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.
2,800 solutions
- 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
Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
While reading about the death of Omegle, I came across this comment and it sent a chill down my spine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38201035 ("Omegles come and go, but "[how is it] hacker news?" is here forever.") Although the comment was not necessarily about the longevity of HN itself, it made me realise that HN, like any other online forum, has a finite lifespan. At some point it will end (although that seems like a distant possibility right now). Should we plan for this? I.e. building some sort of mirror platform with the same profiles, same data and as much of the algorithm as possible, with the agreement that we meet there should HN unexpectedly meets its demise. I understand that a huge part of why HN works is dang. I'm unsure how we mirror him though.
Why it failed: While reading about the death of Omegle, I came across this comment and it sent a chill down my spine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38201035 ("Omegles come and go, but "[how is it] hacker news?" is here forever.") Although the comment wa
hliyan
- 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 down2022
Show HN: A tool to seed your dev database with real data
A bunch of developers and myself have created RepliByte - an open-source tool to seed a development database from a production database. Features: - Support data backup and restore for PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB - Replace sensitive data with fake data - Works on large database (> 10GB) (read Design) - Database Subsetting: Scale down a production database to a more reasonable size - Start a local database with the prod data in a single command - On-the-fly data (de)compression (Zlib) - On-the-fly data de/encryption (AES-256) - Fully stateless (no server, no daemon) and lightweight binary - Use custom transformers My motivation: As a developer, creating a fake dataset for running tests is tedious. Plus, it does not reflect the real-world data and painful to keep updated. If you prefer to run your app tests with production data. Then RepliByte is for you as well. Available for Ma
Why it failed: A bunch of developers and myself have created RepliByte - an open-source tool to seed a development database from a production database. Features: - Support data backup and restore for PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB - Replace sensitive data with fake data - Works on large database
ev0xmusic
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
About a year ago I stumbled upon the degrowth concept and subsequently picked up the book "Degrowth: Less is More" by Jason Hickel. For those unfamiliar with the term: "an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to finite planetary boundaries".[1] There's been some of HN posts mentioning degrowth in the past but they were heavily criticized[2][3]. I get some degrowthist literature might seem too apocalyptic, but they make some good points: - Criticism of "decoupling": there's no way of our GDP keeps growing indefinitely while reducing our ecological footprint. In fact, despite all the advancements made in renewables during the past decades global CO2 emissions are at an all-time high. - Very few people know how to build/grow anything end to end. Consumerism appears to be the only way to live in the West right now (with
Why it failed: About a year ago I stumbled upon the degrowth concept and subsequently picked up the book "Degrowth: Less is More" by Jason Hickel. For those unfamiliar with the term: "an infinite expansion of the economy is fundamentally contradictory to finite planetary boundari
re6tor
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: I built a platform for projects to find maintainers
A few days ago, someone I follow asked the community for help maintaining his side-project, 512kb.club. This got me thinking. There are loads of maintainers out there feeling burnt out, but they can't abandon their project since people are depending on the project to be maintained. In an effort to combat this, I built a website that lists projects looking for new maintainers. It's still quite empty and has some rough edges. Any feedback is very welcome!
Why it failed: A few days ago, someone I follow asked the community for help maintaining his side-project, 512kb.club. This got me thinking. There are loads of maintainers out there feeling burnt out, but they can't abandon their project since people are depending on the project to be main
garritfra
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What Web Standards does Safari/WebKit not implement
A reoccurring argument I see in the Safari/Webkit v.s Other Browsers/Engines debate is that Safari does not adhere to standards. Usually these come down to a feature either: a) still in beta b) pushed by chrome so not a real standard c) is implemented but half-baked, doesn’t work, or stripped down for privacy concerns. I think it would be helpful if, instead of arguing wether Safari’s gatekeeping is saving or stalling the web, we list out the things we can’t do that are actual standards and why. Please be sure not to list anything coming to WebKit in iOS16 as it would lead to redundancy.
