn't even think about (airline miles, Dropbox's with pictures, interesting forum content, memberships, etc. 50+ accounts total). What's the better more secure way to store this info along with any wishes regarding your digital (after)life if I want to make it easier for my kids or whomever digs through it later? Any additional info thats helpful to include? Who to entrust it with?
Why it failed: My dad died a few years back due to unexpected circumstances so wasn't able to talk to him beforehand which made digging through his digital stuff difficult until I stumbled upon a text file on his PC with all his U/Ns and PWs. Of course thats not the best way to do it
gehwartzen
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Do humans overestimate ChatGPT because of our brains?
I've been enjoying playing with ChatGPT but am starting to wonder if my brain is feverishly working to convince me of the value and meaning of ChatGPT's responses. Since we are programmed to communicate with other humans and because human speech is so chaotic and inefficient I wonder if we are overestimating what our AI buddies are providing. I'm coming from a metrology and test and measurement background so I'm always trying to boil things down to a clean reproducible metric. While AI has fantastic use cases I think it also forces us to think about how much we're overvaluing our achievements in this space.
Why it failed: I've been enjoying playing with ChatGPT but am starting to wonder if my brain is feverishly working to convince me of the value and meaning of ChatGPT's responses. Since we are programmed to communicate with other humans and because human speech is so chaotic and ineffi
zwieback
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: ‘Following’ Other HN Users?
I’m conflicted about even asking this. I do really love that HN is only very lightly curated for me, and I’m evenly exposed to the opinions of a fairly random sample of people on a daily basis. It’s easily the standout feature of this site. But still… It does often feel too ephemeral. I sometimes wish I were able to easily keep track of what some people are posting on here and interact more directly. It’s easy enough to sort of keep up with some of the more prolific accounts because they’re often almost hard to avoid, but that’s about it. As an example, I ran into a few people in a thread once that live nearby (statistically fairly unlikely!) and there was talk of meeting up, but that was the end of it, because how else could we coordinate? I can’t even find that thread now, but I’m still up for some beers, gorge residents! Anyway, sorry, I’m rambling. Really I was just wondering if anyo
Why it failed: I’m conflicted about even asking this. I do really love that HN is only very lightly curated for me, and I’m evenly exposed to the opinions of a fairly random sample of people on a daily basis. It’s easily the standout feature of this site. But still… It does often feel too ephem
fisherjeff
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: How do you give back?
I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make helping other people a bigger part of my life. Curious to hear what other HackerNews people have come up with. For context, I’m a software engineer (mostly front-end) and also have a law degree.
Why it failed: I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make helping other people a bigger part of my life. Curious to hear what other HackerNews people have come up with. For context, I’m a software engineer (mostly front-end) and also have a law degree.
yonibot
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: What is the best postmortem you've seen?
It seems like there are a lot of examples of companies handling a security breach or loss of service poorly. Are there examples when a company handled an incident well, especially with a great postmortem writeup?
Why it failed: It seems like there are a lot of examples of companies handling a security breach or loss of service poorly. Are there examples when a company handled an incident well, especially with a great postmortem writeup?
pbohun
- startupShut down2023
Unemployable and Uninvestable
It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough time for everyone considering the massive layoffs in our sector, but I have been jobless for a year, and counting. I’m not asking for a handout, but rather advice. I’ve had a few failed startups due to a lack of investment, while I see grifters like SBF raking in billions. I have had my ideas be realized by other companies, years after I attempted, because I lacked capital. I have had my pitch decks dismissed without a second thought. What is the secret sauce here? Is it a matter of who you know, rather than what you know? Every other day I see companies with no clear mission raising capital with little more than ma
Why it failed: It seems I am unemployed and uninvestable. I'm looking for advice. I have been a senior engineer for about a decade. I feel I have become unemployable because of my experience. Interviewers have repeatedly told me I am over qualified for positions. I know this is a tough tim
anyadvicewilldo
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: I open sourced the QR designer from my failed startup
My designer is somewhat special, if I do say so myself, as it allows you to put arbitrary designs in the middle area of the QR while still being totally scannable.
