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 down2021
Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?
Hello community, I am looking to connect with HNers who have successfully started a research institute / campus or were among the first joiners. I am seeking to offer housing and a stipend to researchers, as I am currently acquiring some real estate that I want to put to good use in Germany. I will myself take time off from regular work and focus on research in a vein similar to Steve Grand's investigations into artificial life (not expecting to reach his level, but one needs a quest with lofty goals). Not seeking a particular piece of advice, more looking for somebody to have a conversation with regarding experiences, what worked really well, how to get the ball rolling, essential infrastructure required... End goal as of now: assemble a few great minds, give them the space to work rent-free in a region with good academic infrastructure, ideally let them collaborate, watch the
Why it failed: Hello community, I am looking to connect with HNers who have successfully started a research institute / campus or were among the first joiners. I am seeking to offer housing and a stipend to researchers, as I am currently acquiring some real estate that I want to put to goo
akhann
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Where would you start looking for development clients?
Disclaimer: This is not a sales pitch, I'm not trying to finds clients here. After years of freelancing / contracting, during the last few projects a nice fellowship of 2-3 (mostly frontend) developers has formed around me. We have worked on some rather serious projects, I am confident regarding what we can offer. I see all the "who's hiring" posts, but our biggest project is soon coming to an end and I'm almos clueless regarding where I should start looking for companies who would want to contract a small company for custom development services. We are too small and our projects are usually too long for us to hire a dedicated salesperson. What are some common ways you've found to work to find new clients?
Why it failed: Disclaimer: This is not a sales pitch, I'm not trying to finds clients here. After years of freelancing / contracting, during the last few projects a nice fellowship of 2-3 (mostly frontend) developers has formed around me. We have worked on some rather serious projects
holistio
- startupShut down2021
Show HN: Unattach – free up your Google storage by removing Gmail attachments
Hello HackerNews! I have a full-time job, but love building productivity tools in my spare time. Some time ago, my dad told me that his Gmail account was full and asked whether I could help. I built a simple app for him, and later decided to make it into a product. With the recent news that Google is discontinuing free storage for photos, more and more people are facing a similar problem. Unattach (https://unattach.app) is a desktop app for downloading and/or removing Gmail attachments from many emails at once. You can use it to free up your Google storage, which is shared between Gmail, Photos and other Google apps. For most people, using Unattach is cheaper than buying more Google storage; for tech-savvy users, it’s free. The hardest thing about Unattach has been balancing user trust and commercial potential. The app requires edit permissions to the user’s Gmail account
Why it failed: Hello HackerNews! I have a full-time job, but love building productivity tools in my spare time. Some time ago, my dad told me that his Gmail account was full and asked whether I could help. I built a simple app for him, and later decided to make it into a product. With the recen
strnisa
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Founders of failed startups, what are you doing now?
Did you go back to a regular job? What was the transition like? Did you feel like your time was wasted or was your experience as a founder still valuable for what came after?
Why it failed: Did you go back to a regular job? What was the transition like? Did you feel like your time was wasted or was your experience as a founder still valuable for what came after?
tac0_
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life?
