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 down2022
Ask HN: How to Stay Focused at Work?
Hi everyone, For context, I work as a design engineer on what I would normally consider interesting projects. Lately I’ve been having an increasingly difficult time focusing while at work and it’s been negatively affecting my performance. Luckily nobody has said anything yet but I fear that they will if I keep moving down this path. Typically I’ll come into work and immediately find myself wandering off task one way or another, then maybe do some work, then wander off again. Even with me blocking distracting sites like Reddit, I’ll end up on a Wikipedia or google maps tangent or something to distract myself. All told I normally only get a couple hours of real work done in a day. This week was especially bad with me doing maybe 5 hours of functional work in total, if that. I even spent time putting together a detailed to-do list for my current project with tasks broken into small items bu
Why it failed: Hi everyone, For context, I work as a design engineer on what I would normally consider interesting projects. Lately I’ve been having an increasingly difficult time focusing while at work and it’s been negatively affecting my performance. Luckily nobody has said anything yet but
theduemmer
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Feeling Depressed and Choked. How to handle it?
Hi all Sorry for the sad post at this time of the day. I am a new father who has been getting very busy with family/work time lately and depression seems to have gotten the better of me. For some background, I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me and I knew that path was something I loved the most ever since I was a little kid. When I was in college I had a couple of websites I owned that paid well, and that sort of reinforced my sentiment towards building my own business. Now fast forward to this day, where I am 33 years old and have welcomed a baby 3 months ago into this world. I can clearly see that I enjoy spending time with the little guy but again I feel I am choked because of lack of availability of time to do anything else. I work on a regular Software Engineering job at a big company and I can tell you that I don't enjoy it a single bit. I have had a few si
Why it failed: Hi all Sorry for the sad post at this time of the day. I am a new father who has been getting very busy with family/work time lately and depression seems to have gotten the better of me. For some background, I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me and I knew that
princevegeta89
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: I built a service to help companies reduce AWS spend by 50%
Hey HN: Kaveh here, the founder of https://www.usage.ai/ We help companies drive down AWS EC2 spend. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. DevOps engineers end up becoming cloud accountants trying to figure out what commitments are expiring soon and how much they're saving. Previous to founding Usage, I worked on high-performance computing research at JP Morgan Chase and as a software engineer at a number of medium-sized startups. Here's how it works: We are typically brought in by a DevOps manager to cut AWS EC2 costs. The app is entirely self-service and the savings are generated automatically, typically we do this live on a call. On average, we reduce AWS EC2 spend by 57% for 5 minutes of work. To reduce by ~57%, we don't touch the instances, require any code change, or change the performance of your instances. We buy Reserved Instances on yo
Why it failed: Hey HN: Kaveh here, the founder of https://www.usage.ai/ We help companies drive down AWS EC2 spend. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. DevOps engineers end up becoming cloud accountants trying to figure out what commitments are expiring soon and ho
kavehkhorram
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: I built a service to help companies reduce AWS spend by 50%
Hey HN: Kaveh here, the founder of https://www.usage.ai/ We help companies drive down AWS EC2 spend. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. DevOps and Software Engineers end up spending time managing costs rather than focusing on business problems. Previous to founding Usage, I worked on high-performance computing research at JP Morgan Chase and as a software engineer at a number of smaller startups. Here's how it works: We are typically brought in by a DevOps manager to cut AWS EC2 costs. The app is entirely self-service and the savings are generated automatically, typically we do this live on a call. On average, we reduce AWS EC2 spend by 50% for 5 minutes of work. To reduce by 50%+, we don't touch the instances, require any code change, or change the performance of your instances. We buy Reserved Instances on your behalf (a billing layer change onl
Why it failed: Hey HN: Kaveh here, the founder of https://www.usage.ai/ We help companies drive down AWS EC2 spend. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. DevOps and Software Engineers end up spending time managing costs rather than focusing on business problems. Prev
kavehkhorram
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: No-code alternative to Retool, Appsmith, Internal, etc.
Hi, founders! We’ve actually launched quite some time ago, but (semi)pivoted a few times along the way. Jet Admin is an app builder for creating internal tools, admin panels, dashboards, external portals, and so on without coding. You can connect to any backend, assemble a UI through the visual builder, and set up data binding, transformations, conditionals, etc. through the point-and-click interface. If you need to, you can create custom HTTP, SQL queries, make data transformations with JS, and embed custom UI components. We believe that product, data, operations teams should be able to build the very tools they use. And with HN being mostly the coder community, it’d be particularly interesting to hear your feedback/thoughts!