Why it failed: My designer is somewhat special, if I do say so myself, as it allows you to put arbitrary designs in the middle area of the QR while still being totally scannable.
koch
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Considering legal action against Stripe
Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we mistakingly thought taking extra care of our account and forming our company under Stripe Atlas would at least help us survive until we got big enough. Also, some part of us thought – "Clearly, these people must have done something wrong. Stripe wouldn't be this aggressive. They are terrific for entrepreneurs after all!" We were dead wrong. The truly insane part about it is that we had no issues with *anyone*: no complaints, no chargebacks, no anything. We went further by regularly checking purchases and manually refunding suspicious sales, which happened once when someone started card testing and w
Why it failed: Like many others, they just permanently damaged our platform by closing our account without notice. It's plain sad considering how much we've worked on it — for more than 2 years as a team of 2 college students. Despite seeing these kinds of posts on HN every week, we m
gurgunday
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?
I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google workspace, provided direct verification in Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and just made sense. Unlike some of the other investments like Stadia, domains is also not capital or resource intensive. They never offered discount on domains, they sold them at standard prices. The team working on domains must be small. It’s also a low risk project. Why would they kill it? What next? They’ll sell Google Fi to T-mobile and abandon Google voice?
Why it failed: I’ve been thinking about this all day and it just doesn’t make sense to me. I was hoping someone here would have a well-informed opinion/answer. Google domains seemed like a natural tool in the GCP and Google ecosystem. It provided one-click access to setup website, Google w
alsodumb
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: Supaglue – open-source unified API
Last month, we open-sourced Supaglue (https://github.com/supaglue-labs/supaglue) as a developer toolkit for building customer-facing Salesforce integrations. Since then, we've been iterating on our approach with users and are re-launching Supaglue as an open source unified API, starting with CRMs. With our re-launched public alpha you can: - Interact with HubSpot and Salesforce through a unified REST API - Sync data from HubSpot and Salesforce into a local Postgres cache and make reads against a normalized CRM schema - Make writes (POST and PATCH) to HubSpot and Salesforce using the unified API - Open source MIT license so anyone can self-host for free Today we support reads, creates, and updates for Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunities for HubSpot and Salesforce. In the coming weeks, we plan to add more connectors and features like configuring sync frequ
Why it failed: Last month, we open-sourced Supaglue (https://github.com/supaglue-labs/supaglue) as a developer toolkit for building customer-facing Salesforce integrations. Since then, we've been iterating on our approach with users and are re-launching Supaglue as an o
tomkit
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
Is anyone else noticing that for several 5 year blocks (pentad) the world just seems to get markedly worse? It's like no body seems to give a shit about anyone except themselves anymore. Whats the cause of this? What's the solution? A bunch of things I've noticed: * Landlords seem extremely greedy and do terrible rent seeking tactics like fees upon fees (250 admin fee to rent here, $75 to apply, $300 non refundable pet deposit, $25 a month pet rent, $12.50 community fee, $15 trash valet, $5 online payment fee, $100 a month community internet (for the $50 a month package), going Month to month after a lease ends is 2x the annual price. And then they use RealPage to collude to make prices higher[1] * People are noisy as fuck and dont seem to give a shit. Seems like every night there's someone with loud as exhaust on "sportish" car ripping around the neihborhoo
Why it failed: Is anyone else noticing that for several 5 year blocks (pentad) the world just seems to get markedly worse? It's like no body seems to give a shit about anyone except themselves anymore. Whats the cause of this? What's the solution? A bunch of things I've noticed:
maerF0x0
- startupShut down2023
What SWE job hunting is like right now
I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It's now been two months, and I have no leads. I will call out the exact situation I've run into. I have received nearly 20 calls from a dozen different recruiting firms all for the same two back-fill jobs at Charter in St. Louis. I interviewed with them once, and it's not a match. .NET, Knockout, and TSQL... They weren't interested in me either. I'm not exactly offended by that. I get two calls a day about Charter at this point. I've been told, "they just finished a round of interviews, and didn't find anyone." At this point, I have to ask straight away to anyone that c
Why it failed: I'm a contractor, things were strange during COVID. I worked on project rewrites that got abandoned, and made the mistake of doing test consulting for companies that had never tested before. I will never do that again. It used to take two-weeks max to find a new position. It
eglove
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: WWYD? Built a company valued at $1B and may walk away with nothing
I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were valued at $1B post money - $187M raised by the company - $250M preference stack (liquidation prefs + debt) - I own ~27% of the business, and so does my co-founder. My co-founder is no longer part of the business day-to-day, he's on the board - We will end the year at $130M in annual revenues and burning ~$925K/month, we are a low gross profit margin business ~15-20% Personal Overview - I live in New York City, it's been ~ 10 years that I have been on this journey, bootstrapped with no salary for about 2.5 years and pretty modest salary for most of the years, up until a couple years ago when I started
Why it failed: I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" advice from the founder and investor community. Generally looking for guidance on what I should be negotiating for and what type of downside protection is fair, in any? Financial Overview - At our peak (Series C) we were va
susanwise
- startupShut down2023
Tell HN: Oracle Cloud is shutting down free instances
Oracle is going to reclaim idle instances. What's interesting is there definition of idle is not zero use. It sounds like you can keep using the free tier if you switch to pay-as-you-go.