Growing up I always enjoyed tech and was excited for all the problems tech can solve and all the improvements it can make and has made in my life. However, recently I had to check-in into a doctors office using a 3rd party software and the process is incredibly worse for the patient. Normally, I walk in, tell them my name and sit down. Now on my phone, I have to enter my DOB, answer a few questions, "Accept" some consent forms every time. They will not see me if I don't use the system. Then, at the end I am greeted with an advertisement for a medication. Another one, recently had to call comcast as they were charging my parents $70 for what they are offering for $20, I play the call of "i want to cancel it is too expensive, AT&T cheaper". They recently "improved" their phone bot and added some "amazing" features. I am saying I want to canc
Why it failed: Growing up I always enjoyed tech and was excited for all the problems tech can solve and all the improvements it can make and has made in my life. However, recently I had to check-in into a doctors office using a 3rd party software and the process is incredibly worse for the pati
avgDev
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Svix (YC W21) – Webhooks as a Service
Hey everyone, my name is Tom, and I'm the founder of Svix ( https://www.svix.com ) - previously known as Diahook. Svix makes it easy for developers to send webhooks from their service using a simple API. Think Twilio or SendGrid but for webhooks. Webhooks are how servers notify each other of events, so they are a key component of many APIs such as Stripe, Shopify, Slack, Dropbox and Github. They look easy to implement (just a POST request), but they come with a variety of challenges. For example, customer endpoints fail or hang much more often than you would think, so you would need to implement retries. You need to make sure such failures don't clog your send queue or the rest of your system. The webhook system is an additional system separate from your normal web server that needs to be scaled and monitored separately. There are also a variety of security implicatio
Why it failed: Hey everyone, my name is Tom, and I'm the founder of Svix ( https://www.svix.com ) - previously known as Diahook. Svix makes it easy for developers to send webhooks from their service using a simple API. Think Twilio or SendGrid but for webhooks. Webhooks are how s
tasn
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Advice for moving on from a failed startup?
Hello HN, I am in a bit of dilemma. I started a enterprise software startup with a bunch of friends in college, we got a bit of funding and I dropped out. We did couple hundred k in revenue and raised a bit more but eventually we couldn't make it work. For past 2 years feels like I have been in a zombie startup and want to move on. For people who have been in the same boat, what did you end up doing? As for getting ready to be in the job market again, what kind of positions did you end up applying for? I am thinking either: 1) Join a seed/series a startup as a developer and grow with them. Pros of this are this is what I know how to do best and love working in small teams 2) Join a more established bigger co. Pros are a more stable position but not sure it will be an environment i will be able to do well in
Why it failed: Hello HN, I am in a bit of dilemma. I started a enterprise software startup with a bunch of friends in college, we got a bit of funding and I dropped out. We did couple hundred k in revenue and raised a bit more but eventually we couldn't make it work. For past 2 years feels
throwaway9838
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Milk Video (YC W21) – Edit online event recordings quickly
Hello HN gang! Lenny and Ross here, working on Milk Video ( https://milkvideo.com/ ), a browser-based tool to turn long videos into watchable clips. We speed up the workflow for marketers editing long, boring Zoom recordings and webinars into visually engaging clips with quality templates and styled captions. Ross and I met 8 years ago in Shanghai, where we worked at an education startup and organized tech and design events. When we realized Covid was creating a tsunami of webinars, Ross noticed the growing cost of editing all the new content as B2B companies replaced their in-person marketing channels with online events. Most registrants to online events don't end up attending. They may be interested in the content, but they won’t take time to watch an entire webinar recording. Webinar content has a short shelf life unless it is reworked into a friendlier format. Doi
Why it failed: Hello HN gang! Lenny and Ross here, working on Milk Video ( https://milkvideo.com/ ), a browser-based tool to turn long videos into watchable clips. We speed up the workflow for marketers editing long, boring Zoom recordings and webinars into visually engaging clip
rememberlenny
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Aviron (YC W21) – High-Intensity Peloton for Rowing
