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 down2021
Launch HN: Xix.ai (YC W17) – Securely authenticate in web apps by face
Hi HN, I’m Emil, here with our team at XIX.ai ( https://getxix.com/ ). We are building “Entry” - a biometric identity provider that enables secure authentication in web apps by face on desktops using web cameras. It supports SAML 2.0, OIDC Connect, and OAuth 2.0 standards and can be easily integrated into existing app or infrastructure. Users can securely authenticate in web apps by face, using regular web cameras without compromising privacy and security. Entry helps organizations prevent phishing, insider threats, and account takeovers by adding Entry as a biometric factor to their workforce SSO. Companies that employ many contractors or vendors to access sensitive information can prevent fraud by verifying biometric identity during authentication. Developers can use Entry to verify their customers (password resets), strong-authenticate users during high-value transactio
Why it failed: Hi HN, I’m Emil, here with our team at XIX.ai ( https://getxix.com/ ). We are building “Entry” - a biometric identity provider that enables secure authentication in web apps by face on desktops using web cameras. It supports SAML 2.0, OIDC Connect, and OAuth 2.0 st
emilxix
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Thryft (YC W21) – Shopify for Instagram Sellers
Hi HN! We're Capri and Sam — the co-founders of Thryft ( https://www.thryft.shop/ ). We're an easy way to sell things on Instagram. Sam and I met in college at UC Berkeley and Sam previously built an app with 150k+ registered users that allowed users to see which other users, celebrities, presidents, etc. they look like. We built and launched a few marketplace ideas throughout YC. We originally applied with a marketplace for shopping directly from brick-and-mortar thrift stores. While we were solving a clear problem with digitizing brick-and-mortar thrift stores, in the end we didn't see a clear path to scalability with that idea. After that, we pivoted to a curated marketplace for secondhand clothing and accessories, but that didn't work because we struggled to find a differentiator from existing secondhand marketplaces that would solve a real pain poi
Why it failed: Hi HN! We're Capri and Sam — the co-founders of Thryft ( https://www.thryft.shop/ ). We're an easy way to sell things on Instagram. Sam and I met in college at UC Berkeley and Sam previously built an app with 150k+ registered users that allowed users to s
caprilynn
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Stipop (YC S21) – Improving user engagement with stickers
Hi HN, I'm Tony, and together with my friend Daniel, we created Stipop ( https://developers.stipop.io ). We help app developers add stickers on chat, comment section, profiles, and live streams by providing an easy-to-install SDK with 150K+ stickers and a fully customizable UI. Stickers are the big, animated emojis you can send in chat. This may sound silly and of course, it is, but a lot of people love them. They are sent 17x more than GIFs on Facebook Messenger—that's almost 400M times a day! Users, especially Gen Z and Millennials, love sending stickers to express themselves better and stay more connected online. But the thing is, having stickers in your app can cost up to a million dollars because you’ll need a good 4~5 engineers to build the infrastructure, UI, search engine and have a content team to sign contracts with hundreds of sticker artists, send payouts
Why it failed: Hi HN, I'm Tony, and together with my friend Daniel, we created Stipop ( https://developers.stipop.io ). We help app developers add stickers on chat, comment section, profiles, and live streams by providing an easy-to-install SDK with 150K+ stickers and a fully cus
tonyatkc
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Pyroscope (YC W21) – Continuous profiling software
Hi HN! Dmitry and Ryan here. We're building Pyroscope ( https://pyroscope.io/ ) — an open source continuous profiling platform ( https://github.com/pyroscope-io/pyroscope ). We started working on it a few months ago. I did a lot of profiling at my last job and I always thought that profiling tools provide a ton of value in terms of reducing latency and cutting cloud costs, but are very hard to use. With most of them you have to profile your programs locally on your machine. If you can profile in production, you often have to be very lucky to catch the issues happening live, you can't just go back in time with these tools. So I thought, why not just run some profiler 24/7 in production environment? I talked about this to my friend Ryan and we started working. One of the big concerns we heard from people early on was that profilers typicall