Why it failed: Hi, founders! We’ve actually launched quite some time ago, but (semi)pivoted a few times along the way. Jet Admin is an app builder for creating internal tools, admin panels, dashboards, external portals, and so on without coding. You can connect to any backend, assemble a UI thr
antonsv
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: Koko (YC W22 Nonprofit) – Online Suicide Prevention Kit
Hi! My name is Rob and I’m working with my cofounder Kareem on Koko ( https://www.kokocares.org ). We’re a nonprofit that provides free digital mental health services to millions of people struggling online — particularly adolescents. Today, we are launching our Online Suicide Prevention Kit ( https://www.kokocares.org/suicide-prevention-toolkit ). The goal is to help social networks and online communities better support at-risk individuals on their platforms. Many social platforms have built-in lists of keywords that detect mental health-related search terms (e.g., “self-harm” or “depression”). There is already an established practice to suppress content or surface disclaimers for such searches. Search “suicide” on most platforms and you’ll at least get shown a 1-800 number. But there are a few problems with this. The keyword lists always have glaring omissions.
Why it failed: Hi! My name is Rob and I’m working with my cofounder Kareem on Koko ( https://www.kokocares.org ). We’re a nonprofit that provides free digital mental health services to millions of people struggling online — particularly adolescents. Today, we are launching our Online
robertrmorris
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: PGPP (Pretty Good Phone Privacy) – a new type of mobile privacy service
Hi, we're Barath and Paul. We co-founded INVISV to build Pretty Good Phone Privacy (PGPP) [ https://invisv.com/pgpp ], an app and service that provides mobile identifier privacy (IMSI) and Internet privacy (IP) so that neither we nor other providers learn your network identity. We've been thinking about how phones are tracking devices in disguise (at a few layers) and what we can do about it. But the problem is that mobile networks are hard to change, and existing companies are reluctant to change things. A couple years ago we had the idea that we could decouple your identity from your SIM (IMSI), so the mobile operator wouldn't know who you are but still provides you service. We did research, figured it out, and published it last year at Usenix Security. Then we took it to every mobile operator we could to see if they'd do it, but mostly got shrugs, co
Why it failed: Hi, we're Barath and Paul. We co-founded INVISV to build Pretty Good Phone Privacy (PGPP) [ https://invisv.com/pgpp ], an app and service that provides mobile identifier privacy (IMSI) and Internet privacy (IP) so that neither we nor other providers learn your
barathr
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: I scanned an old paper book. How to turn it into an eBook?
Hi, I have scanned a couple of books written by an ancestor. He was not famous, and I doubt too many people are interested but I wanted to give the books a new digital life. I think the enormous back catalog of things that have been published but then disappeared is sad. Anyways I have a few hundred pdf files. They have an image of the page and the OCR text. The text will have to be edited by hand I think. Its not in English. I was wondering if anyone knew of scripts or applications that can take that as an input, do some decent formatting and typesetting and spit out a couple of different formats of eBooks at the other end. There are photos and illustrations on some pages. I am hoping to keep them. The images are ok but given the curvature of the page, and other factors the images are not I feel ready to be used. I could try to cut and paste it all into Word There is also an extensive c
Why it failed: Hi, I have scanned a couple of books written by an ancestor. He was not famous, and I doubt too many people are interested but I wanted to give the books a new digital life. I think the enormous back catalog of things that have been published but then disappeared is sad. Anyways
ThinkBeat
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: Unthread (YC S22) – Customer support, entirely within Slack