Hey HN! I’m Andy, founder of Aviron ( https://avironactive.com/ ). We make a high-intensity version of Peloton for rowing, with competitive games, live races and strength programs. Our content puts a focus on HIIT (high intensity interval training) due to its physical and cognitive benefits. I feel like sometimes this pisses the hardcore rowers off but I’m not a rower, I’m a tech guy. I also think fitness is important and have been working out all of my adult life. Before Aviron, I worked full time and long hours so I did a lot of my thinking during late night gym sessions. Like many people I avoided the rower because not only did I not enjoy cardio but damn that machine was hard and boring. There was a moment at some point in 2016 when I realized I could do something with this. The connected fitness market in the US at that time was small but growing rapidly. Aviron is a
Why it failed: Hey HN! I’m Andy, founder of Aviron ( https://avironactive.com/ ). We make a high-intensity version of Peloton for rowing, with competitive games, live races and strength programs. Our content puts a focus on HIIT (high intensity interval training) due to its physi
FullNameAndy
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Flowly (YC S21) – Manage pain using VR and biofeedback
Hey HN! This is Celine, Julien, and Narae of Flowly ( https://www.flowly.world/ ). Flowly is an app that combines VR and biofeedback training to help people manage pain, reduce anxiety, and increase relaxation (we send every member a VR headset and Realtime HR Sensor to use). We started this company to serve the 1 in 3 Americans who suffer from chronic pain and we’re now backed by the NIH and National Institute of Drug Abuse. The opioid crisis has exposed how prevalent chronic pain is and how inaccessible and limited pain management solutions are today. Many pain management tools don't address all aspects of pain because pain encompasses more than physical pain: the top symptoms of chronic pain actually include anxiety, depression, and feelings of social isolation. In other words, chronic pain is a bio-psycho-social condition. It is important to us that we address it
Why it failed: Hey HN! This is Celine, Julien, and Narae of Flowly ( https://www.flowly.world/ ). Flowly is an app that combines VR and biofeedback training to help people manage pain, reduce anxiety, and increase relaxation (we send every member a VR headset and Realtime HR Sens
tamadevr
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: What's the best way to secure your workstation?
Here's a very plausible threat: Some developer with a left-pad package, some dependency-of-a-dependency, injects malware into their library. A developer (who is broadly trustworthy) updates their package's dependencies without auditing them properly, and the malware ends up in a VSCode plugin that you use. You open VSCode, your system is infected. We know this sort of malware is making its way onto package repositories [1]. We know people are falling for these attacks. How do we protect ourselves against this family of threats? [1]: https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/21/npm_malware_password/ We could trust nothing beyond our base system and our browser, and refuse to use any code we don't fully audit, but this would be an impossibly austere way to live. I expect most of us, when pressed, would admit that we're trusting much more cod
Why it failed: Here's a very plausible threat: Some developer with a left-pad package, some dependency-of-a-dependency, injects malware into their library. A developer (who is broadly trustworthy) updates their package's dependencies without auditing them properly, and the malware end
bccdee
- startupShut down2021
Tell HN: My five year old is convinced Siri is a real person
From time to time, we have had the discussions here about whether actually naming these assistive agents makes any sense. And there are pros and cons either way when you compare OK Google to Siri. When I showed this particular five-year-old OK Google, she was interested, but didn't really do much with it. Then she discovered Siri. Since that time she has used Siri nonstop. Asking all kinds of crazy things, and series doing a pretty fair job on those conversations. Some of which are frankly hilarious! I thought it might make for some interesting discussion. My observation is that her ability to address it in the same way she addresses other people has proven very compelling. The skills she already has she can use and get something meaningful. Identifying with Siri as a person seems to map right over in her mind, and she thinks she's getting a real person, the kind of attention a
Why it failed: From time to time, we have had the discussions here about whether actually naming these assistive agents makes any sense. And there are pros and cons either way when you compare OK Google to Siri. When I showed this particular five-year-old OK Google, she was interested, but didn
ddingus
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Greywing (YC W21) – Automated ship operations focused on crew