Why it failed: Hi HN! Dmitry and Ryan here. We're building Pyroscope ( https://pyroscope.io/ ) — an open source continuous profiling platform ( https://github.com/pyroscope-io/pyroscope ). We started working on it a few months ago. I did a lot of profilin
petethepig
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Slip (YC S21) – Build and sell interactive programming courses
Hi HN, I'm Kenneth and I'm the founder of Slip ( https://www.slip.so ), a marketplace for programmers to build and sell courses, including interactive elements like in-browser code execution, popular programming embeds (CodeSandbox, StackBlitz, Replit repls (Coming soon)), and videos. Instead of spending 3 or more months building their own course platform, developers can use Slip to create engaging interactive courses and make more money faster from their knowledge In January, I built vim.so in 3 days, and made $11k in my first month. I even did a Show HN for it ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25846347 ). I was able to do it in 3 days because I had previously spent 3 months building an interactive course for Python fundamentals. That previous experience reduced the time it took me to build a new course, which was the only reason it made sense to
Why it failed: Hi HN, I'm Kenneth and I'm the founder of Slip ( https://www.slip.so ), a marketplace for programmers to build and sell courses, including interactive elements like in-browser code execution, popular programming embeds (CodeSandbox, StackBlitz, Replit repls (C
CoffeePython
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: PingPong (YC W21) – Video messaging for remote teams
Hi HN, I'm Jeff, co-founder and CEO of PingPong ( https://getpingpong.com ), where we help remote teams collaborate and stay connected by exchanging video, voice, and screen recordings asynchronously. Think of it as Marco Polo or Snapchat (sans ephemerality) for globally-distributed product teams. We got the idea from our own experience on a different startup. Murphy, the co-founder and CTO, lives in Nigeria, and I live in the US (Utah). We had five other team members spread across three countries and four time zones. The problem for me as a team leader was how to share my ideas, feelings, and updates in a way that felt authentic and conveyed energy. I felt like I was spending my entire life either typing in Slack or scheduling Zoom calls at terrible hours. I had been kicking around the idea for our product in my head for months. At some point, I began thinking more about
Why it failed: Hi HN, I'm Jeff, co-founder and CEO of PingPong ( https://getpingpong.com ), where we help remote teams collaborate and stay connected by exchanging video, voice, and screen recordings asynchronously. Think of it as Marco Polo or Snapchat (sans ephemerality) for gl
jeffwhitlock
- startupShut down2021
Show HN: Hupreter – Create apps by describing them in English
Hi HN! Fernando here. A few months ago [1], I shared Hupreter ( https://hupreter.com ) with you all and now I am finally opening it up so that everyone can try it for free. The goal is to let users create apps and process data effortlessly, by just describing what the computer should do, in spoken English. We have made a lot of progress since the first post, and even though it is far from perfect, I really want to see how people use it and get feedback. In terms of creating apps, it supports persisting data (you can store/retrieve values), if statements, while loops, etc. For data processing, we currently support uploading tables, calculating the median/variance/etc., plotting, and more. And we will be improving all of those in the coming days. For example, you can tell Hupreter: Given the table nba_players, calculate the average value in the column "points&
Why it failed: Hi HN! Fernando here. A few months ago [1], I shared Hupreter ( https://hupreter.com ) with you all and now I am finally opening it up so that everyone can try it for free. The goal is to let users create apps and process data effortlessly, by just describing what the c
fersarr
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Advice for finding an entry-level remote job?