Why it failed: A reoccurring argument I see in the Safari/Webkit v.s Other Browsers/Engines debate is that Safari does not adhere to standards. Usually these come down to a feature either: a) still in beta b) pushed by chrome so not a real standard c) is implemented but half-baked, do
Jcowell
- startupShut down2022
MS Teams Linux client is being retired. To be replaced by a progressive web app
(Updated) Important upcoming changes to Microsoft Teams desktop client on Linux Updated August 30, 2022: We are updating this message to indicate we will be retiring the Microsoft Teams desktop client on Linux in 90 days (early December). Please take action as appropriate for your organization. We hear from you that you want the full richness of Microsoft Teams features on Linux such as background effects, reactions, gallery view, etc. We found the best way to act on this is to offer a Teams progressive web app (PWA) on Linux as a new feature of our current web client, which we’ll make available to our Linux customers in the coming months. PWA enables us to ship the latest Teams features faster to our Linux customers and helps us bridge the gaps that existed between the Teams desktop client on Linux and Windows. The PWA experience will be available on both Edge and Chrome browsers on Lin
Why it failed: (Updated) Important upcoming changes to Microsoft Teams desktop client on Linux Updated August 30, 2022: We are updating this message to indicate we will be retiring the Microsoft Teams desktop client on Linux in 90 days (early December). Please take action as appropriate for you
NGRhodes
- startupShut down2022
What to do with all of these Amazon Cloud Cams?
Amazon is shutting down their Cloud Cam service on December 2, 2022. I have 10 of these devices that I had already been phasing out with a different solution. I was planning on selling my Cloud Cams but now I can't do that in good faith, given that they will be useless in less than 6 months. It's such a shame though. There must be millions of these perfectly good cameras that will soon become e-waste. Is there anything useful that can be done with them? Is there any hope that somebody might release a hacked firmware some day to make them useful again?
Why it failed: Amazon is shutting down their Cloud Cam service on December 2, 2022. I have 10 of these devices that I had already been phasing out with a different solution. I was planning on selling my Cloud Cams but now I can't do that in good faith, given that they will be useless in le
fletchowns
- startupShut down2022
Tell HN: How to Respond to a Domain Takeover
After having my domain hijacked today I'd like to share an incident postmortem just in case you find yourself in the same situation (swearing at your terminal output at 10am on Friday morning when your website is down). 9:58am I can no longer deploy to production 10:15am Finished troubleshooting all services, no problems identified 10:16am nslookup resolves to some random IP address instead of my prod server (WTF!!!!!!) 10:20am Log into registrar and find out they replaced my custom DNS servers with their own and added records to serve a "Parked free courtesy of GoDaddy" page with ads and a button that says "Get This Domain" 10:30am Changed my domain on the registrar website back to my custom DNS servers 10:32am Changed my password on the registrar website 10:38am Got told by GoDaddy support they didn't have anything to do with this and it was my fault it ha
Why it failed: After having my domain hijacked today I'd like to share an incident postmortem just in case you find yourself in the same situation (swearing at your terminal output at 10am on Friday morning when your website is down). 9:58am I can no longer deploy to production 10:15am Fin
netsectoday
- startupShut down2022
My Criteria for Picking Startup Ideas
After having failed with more than seven startups and finally achieved some success with my latest one Proxies API, here are a bunch of criteria I follow when picking a startup idea to bootstrap from the website 1. I am a bootstrapper, so I am interested in making recurring revenue and build an asset. So it has to be a SAAS idea. No consumer internet. 2. It has to have a competition. Again, I want to make money, not be a pioneer. 3. It need not be a multi-million dollar potential startup. I prefer it if it’s possible never exceeds a million dollars at its peak. It is because I don’t want to offer a platform, but a small subset of features that people find useful and the big guys find too small a market niche to address. 4. I prefer it if it does not need any design skills. With Proxies API, it is all about technology and how it works. I am in my element when I can run with just code and
Why it failed: After having failed with more than seven startups and finally achieved some success with my latest one Proxies API, here are a bunch of criteria I follow when picking a startup idea to bootstrap from the website 1. I am a bootstrapper, so I am interested in making recurring reven
prasenjit_pro