Hey HN! We're Nick & Hrishi, founders of Greywing ( https://grey-wing.com ). Greywing is software that optimizes operating a vessel in the high seas, focused on seafarers and crew changes. We take the information you (a ship manager) have about a vessel (route, plans, crew composition), plus information externally available (piracy, flights, fuel costs), and tell you where to route your vessel and what the best choices are for the crew, and the purchases you're making. Maritime is a surprisingly decentralized industry, even in 2021. Large vessels (container ships, gas tankers) are complex entities, with a single vessel operated simultaneously by multiple companies (ship managers, charterers, technical managers, crew managers) domiciled in different countries. These companies manage flights, fuel purchases and consumption, cargo and charters, crew welfare, and a hu
Why it failed: Hey HN! We're Nick & Hrishi, founders of Greywing ( https://grey-wing.com ). Greywing is software that optimizes operating a vessel in the high seas, focused on seafarers and crew changes. We take the information you (a ship manager) have about a vessel (route,
hrishi
- startupShut down2021
Show HN: Open-source, self-hosted data management app and internal tool builder
Hey HN, This is Adrian and David, and we're excited (and nervous) to show you basetool (https://basetool.io). Basetool helps companies view and manage all their data in one place. Companies have data in tons of places like BI tools, data warehouses, 3rd party services, and their databases. However, because the tools are not connected, it's a hassle to have visibility across the whole organization and even more difficult to safely share that data with the team or external collaborators. The vision is to give basetool access to your data source and get a tool that way above a database client. You get an app that's more than an admin panel but somewhere around an internal tool tailored to your needs. The app can be configured visually (no more engineering bottlenecks) and ready to be used by your end-users like teammates and external collaborators. You can easily cu
Why it failed: Hey HN, This is Adrian and David, and we're excited (and nervous) to show you basetool (https://basetool.io). Basetool helps companies view and manage all their data in one place. Companies have data in tons of places like BI tools, data warehouses, 3rd party servi
adrianthedev
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Chums (YC W21) – Shop online with friends
Hey HN, we’re Noah and Dick. We founded Chums ( https://www.chums.co ) to help you recommend products to your friends and have more fun shopping online. A lot of people ask their friends for advice when they're shopping. We think this can be more fun and we think your friends can help you find the right product, especially during COVID when we're stuck at home. Noah launched the first version of Chums in late 2019. Originally, the app was a platform for users to find and share referral codes. Users could create a profile page and add their favorite brands to it. Soon they started adding products and reviews to the brands on their profile, and it became clear that the social shopping opportunity had much more potential than sharing referral codes. Noah started digging into the world of ecommerce, social shopping, and affiliate marketing, and a mutual friend introduced
Why it failed: Hey HN, we’re Noah and Dick. We founded Chums ( https://www.chums.co ) to help you recommend products to your friends and have more fun shopping online. A lot of people ask their friends for advice when they're shopping. We think this can be more fun and we think y
dickfickling
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Turion Space (YC S21) – Space debris removal and satellite servicing
Hi HN, we're Ryan, Tyler, and Patryk, the founders of Turion Space ( https://www.turionspace.com/ ). We're building spacecraft to remove orbital debris and provide services to existing satellites. Orbital debris poses a significant risk to mankind's future in space. There are currently over 250k objects in space that would destroy a satellite if a collision were to occur. Large uncontrolled objects like depleted rocket upper stages and dead satellites pose the greatest risk because of the potential to break upon impact with small debris into thousands of smaller pieces. There is currently no system in operation that can deorbit large amounts of space debris. If this problem is not addressed in the next 5-10 years, it could render entire orbits unusable for generations. Our spacecraft (which we’ve decided to call the “Droid”, shoutout to Star Wars!) aims to r
Why it failed: Hi HN, we're Ryan, Tyler, and Patryk, the founders of Turion Space ( https://www.turionspace.com/ ). We're building spacecraft to remove orbital debris and provide services to existing satellites. Orbital debris poses a significant risk to mankind's
rwesterdahl
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Weekday (YC W21) – Hire engineers vouched for by other engineers