Hi HN, I realize this isn't super on topic but I also feel like this is the best place I know of to ask for this advice, so here goes. I need some entry-level, remote-based work. What should I do? Help desk work seems the most promising / practical, but I haven't been able to find anything yet. The remote jobs I see posted are nearly all for higher-end positions. I live in the poorest region of the United States, but I do the best with what I have. I’ve worked on my family’s farm and done a couple stints at retail beauty supply shops that friends own. I helped open two of those shops. That’s the extent of my non-existent resume. Given a chance to interview, I believe I would do ok. Maybe even exceed expectations for the sort of job I'm looking for. I need to work remotely for family reasons. I have a special-needs sister and I look after my youngest brother. They are
Why it failed: Hi HN, I realize this isn't super on topic but I also feel like this is the best place I know of to ask for this advice, so here goes. I need some entry-level, remote-based work. What should I do? Help desk work seems the most promising / practical, but I haven't b
AskHNremote2021
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: MindsDB (YC W20) – Machine Learning Inside Your Database
Hi HN, Adam and Jorge here, and today we’re very excited to share MindsDB with you ( http://github.com/mindsdb/mindsdb ). MindsDB AutoML Server is an open-source platform designed to accelerate machine learning workflows for people with data inside databases by introducing virtual AI tables. We allow you to create and consume machine learning models as regular database tables. Jorge and I have been friends for many years, having first met at college. We have previously founded and failed at another startup, but we stuck together as a team to start MindsDB. Initially a passion project, MindsDB began as an idea to help those who could not afford to hire a team of data scientists, which at the time was (and still is) very expensive. It has since grown into a thriving open-source community with contributors and users all over the globe. With the plethora of data available
Why it failed: Hi HN, Adam and Jorge here, and today we’re very excited to share MindsDB with you ( http://github.com/mindsdb/mindsdb ). MindsDB AutoML Server is an open-source platform designed to accelerate machine learning workflows for people with data inside databases b
adam_carrigan
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Finmark (YC S20) – Financial planning software for startups
Hi HN! I’m Rami, cofounder of Finmark ( https://finmark.com/ ). We make it simple for companies to manage their runway, hiring, and cash. Three years ago a bad financial model almost killed my last company. A miscalculation in our behemoth of a financial model led us to overestimate the amount of cash we had coming in, and in turn, to overspend. When we finally discovered the error after 5 months, we were forced to shift from aggressive hiring to aggressive cost cutting and had to lay off employees. We were able to course-correct and sold the company successfully in 2019, but I kept coming back to how difficult and time-consuming financial modeling is for founders. So after taking some time off to recharge post acquisition, I pulled my old team together to start Finmark. We built Finmark so all founders, not just finance pros, can easily create, update, and share custom fi
Why it failed: Hi HN! I’m Rami, cofounder of Finmark ( https://finmark.com/ ). We make it simple for companies to manage their runway, hiring, and cash. Three years ago a bad financial model almost killed my last company. A miscalculation in our behemoth of a financial model led
ramie
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Curvenote (YC W21) – Collaborative writing tools for science
Hi HN! I’m Rowan and with my co-founder Steve we are building Curvenote ( https://curvenote.com ) — a technical writing tool for sharing data analysis and research from Jupyter with a wider audience. We are building Curvenote to get science communication out of PDFs and help researchers and data-scientists communicate interactive, reproducible results (graphs, figures, maps, etc.) that are linked to the actual data and computation. There are currently two parts to Curvenote: 1) a WYSIWYG collaborative writing environment for interactive, technical documents; and 2) a Jupyter integration that adds version control and commenting and can link interactive plots and outputs directly into Curvenote documents (including any new versions or comments on those outputs). Steve and I met in the open-source/science community and are coming at this from different angles: Steve has led d
Why it failed: Hi HN! I’m Rowan and with my co-founder Steve we are building Curvenote ( https://curvenote.com ) — a technical writing tool for sharing data analysis and research from Jupyter with a wider audience. We are building Curvenote to get science communication out of PDFs and
rowanc1
- 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
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: FirstIgnite (YC S21) – Matching scientists with relevant businesses
Hi, HN! I’m Cody Pawlowski and my co-founder is Chase Bonhag and we’re FirstIgnite ( https://firstignite.com/ ). We help researchers at universities connect with companies interested in funding or licensing their research. Currently, a vast majority of all research goes uncommercialized. This includes everything from new cancer therapies to energy storage improvements and other solutions to universal problems. By connecting research to relevant companies, we increase the probability that research will be commercialized. We met while I was running a natural language processing startup at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Chase was working at Illinois Ventures, the venture capital arm of the university. U of I conducted over $900M a year worth of research, much of which was going uncommercialized. Because university research portfolios are massive, diverse, and
Why it failed: Hi, HN! I’m Cody Pawlowski and my co-founder is Chase Bonhag and we’re FirstIgnite ( https://firstignite.com/ ). We help researchers at universities connect with companies interested in funding or licensing their research. Currently, a vast majority of all research
codypilot
