Hacker News with Generative AI: Failure

The Heart of Innovation: Why Most Startups Fail (commoncog.com)
Let me tell you a startup horror story. If you’ve been around startups for long enough, you’re likely to recognise this narrative. You may have — like me — lived something like it before.

Startups, Failure, Innovation, Business

17 points by rishsriv 11 days ago | 3 comments

Flakes Have Failed (bytesize.xyz)
Despite continued efforts to the contrary, Nix Flakes have systematically failed within the Nix ecosystem.

Software, Nix, Failure

13 points by todsacerdoti 12 days ago | 0 comments

Ask HN: 15 Years, 9 Startups, 0 Big Wins – Should I Quit or Keep Going? (ycombinator.com)
Hey HN, <p>I'm Bibin Mohan, a 37-year-old founder from India. I started selling firecrackers at 15 and jumped into entrepreneurship full-time at 22. I’ve been at it ever since — 15 years, 9 different startup attempts, and still grinding.

Entrepreneurship, Startup Advice, Failure, Motivation, India

10 points by bibinmohan 33 days ago | 18 comments

Performance Measures and Incentives, Lessons from a Famous Corporate Implosion (coyoteblog.com)
To understand why organizations grow senescent, get fat, and fail – whether they be public or private – there is probably no topic more important than performance measures and incentives.

Business, Incentives, Corporate Culture, Failure, Organizational Growth

10 points by speckx 77 days ago | 0 comments

El Salvador's wild crypto experiment ends in failure (economist.com)
For much of the time since Nayib Bukele became president in 2019, El Salvador has teetered on the brink of default.

El Salvador, Cryptocurrency, Economics, Government, Failure

11 points by pseudolus 81 days ago | 3 comments

Ask HN: Where do I find a list of inactive YC companies (ycombinator.com)
Hi HN, I'm doing some research on startup failure patterns and am particularly interested in analyzing YC companies that are no longer active.

Startups, Research, Business, Y Combinator, Failure

5 points by abri 118 days ago | 4 comments

Startup Winter: Hacker News Lost Its Faith (vincentschmalbach.com)
In 2013, a failing founder posted their story on Hacker News (link). The responses were overwhelmingly supportive: "Failure is just an event, not who you are." "Get back up and try again!" "This is valuable experience for next time."

Startup Culture, Hacker News, Community, Failure

523 points by vincent_s 122 days ago | 405 comments

I am (not) a failure: Lessons learned from six failed startup attempts (rongarret.info)

Entrepreneurship, Startups, Failure, Lessons Learned

547 points by lisper 123 days ago | 313 comments

Walgreens replaced fridge doors with smart screens. It's now a $200M fiasco (bloomberg.com)
The refrigerated section at the flagship Walgreens on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile was glowing with frozen food and bottled drinks, but not for long. Where the fridge cases were previously lined with simple glass doors, there were door-size computer screens instead. These “smart doors” obscured shoppers’ view of the fridges’ actual contents, replacing them with virtual rows of the Gatorades, Bagel Bites and other goods it promised were inside.

Retail, Technology, Business, Failure

89 points by zinekeller 127 days ago | 103 comments

Microsoft Bob: Microsoft's biggest flop of the 1990s (homeip.net)
It was January 1995. Microsoft was riding high. Windows 3.1 had sold well. The interim replacement, Windows 3.11, was selling well. The industry was abuzz for the upcoming Windows 95, expected sometime later in the year. Microsoft was in a golden era, a time when nothing could go wrong for them. And then they released Microsoft Bob. They should have named it Microsoft Bomb, because it bombed. But if you take one letter out of Bomb, you get Bob.

Microsoft, Operating Systems, History, Technology, Failure

89 points by rbanffy 131 days ago | 166 comments

This is How Many Startup Businesses Fail in the First Year (+Survival Tips) (54collective.vc)
The startup journey is not for the faint-hearted. Pondering how many startup businesses fail in the first year is a prudent thing to do at pre-launch. This startup survival guide outlines the most critical startup failure statistics to keep in mind when planning your launch.

Startups, Business, Failure, Statistics, Survival

28 points by makerdiety 133 days ago | 32 comments

After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code (dylanhuang.com)
After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code.