Hey HN. We are Amit, Chetan, Anubhav and Hari, the cofounders of Weekday ( https://www.weekday.works ). We are building a recruitment platform centered around recommendations. We help companies hire engineers who are vouched for by other engineers. Discovering top talent is challenging. It's easy to check for great credentials, but that's not the same thing as on-ground reality and achievement. It works the other way, too: someone with credentials may not be a great contributor, and screening for credentials eliminates many contributors who are. Our company is based on the insight that great contributors tend to know other great contributors and are in a position to recommend them. We believe that a network-driven approach can help to discover high-caliber candidates. We chanced upon this idea when we were doing our previous startup where we found it excruciatingly di
Why it failed: Hey HN. We are Amit, Chetan, Anubhav and Hari, the cofounders of Weekday ( https://www.weekday.works ). We are building a recruitment platform centered around recommendations. We help companies hire engineers who are vouched for by other engineers. Discovering top talen
amitsy
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Onfolk (YC S21) – Modern HR and Payroll in One Place (For the UK)
Hey, we’re Naz and Charlie! We're building Onfolk ( https://onfolk.com/ ). We’re a couple of engineers who discovered that payroll in the UK is pretty backward and that building good software can raise the bar. You can check out some pics on our Product Hunt post [1] or see a quick video [2]. To set the scene: we were software engineers at Monzo for 4 years. Joined at 400k customers, left at 5.5M. We took voluntary furlough in April 2020 ("furlough" is the UK government’s scheme for keeping workers paid for a bit so that companies don't have to lay them off). During that time, Monzo changed payroll provider. The old one sucked and had errors. The new one sucked and had errors. It took a consultant a year to implement the new one. We wondered how on earth a company with our funding, whose main asset was its people, couldn't find a good way to pay th
Why it failed: Hey, we’re Naz and Charlie! We're building Onfolk ( https://onfolk.com/ ). We’re a couple of engineers who discovered that payroll in the UK is pretty backward and that building good software can raise the bar. You can check out some pics on our Product Hunt p
4thstreet
- startupShut down2021
Show HN: Termius (YC W19) – Share your terminal session like Google Docs
Hi everybody, I’m Roman from Termius (YC W19, HN launch https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20118727 ). I want to share news about a new exciting feature that we wanted to build for a long time. It’s Terminal Sharing. Terminal Sharing enables engineers to get instant help from their colleagues by providing a link to their terminal output updated in real-time. There is also a mode where the viewer can enter commands from their end. When I was getting into programming, some of my biggest problems were: compilation errors or not being able to set up something on a Linux server. One of the ways to get help in such a case is to ask a friend or colleague who has done it before. One more thing, we all remember times (before the pandemic) when teammates could come to your table and check out where you got stuck and often it’s in a terminal window. Unfortunately,it’s often impossi
Why it failed: Hi everybody, I’m Roman from Termius (YC W19, HN launch https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20118727 ). I want to share news about a new exciting feature that we wanted to build for a long time. It’s Terminal Sharing. Terminal Sharing enables engineers to get inst
rkudiyarov
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: 27, accidentally became wealthy, lost drive. What should I do?
Hi everyone. I'm a random guy based in Munich who got accidentally wealthy and thus lost my drive for pretty much everything. After my Bachelor in CS I launched three startup, which all failed. So a year ago I decided to enroll in a Masters program at LMU at the age of 26. Back then I was living quite on the edge and thus was very motivated to ace my studies to get into a FAANG company. Around the same time I also invested all of the ETH I had at the time into an ICO, which turned out quite well for me. In early November I sold everything and after taxes I now own 7.5 million euros. A sum I would have never imagined. I have no idea what to do with the money. And I also have no idea what to do with my life now. I have not talked to anyone about it but I start to feel fatigued, even though I am not doing much. My motivation for my study is gone, I stopped working out, stopped reading
Why it failed: Hi everyone. I'm a random guy based in Munich who got accidentally wealthy and thus lost my drive for pretty much everything. After my Bachelor in CS I launched three startup, which all failed. So a year ago I decided to enroll in a Masters program at LMU at the age of 26. B
prelifecrisis