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Hotswap (YC S21) – Easily migrate customers away from competitors
Hi! We're Jay and Len (kevlened) from Hotswap ( https://www.hotswap.app ). We automate the process of changing software vendors by helping you migrate user data during your onboarding process. In other words, we make it easy to steal customers from your competitors! We've built a lot of enterprise software and done a lot of painful migrations over the years. I (Jay) have managed engineering teams at Frame.io, Squarespace, and Rent the Runway. Len was an early employee at Okta. At every single company we've worked at, we've spent a lot of time doing painful migrations. At Rent the Runway, we migrated our warehouse from UPS to FedEx. We changed credit card processors. We migrated ERP systems. It always took a ton of time, was not career-building work, and consultants charged $250/hr or more. We also were often stuck using platforms that weren't optim
Why it failed: Hi! We're Jay and Len (kevlened) from Hotswap ( https://www.hotswap.app ). We automate the process of changing software vendors by helping you migrate user data during your onboarding process. In other words, we make it easy to steal customers from your competitors
memset
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
Hi, after a long job hunting period I joined a small remote first company 5 months ago. Problems showed up immediately in the form of chaos and dysfunctions in the microservices cloud project I was hired in. Let's put it this way: say you get the seminal book on microservices and the seminal book on CICD. Now imagine reading along and doing almost everything from code up to project management the wrong way (essentially keeping on-prem 2000's philosophy and revamp it as microservices). On top of that add vendeta-developers in Asia (I'm in a small offshoot team in Europe) handing down half-baked frameworks (not-invented-here and reinventing the wheel are strong) with minimal documentation and a culture based on meetings instead of documenting things. Developer sandboxes that just don't work and unrealistic deadlines. In short a huge draining mess where I felt burnt out
Why it failed: Hi, after a long job hunting period I joined a small remote first company 5 months ago. Problems showed up immediately in the form of chaos and dysfunctions in the microservices cloud project I was hired in. Let's put it this way: say you get the seminal book on microservice
itistricky
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Govly (YC S21) – Making it easier to sell to the U.S. government
Hi, we're Mike, Jon and Nick, founders of Govly ( https://www.govly.com ). We’re building a place for companies, resellers, and distributors to work together to bid on government contracts. The U.S. government buys lots of things. In 2021, over $218B will be spent purchasing technology products alone. The problem is, it's super confusing to participate in the market. You have to understand the rules, have the right connections to government contractors, have a record of strong performance selling to the government, and usually a sales force focused specifically on government sales. This friction leads to fewer companies (especially smaller companies) participating, less competition, and ultimately the government buying the loudest or most insider-connected products instead of the best or most innovative. Jon and I have been experiencing this problem for the last 15 ye
Why it failed: Hi, we're Mike, Jon and Nick, founders of Govly ( https://www.govly.com ). We’re building a place for companies, resellers, and distributors to work together to bid on government contracts. The U.S. government buys lots of things. In 2021, over $218B will be spent
mikeweiland
- startupShut down2021
Launch HN: Infracost (YC W21) – open-source cloud cost estimator
Hi, we’re Ali, Hassan and Alistair and we co-founded Infracost ( https://www.infracost.io ). Infracost is an open-source cloud cost estimator for your pull requests. When you change your infrastructure code (Terraform), Infracost posts a comment in the pull request, which tells you the impact of this change to your cloud bill, e.g. “this will increase your bill by 25% next month”. Existing cloud cost management products focus on post-bill analysis and target finance and management teams via charting dashboards. We built one of these back in 2013. They are all missing an important piece - the people who are responsible for purchasing cloud resources are not shown costs upfront, so they don’t know how much the resources will cost before launching them. We want to make cloud costs simpler to understand for developers and DevOps so they can make better decisions, which we believe w
Why it failed: Hi, we’re Ali, Hassan and Alistair and we co-founded Infracost ( https://www.infracost.io ). Infracost is an open-source cloud cost estimator for your pull requests. When you change your infrastructure code (Terraform), Infracost posts a comment in the pull request, whi
aliscott
- startupShut down2021
Show HN: Save 6 months to deploy your apps on AWS in 30 minutes
I am Romaric, CEO of Qovery (https://www.qovery.com) (Techstars Paris 2019). As an early-stage startup, I know how it can be painful to stay focus on our business. Especially when it comes to putting our apps online, that's precisely why, with my team of 7, we have created Qovery to help any company to deploy their apps on AWS in 30 minutes instead of months (no joke). We're still early stage, but: 1. More than 1200 developers and 10 companies are using Qovery . 2. We are financially backed by the co-founders of Datadog, Docker, PeopleDoc, and Contentsquare . Take a look at this article to see how you can get started ( https://docs.qovery.com/guides/tutorial/how-to-deploy-your-application-on-aws-in-30-minutes/ ). Today, we support AWS and Digital Ocean, we expect to support GCP and Azure in the coming weeks. About the co-founders: Pierre
Why it failed: I am Romaric, CEO of Qovery (https://www.qovery.com) (Techstars Paris 2019). As an early-stage startup, I know how it can be painful to stay focus on our business. Especially when it comes to putting our apps online, that's precisely why, with my team of 7, we have
ev0xmusic
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: What’s the most outrageous belief you’re confident is true?
