IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

New YC homepage

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Prevalent Themes in the Hacker News Discussion

1. Criticism of the "Formidable Founder" Ethos The site's central quote defining a "formidable founder" as someone who will "get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way" was heavily criticized for celebrating relentless, potentially unethical ambition over wisdom or societal good. This tied into broader criticisms of Sam Altman and the VC focus on monetary success.

  • "A formidable founder is one who seems like they’ll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way." (Mc_Big_G)
  • "Even if those obstacles are reality, the law or basic morality." (EdNutting)
  • "The whole aesthetic of startup success... celebrates money, not wisdom or authentic progress." (perfmode)
  • "He [Sam Altman] is not a good guy. He's a guy who says whatever serves him in the moment..." (padolsey)

2. YC's Political and Institutional Nature Many users discussed the redesign's aesthetic, comparing it to a political campaign, and linked YC to broader political movements and controversies involving its leadership and portfolio companies, particularly regarding surveillance and techno-libertarianism.

  • "I found the switch of focus from startups/businesses to founders/CEOs particularly strange. Looks like a political campaign to me." (ls-a)
  • "YC is a political movement. Look at their leaders' activities and what they fund." (wahnfrieden)
  • "The current YC CEO was an early Palantir employee... has been involved in SF politics, organizes efforts toward adopting the Yarvin concept of 'patchwork'/'network states'..." (wahnfrieden)
  • "It's a lot deeper than an apparent lack of conviction... Asking someone to invest in you as a person requires a certain level of egoistic thinking." (anonymous908213)

3. Historical Revisionism and Exclusion in Portrayals The discussion highlighted what many saw as a misleading or sanitized narrative of YC's history. This included OpenAI's inclusion without context of its complex origins, the omission of founders who left or failed, and the focus on only the most successful "survivor stories."

  • "The implication that OpenAI is a YC company in the same sense as the other listed companies is somewhere between misleading and dishonest." (ansk)
  • "Runners-up: Loopt. No, we don't know how Sam Altman got from Loopt to YC President." (nailer)
  • "I had the same reaction [to seeing only success stories]. Also the new vibe feels less like 'make something people want' and more like 'join the pantheon.'" (raleighm)
  • "What stood out to me... was the order of them. Wild that they have OpenAI and Stripe second and third to Airbnb." (archeantus)

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

Founders.pivot

Summary

  • [A web tool for startup founders to model, test, and document potential business model pivots before presenting to investors.]
  • [Solves the pain point of founders being rejected for "thinking about pivoting" by providing a structured way to evaluate and communicate pivot viability.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Pre-seed / Seed stage founders applying to accelerators or VC funding
Core Feature Interactive pivot decision matrix: maps current product, user segments, revenue models, and tech stack to adjacent opportunities, scoring them on feasibility, market size, and founder fit. Includes exportable "Pivot Narrative" reports.
Tech Stack Next.js, PostgreSQL, Prisma, Tailwind CSS, Chart.js for visualizations
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium (basic modeling) + Paid tier ($29/mo for advanced analytics and investor-ready exports)

Notes

  • [Directly addresses the user alephnerd's point that YC mentors founders on pivots, and the investor's comment that they "don't invest in founders who think about pivoting" (throwaway89201).]
  • [High practical utility; founders constantly discuss strategy changes, and this tool provides data-driven clarity rather than vague speculation.]

HN.Dead

Summary

  • [A browser extension and web service that visualizes the "startup graveyard" referenced in the discussion.]
  • [Addresses the frustration that success stories (like the new YC homepage) only show survivors, making the entrepreneurial journey seem less risky than it is. Provides a counter-narrative to VC hype.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Aspiring founders, startup employees, investors researching market trends
Core Feature Aggregates data from Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and news to show the lifecycle of YC companies. Integrates with HN and YC site to highlight when a mentioned company has failed, been acquired quietly, or pivoted.
Tech Stack Chrome Extension (Manifest V3), React, Node.js backend, MongoDB for data store, Data scraping (Puppeteer/Cheerio)
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby (Open source). Potential revenue via premium API access for VC firms.

Notes

  • [Responds to dzonga's comment about the "graveyard... littered with thousands of graves" and amelius's dislike for "showing only the survivor stories."]
  • [Creates a balanced view of the startup ecosystem, which would generate significant discussion on HN about risk, failure rates, and survivorship bias.]

Co-Founder Match 2.0

Summary

  • [A modernized, open-source platform for finding co-founders, addressing the stagnation of YC's existing tool mentioned by hungryhobbit.]
  • [Improves the "cold outreach" and "founder chemistry" problems by using structured profiles and compatibility scoring rather than just a database.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Solo technical founders and business operators looking for a co-founder
Core Feature "Compatibility Quiz" (values, work style, risk tolerance) + Skill Gap Analysis (e.g., "I need a technical co-founder who knows Rust"). Matches based on complementarity rather than similarity. Includes anonymized chat to vet before meeting.
Tech Stack Next.js, Supabase (Auth/DB), WebSockets for chat, Tailwind CSS, Jest for testing
Difficulty Low (Mostly frontend logic and matching algorithms)
Monetization Hobby (Open Source). Could be sponsored by VC firms looking for deal flow.

Notes

  • [Directly implements hungryhobbit's suggestion: "Redo the co-founder match sub-site next! ... open source the sub-site and I'm sure a bunch of tech founders will happily do it for them."]
  • [Solves a perpetual pain point for the HN community (finding technical/business partners) with a tool that feels "built by founders for founders."]

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