- startupShut down2022
Bitcoin's miners face vanishing incentives; 19M+ of its 21M max supply are mined
[As it stands the post is flagged, 45 minutes in -- very likely by a fan or investor in the cryptocurrency who is unable to stomach a conversation about an obvious challenge facing the project. I will try to appeal the flag.] Bitcoin aims to give people self sovereignty and financial freedom (who otherwise couldn't attain it). That's a noble goal, but the project has always had a fundamental problem: Bitcoin only survives if enough miners continue to participate, who spend on electricity to keep the network's total hash rate high (enough to fend off a determined foe, including one focusing state-level resources in a short period of time to pull off a 51% attack). Miners do this in exchange for new bitcoin. Though miners' profitability has recently been challenged by the latest downturn, the market can adjust and is not in immediate jeopardy of collapse. But it will be
Why it failed: [As it stands the post is flagged, 45 minutes in -- very likely by a fan or investor in the cryptocurrency who is unable to stomach a conversation about an obvious challenge facing the project. I will try to appeal the flag.] Bitcoin aims to give people self sovereignty and finan
projectsforlife
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Will I Ever Recover?
Been working in my startup for the last 7 years. It has no failed and I am turning 37 soon. I am interview now but my identity has been shattered. I don’t know how to build myself back up. Everyone tells me it’s not too late to start again but I am no longer young. I feel so miserable.
Why it failed: Been working in my startup for the last 7 years. It has no failed and I am turning 37 soon. I am interview now but my identity has been shattered. I don’t know how to build myself back up. Everyone tells me it’s not too late to start again but I am no longer young. I feel so mise
answerme
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
Could be anything - dev tools, blogging platforms, SaaS... Mine would be some (hypothetical) way of making it so I could see what accounts I had with any given service (Trello, GitHub, etc), what signin methods they used (password, social, etc), and could merge/rename/delete accounts and signin methods without going through tedious confirmation processes or support tickets. Something about having a fragile web of interconnected user/password combos and email accounts makes me anxious whenever I think about it or create a new account somewhere. Almost every service I've used seems to make big assumptions behind the scenes about what to do when someone invites you to a team using email, for example, and you already have an account using GitHub signin - so you end up having either two different accounts or merged accounts when you don't want to.
Why it failed: Could be anything - dev tools, blogging platforms, SaaS... Mine would be some (hypothetical) way of making it so I could see what accounts I had with any given service (Trello, GitHub, etc), what signin methods they used (password, social, etc), and could merge/rename/d
throwaway68642
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: Do failed engineer founders have trouble getting hired?
Asking for a friend who believes this to be the case. If you raised money but eventually your startup failed, would you as founder of a SaaS company have more trouble getting hired as a senior engineer than if you had never founded a company? I find this hard to believe but I could be totally wrong.
Why it failed: Asking for a friend who believes this to be the case. If you raised money but eventually your startup failed, would you as founder of a SaaS company have more trouble getting hired as a senior engineer than if you had never founded a company? I find this hard to believe but I cou
dartmouthcoach
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: How do you organize your routine?
As a freelancer I often found my self with too much work or too little work, I have no problem with the first case but with the latter one. When I'm in those days of little to none work I've found my self lost in the days and time with the constant thought "What should I be doing now?". I think that an structured routine should help me organize through the day but whenever I search online for an "optimal" formula, I end up with generic SEO crap like organize your meals and take vitamins. I'd like to know how other engineers that don't have a strict work schedule manage to organize the spare time without the feeling that you are wasting your precious and short life time.
Why it failed: As a freelancer I often found my self with too much work or too little work, I have no problem with the first case but with the latter one. When I'm in those days of little to none work I've found my self lost in the days and time with the constant thought "What sh
Sectumbra
- startupShut down2022
Ask HN: The case for middle men in freelancing, do agents exist?