Howdy HN! Tom and Jake here from Unthread ( https://unthread.io ). We make it easy for businesses to manage customer experience (CX) end-to-end inside of Slack. We automatically create tickets for new conversations, handle assignments & escalations, triage with other teams, etc — all without leaving Slack. Here’s a quick Loom showing how it works: https://www.loom.com/share/8158371d29c84550863adbd6719bb112 Unthread was born out of a failed B2B SaaS startup that we were running for about 2 years. We found clients preferred sending bug reports and feature requests through Slack instead of email or the Intercom widget embedded in our app. This was great for us - Slack is a tool we were already using every day, it’s quick and easy to respond, and it’s less formal than composing an email. The problem is that chat != ticketing, and we struggled to keep track o
Why it failed: Howdy HN! Tom and Jake here from Unthread ( https://unthread.io ). We make it easy for businesses to manage customer experience (CX) end-to-end inside of Slack. We automatically create tickets for new conversations, handle assignments & escalations, triage with othe
bachonk
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: Shimmer (YC S21) – ADHD coaching for adults
Hi, I’m Chris, one of the co-founders of Shimmer ( https://shimmer.care ). We offer one-to-one ADHD Coaching for adults. It was born out of my own roller coaster of a journey navigating my ADHD diagnosis. Getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult is complicated—equally heartbreaking and liberating. You literally need to rewrite your whole life narrative in light of this new realization. The process currently is super confusing and expensive (medications, therapy, coaching, tools, apps, etc.) and I just wished someone would guide me through it. Someone to personalize things for me, ask me good questions, and encourage me when I was feeling down. My experience was the basis for what Shimmer is today. We’re creating an ADHD coaching service that is actually affordable (5-10X cheaper than traditional ADHD coaching, in fact!), personalized to your life (because what works for me may n
Why it failed: Hi, I’m Chris, one of the co-founders of Shimmer ( https://shimmer.care ). We offer one-to-one ADHD Coaching for adults. It was born out of my own roller coaster of a journey navigating my ADHD diagnosis. Getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult is complicated—equally he
christalwang
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What are your thoughts about the looming EU energy crisis?
I am a EU citizen living in the EU. The futures for gas an electricity for the next few years are eye-watering: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1562821466198278153. A Belgian PM said the next 5-10 years are going to be tough: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/belgium-pm-next-5-10-winters-will-be-difficult-as-energy-crisis-persists-1031704120. In this context, lots of SMEs will no longer be viable. The butcher in my neighbourhood is already shutting down as they are no longer profitable. As an entrepreneur, how are you preparing for this? Have you considered relocating elsewhere?
Why it failed: I am a EU citizen living in the EU. The futures for gas an electricity for the next few years are eye-watering: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1562821466198278153. A Belgian PM said the next 5-10 years are going to be tough: https://marke
throwaway294ab
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How can I work less?
I leetcoded to get a big boy job and now I’m paying the price. My team runs lean and the work is complicated. As a result, I’ve been working long hours and supplementing my days with stimulants to maintain interest and focus to keep up. Not only do I end each day with extreme exhaustion, but I do this in a cyclic fashion each day leading to cycles of apathy, depression and excitement. Problematically, I now live like this habitually and sort of forgot how to be a human. I need to figure out how to feel comfortable working less in ways that don’t mentally feel like it’s impacting my work while also figuring out how to live my life outside of a screen. Additionally, this makes me very boring at parties.
Why it failed: I leetcoded to get a big boy job and now I’m paying the price. My team runs lean and the work is complicated. As a result, I’ve been working long hours and supplementing my days with stimulants to maintain interest and focus to keep up. Not only do I end each day with extreme exh
renaissance_tea
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Is living in NYC worth it?