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Mezli (YC W21) – Robotic restaurants that serve healthy fast food
Hi folks, Alex here – I’m the CEO and one of the cofounders at Mezli ( https://www.mezli.com/ ). (I’ve also been a Hacker News lurker since high school and always hoped I’d be posting a Launch HN one day!) We make “auto-kitchens”, fully autonomous restaurants in a shipping container form factor. They serve our menu of Mediterranean grain bowls for pickup and delivery, at a low price point enabled by our approach’s low costs. The three of us met as grad students at Stanford where we were all working on different things – I was doing AI research before dropping out of my PhD, Alex G was in a robotics lab (and just finished his PhD!), and Max was in aero/astro. We worked on a variety of classes, research, and side projects together, but we wanted to start a company and none of our ideas were looking particularly commercially viable. Then, as I was winding down a project
Why it failed: Hi folks, Alex here – I’m the CEO and one of the cofounders at Mezli ( https://www.mezli.com/ ). (I’ve also been a Hacker News lurker since high school and always hoped I’d be posting a Launch HN one day!) We make “auto-kitchens”, fully autonomous restaurants in a
kolchinski
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Athens Research (YC W21) – Open-Source Roam Research
Hi Hacker News! My name is Jeff Tang and I'm the founder of Athens Research. Athens is an open-source and local-first alternative to Roam Research. Roam Research is a notetaking application, and what they really got right was the "bidirectional link." The problem with notetaking is that we don’t look back at 99% of our notes. Organization systems like PARA, BASB, and GTD can extend the shelf-life of information, but they’re mechanical and tedious to maintain. On the other hand, without a system, we just hope that search will one day have the answers. What comes after search, tags, and folders? With bidirectional links, you never have to worry about where you write a note. Bidirectional links allow you to connect any two notes together, creating a knowledge graph. Structure emerges organically, bottom-up. This way of joining any arbitrary entities together is a paradigm shi
Why it failed: Hi Hacker News! My name is Jeff Tang and I'm the founder of Athens Research. Athens is an open-source and local-first alternative to Roam Research. Roam Research is a notetaking application, and what they really got right was the "bidirectional link." The problem w
tangjeff0
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
Hi Hacker News! We’re Danny, Shivam, David, and Brian from Bristle https://www.bristlehealth.com/ . We’re developing an at-home saliva test to detect the earliest signs of cavities and gum disease - then provide evidence-based recommendations and treatments to help prevent them. Cavities and gum disease are driven by infectious microbes, but today’s dental care only detects the damage they already caused. X-rays and observational screenings detect tooth decay and bleeding gums, which are symptoms, not causes. By the time they are detected, they’ve often become serious issues that require the invasive procedures we all dread - fillings and root canals. We end up spending billions of dollars reactively treating diseases that can largely be prevented with good oral health management. About us: Our backgrounds are on the research and commercial side of genomics. We have witnes
Why it failed: Hi Hacker News! We’re Danny, Shivam, David, and Brian from Bristle https://www.bristlehealth.com/ . We’re developing an at-home saliva test to detect the earliest signs of cavities and gum disease - then provide evidence-based recommendations and treatments to help
dannygrannick
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Google is confusing me with others in a harmful way – what can I do?
Hi Hacker News, I’m Andrea and I have a strange problem with Google that I’m wondering if any of you here can advise about. It’s affecting several people with the same name as me, whose lives are being impacted. In January 2021, I published a non-fiction book about a difficult, traumatic topic: my victimization and sex crimes that I witnessed toward other women. Because I am a victim, I chose not to put a photo of myself online. In fact, I have never ever taken a selfie nor had a photo of myself online. Four months after I published my book, Google created a knowledge panel for me and, because I didn’t have a photo online, they just grabbed a photo of another Andrea Vassell who lives in Canada and displayed it alongside my book and claimed this woman was the author. After spending weeks sending feedback and trying to get help from Google support, they finally deleted the woman’s photo, b
Why it failed: Hi Hacker News, I’m Andrea and I have a strange problem with Google that I’m wondering if any of you here can advise about. It’s affecting several people with the same name as me, whose lives are being impacted. In January 2021, I published a non-fiction book about a difficult, t
AndreaVass