As a self-employed senior software developer, I mostly live off selected freelance work, aside from varying income through SaaS products and apps. I get 100% of inbound work through recommendations in my personal network. Because of that, I have never had a rate negotiation, had to pitch my skills or expertise, or bid against others. But, sometimes, I go WEEKS without a single hour billed. Other times, I need to decline two projects at once because I am still knuckle-deep in another one. Which reminded me of "agents" as a concept: I think I would be happy to pay someone a fee for managing inbound work (on my terms). The TV (script or talent) agent model comes to mind: they try to fill up your unbooked time with projects that match your criteria. For each booked gig, they get a fee. Does that exist? Would that even make sense in software development? The main argument against it
Why it failed: As a self-employed senior software developer, I mostly live off selected freelance work, aside from varying income through SaaS products and apps. I get 100% of inbound work through recommendations in my personal network. Because of that, I have never had a rate negotiation, had
mittermayr
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Throw – The new space for asking and answering questions anonymously
Hello HN community, For the past year we’ve been working on this disruptive new thing. It’s about people, community, communication and truth. Throw is the new space for asking and answering questions anonymously. We believe that in today’s world (both online and offline) content in communication exchanges is strongly influenced by the personas, profiles and façades people maintain/upkeep/safeguard socially, ideologically and on relationships. From the way people post on Instagram the life they want others to believe they have, or the way people behave on thanksgiving with family, or at work, or with friends; on every social setting and interaction to some degree acting and behaving according to that setting and the people they interact with. These dynamics influence the content itself, as people don’t just respond to a question like computers do. What ends up happening is that
Why it failed: Hello HN community, For the past year we’ve been working on this disruptive new thing. It’s about people, community, communication and truth. Throw is the new space for asking and answering questions anonymously. We believe that in today’s world (both online and offline) content
luisamodio
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: Nimbus (YC W22) – Cloud dev environments for teams
Hey HN! We’re Nish, Liusha and Neil, the founders of Nimbus ( https://www.usenimbus.com ). We’re building an easy way to code and manage environments on cloud VMs that are configured for projects you’re working on. There’s a video demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g6Jk5zyQG4 . Initially, we were working on simplifying dev environments for coding school students. But when we found ourselves using what we were making and finding it useful for our own work, we pivoted to dev teams like us. Big tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Shopify, Slack, Dropbox, etc. all have in-house cloud environment solutions. This lets engineers spend more time on software design and writing production code and less time waiting, testing or troubleshooting. With Nimbus, we’re bringing the same convenience to everybody else. The three biggest pains Nimbus alleviates are comp
Why it failed: Hey HN! We’re Nish, Liusha and Neil, the founders of Nimbus ( https://www.usenimbus.com ). We’re building an easy way to code and manage environments on cloud VMs that are configured for projects you’re working on. There’s a video demo here: https://www.youtub
liushh
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: I made a macOS tool to prevent me from working late hours
Hey HN, I used to be the poster child "10x" engineer. I always went far beyond the job description, actively involving myself in everything and having no issue working late hours/weekends/vacations if necessary to achieve my goals. I did this because I love engineering and it brought me a lot of career success, but it wasn't until recently that I realized this was actively destroying my life and leading me to an early death. Putting work above my own life completely ruined my social life, and eventually made me so stressed and anxious that it became impossible for me to relax and do anything in my life besides working myself to death. Even work itself was damaging me as I was then spending every single day (including weekends) under overwhelming stress for being unable to not accumulate extra work and responsibilities I knew I should be rejecting. I was in desper
Why it failed: Hey HN, I used to be the poster child "10x" engineer. I always went far beyond the job description, actively involving myself in everything and having no issue working late hours/weekends/vacations if necessary to achieve my goals. I did this because I love en
rockbruno