Why it failed: Oracle is going to reclaim idle instances. What's interesting is there definition of idle is not zero use. It sounds like you can keep using the free tier if you switch to pay-as-you-go.
RyanShook
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?
I'm not so worried that AI will become so good at coding that I'll be out of a job. It's not clear it's going to happen any time soon, and if it does, the implications for all sorts of jobs are so vast it's a totally different world. But there's a different concern, that the era of millions apps might be coming to an end, and with it the viability of many of us freelancers and small software companies. Instead we will have a small number of incredibly capable and malleable platforms. And it doesn't have to get all the way to that endgame for the app I work on to become redundant.
Why it failed: I'm not so worried that AI will become so good at coding that I'll be out of a job. It's not clear it's going to happen any time soon, and if it does, the implications for all sorts of jobs are so vast it's a totally different world. But there's a di
tablatom
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Details on 04/2021 DigitalOcean data breach?
In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breach happened and if they would publish a postmortem for this event. They assured me that they would share more information once their investigation is complete. In September of that year, they started ignoring my requests for an update, and I haven't heard back from them since. While this is a relatively minor event in the grand scheme of things, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Did anyone dig deeper into this and got more information on what actually was the cause for this leak? Maybe there's a DigitalOcean employee around who can shed light on this? [1] https://www.securityweek.com/digita
Why it failed: In April 2021, DigitalOcean suffered a data breach [1], exposing some billing details. They informed affected customers by mail and offered to answer any further questions via their privacy@digitalocean.com address. Since then, I have regularly asked for updates on how this breac
s_weber
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Recommendations for a New Domain Registrar?
With the announcement of Google Domains shutting down and being sold off to Squarespace, I find myself losing the one registrar I had any trust in. In retrospect it was REALLY dumb of me to trust that a Google product that wasn't Ads/Youtube/Search to not shut down, but here I am. I dunno much about Squarespace -- haven't used them at all, since I prefer making my own websites/apps -- so I'm leery about using a registrar that's so focused on products and addons and other stuff. I'm looking for recommendations for a registrar that: - Has a reasonably modern interface - Has easy to use DNS settings etc - Has modern features (WHOIS protection etc), preferably built-in without needing to pay out the ass - Doesn't have scummy practices (*cough* GODADDY *cough* GANDI *cough*) Thanks ahead of time!
Why it failed: With the announcement of Google Domains shutting down and being sold off to Squarespace, I find myself losing the one registrar I had any trust in. In retrospect it was REALLY dumb of me to trust that a Google product that wasn't Ads/Youtube/Search to not shut down
buggy6257
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?
Typical story I imagine-- ambitious, smart, promising career, was a technical co-founder at a small startup, and things seemed fine. Then I found myself wandering in the woods all day, crying for no reason and looking for non-existent fossils, which I found. I eventually saw petrified sea creatures everywhere and stopped going to work, or answering my phone, paying bills, etc. Things ended predictably, in horrible slow motion. Now I have a two year hole in my life, and I’ll never forgive myself for what I put my family through. But nobody else will ever know that. I’m functional and back in the industry, but it’s not the sort of thing people discuss at the water cooler. So I’d like to ask if anyone else had a secret breakdown? I’m curious if my story is an outlier, or if this is one of those things that “just happens” to some people.