I was thinking through my 2022 predictions and one came to mind that I thought, “hmm… I’d better keep that one to myself.” Its further out than 2022, and hopefully it’s a never. But I am confident it’s coming, and I sure it’s a bad outcome for humanity: we become more and more influenced by learning systems that are goaled to drive behaviors that are not in our best interest, and, eventually lead to a virtual enslavement that leaves us with no free will. I shudder at the thought. What outrageous belief are you confident is true?
Why it failed: I was thinking through my 2022 predictions and one came to mind that I thought, “hmm… I’d better keep that one to myself.” Its further out than 2022, and hopefully it’s a never. But I am confident it’s coming, and I sure it’s a bad outcome for humanity: we become more and more in
11thEarlOfMar
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: Are paradigm shifting breakthroughs rarer or is it a bias in my eyes?
I feel that 10+ years back there used to be a lot of talk of a lot of technologies that would change the world following in the footsteps of Moore's law (although a bit more slowly). In the decade since a lot of exciting developments have happened. Smartphones have become cheaper, world is so much more connected, EVs looking to finally breakthrough etc. However exponential tech that takes us to something like 'singularity' does not seem to come up any more. Most growth is incremental and we hype every single Lab output with rarely seeing commercial breakthroughs. I was personally always excited about material science breakthroughs using graphene etc. but seems like it is difficult to manufacture at scale even today. Any specific tech or breakthrough you are personally waiting for coming to fruition ?
Why it failed: I feel that 10+ years back there used to be a lot of talk of a lot of technologies that would change the world following in the footsteps of Moore's law (although a bit more slowly). In the decade since a lot of exciting developments have happened. Smartphones have become ch
newyankee
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: How can I stop worrying and start living?
I am constantly worried that (1) I'm missing out on things, (2) something bad is going to happen and (3) can't see the point of it all since one day all will come to an end. I want to start enjoying and living a happy life. What are some steps I could take to achieve that?
Why it failed: I am constantly worried that (1) I'm missing out on things, (2) something bad is going to happen and (3) can't see the point of it all since one day all will come to an end. I want to start enjoying and living a happy life. What are some steps I could take to achieve th
acqbu
- startupShut down2021
Ask HN: How did you move on from past experiences?
I recently put an end to a drawn-out and stressful chapter of my life. It lasted many years and I'd like to get a sense of closure. Yet I can't seem to fully rekindle the same energy of my younger self. I've bought a couple of books to celebrate, but I haven't opened them yet because I don't want to taint them with past memories, if it makes sense. How did you close the previous chapters of your life? It may sound strange but I almost feel I have to ask for permission to move on. Like it's not real unless I share it with someone else.
Why it failed: I recently put an end to a drawn-out and stressful chapter of my life. It lasted many years and I'd like to get a sense of closure. Yet I can't seem to fully rekindle the same energy of my younger self. I've bought a couple of books to celebrate, but I haven't
Red_Tarsius
- startupShut down2021
Trying to get back on track in life
I am really socially, vocationally, and intellectually alienated and I have been for a while (years). I don't feel that bad day to day but I do feel bad that it seems that life is passing me by. I am not working or earning anywhere near my potential or interacting with people as I should be. I was wondering if the community here, such as it is, has any tips for daily exercises or practices that can help me get back on track in a kaizen or incremental way a little bit every day. For example I am so alienated, I don't even know what goals I would like to pursue. I have been interested in technology and computers for years and have some experience with Unix SA, programming and networking but at a hobbyist than at a professional level. The cloud and countainers and all the programing fads and stuff are actually becoming off-putting to me. I see the space (CS / SE) as increasin
Why it failed: I am really socially, vocationally, and intellectually alienated and I have been for a while (years). I don't feel that bad day to day but I do feel bad that it seems that life is passing me by. I am not working or earning anywhere near my potential or interacting with peopl
morpheos137