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: Prequel (YC W21) – Sync data to your customer’s data warehouse
Hey HN! We’re Conor and Charles from Prequel ( https://prequel.co ). We make it easy for B2B companies to send data to their customers. Specifically, we help companies sync data directly to their customer's data warehouse, on an ongoing basis. We’re building Prequel because we think the current ETL paradigm isn’t quite right. Today, it’s still hard to get data out of SaaS tools: customers have to write custom code to scrape APIs, or procure third-party tools like Fivetran to get access to their data. In other words, the burden of data exports is on the customer. We think this is backwards! Instead, vendors should make it seamless for their customers to export data to their data warehouse. Not only does this make the customer’s life easier, it benefits the vendor too: they now have a competitive advantage, and they get to generate new revenue if they choose to charge for th
Why it failed: Hey HN! We’re Conor and Charles from Prequel ( https://prequel.co ). We make it easy for B2B companies to send data to their customers. Specifically, we help companies sync data directly to their customer's data warehouse, on an ongoing basis. We’re building Preque
ctc24
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Onin – E2EE calendar and chat app
Hey HN! Ryan here (co-founder of YC-backed Muzz). I’m now building Onin, an end-to-end encrypted calendar and chat app that makes organising your personal and social life simple and secure. I’ve been building technology businesses for 10+ years and have witnessed the reoccurring problem that digital calendars were built for companies, not people. They feel cold, transactional, and anti-social — not the thing of dreams for planning your personal life. They also lack the security we now come to expect from consumer products. Onin is the first calendar to be fully E2EE, protecting not just your events, but your messages and even your profile. Unlike existing E2EE calendars, you cannot share Onin events to others without the protection of E2EE. When you consider how much personal information your calendar stores about you and your loved ones’ lives, we think this is essential. With such a fo
Why it failed: Hey HN! Ryan here (co-founder of YC-backed Muzz). I’m now building Onin, an end-to-end encrypted calendar and chat app that makes organising your personal and social life simple and secure. I’ve been building technology businesses for 10+ years and have witnessed the reoccurring
brod_ie
- startupShut down2022
Launch HN: SideGuide (YC S22) – Learn APIs by running them in live environments
Hey HN! It’s Eric, Caleb, Nick, and Garrett from SideGuide ( https://www.sideguide.dev/ ). We give developers and technical PMs an easy way to learn and evaluate API/SDK products using live code environments. Our product is a lightweight, embeddable, online code environment that lets you play with APIs and SDKs in one click. Companies use us to let developers experiment with fully-configured examples with zero setup. If you saw Hyperbeam’s interactive example on Show HN a few days ago ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32598062 ), that was built using SideGuide. We originally started as a B2C coding education platform after graduating college. Knowing how to use APIs has become a critical part of solving meaningful coding problems, but we watched hundreds of devs struggle to learn from API documentation. API and SDK documentation is often lacking in
Why it failed: Hey HN! It’s Eric, Caleb, Nick, and Garrett from SideGuide ( https://www.sideguide.dev/ ). We give developers and technical PMs an easy way to learn and evaluate API/SDK products using live code environments. Our product is a lightweight, embeddable, online co
ericciarla
- startupShut down2022
Show HN: Coherence, the developer platform to end yak-shaving
Hey HN! I’m Zach, from Coherence (https://www.withcoherence.com/). We’re building software that provides an integrated way to write, preview, and deploy code from one simple configuration. Check out our explainer video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2YHVx8QsLg and a high level demo here: https://www.loom.com/share/072c2afd1099496298f69ab21fdf2820 We started Coherence because we found technology teams spent 30-40% of their time yak shaving and writing glue code, instead of building products our customers love. We don’t think every team should have to build their own internal development platform, so we’re building the software we’d want to buy. Following the example of other great products like Replit, our toolkit is based on integration across the stages of an app’s lifecycle - from dev to production. Coherence provides one integr
Why it failed: Hey HN! I’m Zach, from Coherence (https://www.withcoherence.com/). We’re building software that provides an integrated way to write, preview, and deploy code from one simple configuration. Check out our explainer video here: https://www.youtube.com/w
zoomzoom