Startups, Failure, Open Source, Software

549 points by gniting 157 days ago | 268 comments

Why Do Some People Succeed After Failing, While Others Continue to Flounder? (kellogg.northwestern.edu)
A new study dispels some of the mystery behind success after failure.

Success, Failure, Psychology, Research, Studies

9 points by paulpauper 162 days ago | 8 comments

1,600 days of a failed hobby data science project (lellep.xyz)
⭐ I spent >1,600 days working on a data science project that then failed because I lost interest. This article is to cope with the failure and maybe help you (and me) to finish successful data science projects by summarising a few learnings into a checklist, see below.

Data Science, Personal Projects, Failure, Productivity, Learning

158 points by millimacro 166 days ago | 70 comments

The death and life of prediction markets at Google (asteriskmag.com)
Over the past two decades, Google has hosted two different internal platforms for predictions. Why did the first one fail — and will the other endure?

Google, Prediction Markets, Business, Technology, Failure

273 points by mfro 193 days ago | 174 comments

Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem (colmanhumphrey.com)
Back in late 2020, my good friend Raiden and I co-founded Slight. Over the next two and a half years, we got it off the ground, raised a pre-seed round, and got some customers on-board, but in the end we didn’t have enough traction to raise our seed round. We got close with a few investors (after I talked to many…), but getting close still means the company dies.

Startup, Business, Failure, Funding

155 points by KraftyOne 207 days ago | 73 comments

Is it better to fail spectacularly? (danielmangum.com)
Three weeks ago I wrote the following draft of a blog post entitled “Is It Better to Fail Spectacularly?”.

Failure, Success, Opinion, Blog Posts

120 points by hasheddan 214 days ago | 118 comments

A Video Game Flopped Harder Than Anything at the Box Office This Year, Unnoticed (kotaku.com)
In the summer of 2024, an entertainment project went more spectacularly wrong than possibly any entertainment project in human history.

Video Games, Entertainment, Failure

25 points by jicea 214 days ago | 3 comments

Just 5k people use the Rabbit R1 every day (theverge.com)
Pour one out for the Rabbit R1. Only 5,000 people of the 100,000 who bought the orange AI gadget are still using it daily, five months after it launched.

Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Products, Failure, Technology

22 points by lawgimenez 239 days ago | 26 comments

How I Failed (2013) (oreilly.com)
When you start out as an entrepreneur, it’s just you and your idea, or you and your co-founder’s and your idea.

Entrepreneurship, Startups, Failure, Personal Stories

23 points by bookofjoe 245 days ago | 5 comments

Ask HN: Kodak, VW, Intel – Why big companies fail? (ycombinator.com)
Understandable for startups - product isn't something anybody needs or not enough cash but why big companies with a proven product would fail?

Business, Failure, Startups, Innovation, Corporate Culture

17 points by wg0 245 days ago | 38 comments

When the Mismanagerial Class Destroys Great Companies (palladiummag.com)
In 2005, Paul Otellini became the new CEO of Intel, America’s premier semiconductor designer and manufacturer. He was the first CEO of the company not to have a background in engineering. Sometime shortly thereafter, Otellini entered discussions with Steve Jobs on whether Intel would manufacture the chips needed for Apple’s secretive, potentially revolutionary new project: the iPhone. Ultimately, Otellini declined. He thought the initial costs would be too high and the resulting sales too low.

Business, Management, Technology, Leadership, Failure

11 points by aarestad 256 days ago | 0 comments

How 4 People Destroyed a $250 Million Tech Company [video] (youtube.com)
A tech company worth $250 million imploded after four people, each with their own motives, made decisions that ultimately led to the company's downfall.

Business, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Failure

24 points by notamy 259 days ago | 2 comments

Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail? (ycombinator.com)

Startups, Business, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Ask HN

40 points by spikey_sanju 278 days ago | 53 comments

Why do big digital projects in the public sector fail? (newstatesman.com)

Public Sector, Digital Projects, Project Management, Failure

8 points by user20180120 287 days ago | 13 comments

Show HN: Failure Hunt – failure stories from entrepreneurs, makers, and experts (failurehunt.com)

Entrepreneurship, Failure, Business, Case Studies

10 points by skaplich 296 days ago | 2 comments

On Building Systems That Will Fail (1991) (mit.edu:8001)