I live in SF but location flexible and considering making a move to NYC. Biggest issue is obviously cost. I’m shocked even living in what is considered a high cost of living area by the rent prices I’m seeing in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. I’m seeing fairly basic 1 bedroom apartments being listed that are $5k+ not including utilities or brokers fees which can be as high as 15% of the annual rent, and most likely not rent stabilized meaning they can raise the rent however much they want after the lease ends. Outside of rent the cost of entertainment and eating out is not surprisingly on the higher side relative to other cities though I would not say it’s as wildly expensive as the rent is. The upside is that there’s an energy to the city that is lacking here, and you don’t need a car to get to most places within the city (though to be fair I don’t have a car in SF either). For people
Why it failed: I live in SF but location flexible and considering making a move to NYC. Biggest issue is obviously cost. I’m shocked even living in what is considered a high cost of living area by the rent prices I’m seeing in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. I’m seeing fairly basic 1 bedroom a
tempsy
- startupShut down2022
Warning – Google suspended GCP services for 'verification', lost my business
I operate multiple apps which were providing my entire livelihood, and I wake up one day to realize it's all gone. Long story short, Google froze my Google Pay account which is used to pay for anything related to Google services, including GCP. This was done as they need to temporarily suspend me to 'verify' me. The GCP team couldn't help me since it was an issue with Google Pay. Not to mention their chat support is useless and doesn't have any power to look into cases. Now I login to find out my Google Pay account is 'temporarily suspended' since I need to verify my account. I go ahead and add my drivers license and fill out their form, but while they verify details they suspend your ability to pay for any Google services. So now I can't pay for GCP usage (firebase) and all my authentication, database, cloud functions, are all not usable since the
Why it failed: I operate multiple apps which were providing my entire livelihood, and I wake up one day to realize it's all gone. Long story short, Google froze my Google Pay account which is used to pay for anything related to Google services, including GCP. This was done as they need to
alirsgp
- startupShut down2022
Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite
I posted this a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29709273 I thought I hated programming and was ready to quit or even divorce my wife. I was not able to have a normal conversation with anyone. I was burned out but I thought I was having midlife crisis. My wife wanted to buy a big house and I kept blaming her for the stress. My job was easy and I had a lot of control over my time, work location, etc. I didn't think it could be the job that was causing me feel depressed. What I didn't realize while my work gave me freedom on work schedule, it didn't give me any real freedom to make important decisions. We were checkmark driven company. I was forced to do a lot of compliance and security related tasks which added zero benefit to our service. After my post, I decided that I either move into management at my last company or get a new job. I wo
Why it failed: I posted this a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29709273 I thought I hated programming and was ready to quit or even divorce my wife. I was not able to have a normal conversation with anyone. I was burned out but I thought I was having midlife
ac2022
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Sqwok – A social chat alternative to Twitter and Reddit
I previously did a Show HN late Dec 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25470672 That was a great experience and in the past year I continued to develop the site to bring it to a level of stability and maturity that I felt necessary for it to have a chance to succeed. Sqwok is all about answering the question: Can we have better open conversations on the internet? I wasn’t satisfied with the existing means of discussing topics such as culture, history, politics, and technology through threaded comments, and was simultaneously impressed with Slack bringing the IRC experience to the browser for a more general but enterprise focused audience. I wondered why not create an open Slack-like chat app for general discussion? Not gamers or enterprise but rather for people to have open, kitchen-table discussion on the matters of the day (or just for fun!). I set out to build t
Why it failed: I previously did a Show HN late Dec 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25470672 That was a great experience and in the past year I continued to develop the site to bring it to a level of stability and maturity that I felt necessary for it to have a chance t
holler
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
I realize this is somewhat of a taboo topic but I feel like if there is anywhere we can have a real discussion on mental health it's going to be HN. I have been struggling with depression for as long as I can remember. Life has taken me on ups and downs but as far as I can can tell I'm fairly lucky, well-off and have every reason to be happy. Unfortunately I'm not. I wake up with a pit in my stomach that I carry around all day and no matter how hard I try I just can't shake it. It also gets really bad in waves to the point where I nearly can't function but most of all it makes me procrastinate on almost everything. I usually end up using all my effort just to be a functional member of my team at work. The sad part is that I know that if I didn't have this condition and I was able to sleep when I wanted to I could be many times more productive, not only at wo
Why it failed: I realize this is somewhat of a taboo topic but I feel like if there is anywhere we can have a real discussion on mental health it's going to be HN. I have been struggling with depression for as long as I can remember. Life has taken me on ups and downs but as far as I can c
jpgvm
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Will consumers ever have a use for 10Gbit internet
I had this discussion with a friend. While 10Gbit Ethernet seems to be slowly dripping in to consumer hardware, it seems much less clear if users will ever actually have a use for 10Gbit networking. If we look at the biggest network uses for consumers right now, its mostly video streaming and games. A 1 Gbit connection can already stream video at well above the maximum desired quality we will likely ever want. And better codecs are coming out which reduce the networking requirements even more. For video games it seems that large games would go with an asset streaming model like microsoft flight sim which can easily be done with 1 Gbit. Are there any future developments that might make 10Gbit desirable in the consumer space?