Why it failed: Typical story I imagine-- ambitious, smart, promising career, was a technical co-founder at a small startup, and things seemed fine. Then I found myself wandering in the woods all day, crying for no reason and looking for non-existent fossils, which I found. I eventually saw petr
throoowwawaayy
- startupShut down2023
Launch HN: June (YC W21) – Product Analytics for B2B SaaS Companies
Two and a half years ago my co-founder and I left our jobs on the product team at Intercom to try and build a startup. We went through YC and launched an analytics tool on top of Segment that allowed you to generate some pre-made reports for common product metrics ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26155327 ). We raised a seed round, then spent a year building templates of reports for startups. After a year of building our product we tried to monetise and failed. Our free users weren’t willing to pay us money for individual reports. Among the users we had, there were a handful of later stage B2B companies with few customers but a lot of revenue (one had 50 customers and $1m in annual revenue). These companies looked at their analytics in a different way. They cared a lot more about specific individual users than consumer apps do, and they spent a lot of time using our
Why it failed: Two and a half years ago my co-founder and I left our jobs on the product team at Intercom to try and build a startup. We went through YC and launched an analytics tool on top of Segment that allowed you to generate some pre-made reports for common product metrics ( https:/&
0xferruccio
- startupShut down2023
Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
Our entire lives get spent pursuing outcomes. We keep grinding, hoping we'll achieve X and then we'll be content forever, only to find merely emptiness on the other side. The new shiny badge of honor barely takes days to get normalized and the void kicks in again. What exactly are we going after? Is there even an end to this?
Why it failed: Our entire lives get spent pursuing outcomes. We keep grinding, hoping we'll achieve X and then we'll be content forever, only to find merely emptiness on the other side. The new shiny badge of honor barely takes days to get normalized and the void kicks in again. What
undopamine
- startupShut down2023
Stripe Shutdown Our Nonprofit's Account, Holding $12k in Donations Hostage
Our founder woke up to a gut-wrenching email from Stripe today, reading "We're writing to you because, after conducting a routine review of your Stripe account for Integrate for Good (account ID: [**]), we've found that it presents a high level of risk for customer disputes." We're a very small, hyper local nonprofit and have been using Stripe without any significant issues for over four years. Radar has flagged only one charge in the past year, and we've had just a single dispute since opening our account. We requested further review of our account and supplied Stripe with further information in the dashboard. Just 45 minutes later, we received a second email confirming their decision to close our account. I find it hard to believe that Stripe was able to "conduct another review of [our] account" in such a short span of time. While trying to figur
Why it failed: Our founder woke up to a gut-wrenching email from Stripe today, reading "We're writing to you because, after conducting a routine review of your Stripe account for Integrate for Good (account ID: [**]), we've found that it presents a high level of risk for customer
nickwelsh
- startupShut down2023
Show HN: I built a domain name marketplace for folks (like me) who hoard domains
Problem: I (accidentally) hoard domains :') 1. I get excited about a new project 2. I buy a domain 3. I get busy, and the domain collects a thick layer of dust I know I'm not alone in this, either So, I had the idea of creating a simple and casual marketplace for folks like me to list their domains at a fair price with a nice community feel to free up these caged domains It felt like a great project for me to pick up some new skills, so I got to it All up, it took me about a month, and I built the whole thing live on Twitch I've always sat on the design, marketing and front-end side of the fence, so this was my first attempt at making a 'full' web app Here's the stack I used: - SvelteKit ( https://kit.svelte.dev/ ) - Supabase ( https://supabase.com/ ) - Resend ( https://resend.com/ ) - ShadCN Svelte ( https:/
Why it failed: Problem: I (accidentally) hoard domains :') 1. I get excited about a new project 2. I buy a domain 3. I get busy, and the domain collects a thick layer of dust I know I'm not alone in this, either So, I had the idea of creating a simple and casual marketplace for folks
thecoppinger
- startupShut down2023
Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds
Received via email: Hello, Since 2020, new purchases of magazines have not been available in Google News and very few users now regularly access their magazine subscriptions. We wanted to inform you that support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning on December 18, 2023, which means access from Google News apps or news.google.com to the library of magazines you previously purchased or subscribed to will be removed. To continue to access previously purchased magazine content, you must export and save each purchased issue before December 18, 2023.
Why it failed: Received via email: Hello, Since 2020, new purchases of magazines have not been available in Google News and very few users now regularly access their magazine subscriptions. We wanted to inform you that support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning
anymouse123456