Why it failed: I had this discussion with a friend. While 10Gbit Ethernet seems to be slowly dripping in to consumer hardware, it seems much less clear if users will ever actually have a use for 10Gbit networking. If we look at the biggest network uses for consumers right now, its mostly video
Gigachad
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content
I have a publication on Medium https://medium.com/luminasticity where I publish some critical works, some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc. I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertains to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned. The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites. I suppose this is an argument for hosting one's own blog, but I do have a lot on my plate already. So just is there a platform for this kind of thing
Why it failed: I have a publication on Medium https://medium.com/luminasticity where I publish some critical works, some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc. I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertain
bryanrasmussen
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Are you a “lifer”? If so why?
I started at a mid-cap household name company at the start of the pandemic and don't see myself leaving of my own accord until I retire for a few reasons: 1. Work is fully remote 2. We have excellent work / life balance 3. Company's stock has weathered this years storm 4. Interviewing is a horror show best avoided, besides... 5. Job market is weakening with no recovery in sight 6. I'm in my early 40s 7. Startup success (which I've had previously as an early employee) is going to be rare in the coming years
Why it failed: I started at a mid-cap household name company at the start of the pandemic and don't see myself leaving of my own accord until I retire for a few reasons: 1. Work is fully remote 2. We have excellent work / life balance 3. Company's stock has weathered this years s
leet_thow
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: Social media made me a worst person
I have been an insider in one of the widely reported news item in my country, and it was a news item I would under normal circumstances take at face value, since it's politics and it's the people I support, or at least did, if not for their unequivocal support for something that I know to be not true, but reported as if, for political purposes. If I wouldn't be familiar with the details I would be inclined to believe what is reported myself. It's not that I have been unaware that such bias can occur, I catch inaccuracies all the time when it comes to my own profession. I however realize that politics created a blind spot for me, along with social media, which I now increasingly rely on for news, because it's fast, and there are no nuances, like in a longer analysis, and because it's social. There is nothing like being surrounded by people who agree with you
Why it failed: I have been an insider in one of the widely reported news item in my country, and it was a news item I would under normal circumstances take at face value, since it's politics and it's the people I support, or at least did, if not for their unequivocal support for somet
Comevius
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Alternate Email hosting to G Suite
I have been using at Suite with custom domain for my email since 2010. Now google is shutting down g suite and forcing a paid Workspace subscription. I only need to keep my email and domain. By accident, I deleted my g suite but still have access to admin console and the domain registration. Is there a recommended email hosting I could simply transfer to?
Why it failed: I have been using at Suite with custom domain for my email since 2010. Now google is shutting down g suite and forcing a paid Workspace subscription. I only need to keep my email and domain. By accident, I deleted my g suite but still have access to admin console and the domain r
mrbonner
- startupShut down2022
Famous outages along with deep postmortems?
I just finished reading the Roblox outage postmortem (trending on HN: https://blog.roblox.com/2022/01/roblox-return-to-service-10-28-10-31-2021/). I learned a lot reading about it and found myself thinking "surely there's other well-written postmortems that are a doozy". Does anyone know a good resource where I can find a compilation of such outages? If they're classified/tagged then even better :)
Why it failed: I just finished reading the Roblox outage postmortem (trending on HN: https://blog.roblox.com/2022/01/roblox-return-to-service-10-28-10-31-2021/). I learned a lot reading about it and found myself thinking "surely there's other well-written
fizwhiz
- startupShut down2022
Stripe updates pricing on cross-border fees between UK and EU
I just got an email from Stripe: --- Hello, We’re writing to let you know that we’re making some changes to cross-border fees in Europe and the UK starting 1st July 2022. Based on your Stripe transaction history, this change won’t impact [Company], and all other pricing will remain the same. You can review the most up to date fees for international transactions on our pricing page. You can contact us, and find more details about this pricing update, managing or closing your account, or any other next steps, on our dedicated support page. - The Stripe team --- Of course they don't actually mention what the changes are, but looking at the pricing page [0], it seems like there is now an additional 1.1% (making it 2.5% in total) for EU companies taking UK payments and for UK companies taking EU payments. I imagine this is related to Visa and Mastercard price increases post-Brexit? [1] [
Why it failed: I just got an email from Stripe: --- Hello, We’re writing to let you know that we’re making some changes to cross-border fees in Europe and the UK starting 1st July 2022. Based on your Stripe transaction history, this change won’t impact [Company], and all other pricing will rema
aosaigh