7 ms·

Show HN: Dumbass Business Ideas

42 points by elysionmind 10mo ago

Discover hilariously terrible business ideas that probably shouldn't exist. Get inspired by the worst startup concepts, share them with friends, and submit your own dumbass ideas!

Esophagus4 10mo ago
Love it. If you open up an API for idea submission, I can send you a FIREHOSE of dumbass ideas.
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  oh man.. dont have the infra for that most probably :P
system2 10mo ago
It does look and read like AI-generated ideas. Did you include any of your own ideas?
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  It got featured in morningbrew.com newsletter somewhere and traffic blew up lol I have been monitoring google analytics for past 6 hrs lol
  - system2 10mo ago
    Sorry, I didn't understand your answer. Are the "dumbass business ideas" featured on morningbrew.com? Or did you find an article that was featured with the ideas you turned into a website? It is normal to get a spike for a frontpage HN post; unsure if you added that part as an answer. Or after posting it on HN, did morningbrew.com pick up and post an article about it? I know I am reading into it too much, but I kinda hate vague answers. :) I am asking: Did you create these ideas with AI, or found somewhere, or did you sit down and write them yourself?
    - elysionmind 10mo ago
      People are submitting their ideas and im approving them (i dont generate them): https://snipboard.io/JjyGUh.jpg https://snipboard.io/JjyGUh.jpg (current backlog) about morningbrew, the initial traffic as per GA was from here (but couldnt find the article tbh.. https://snipboard.io/OT3s4X.jpg https://snipboard.io/OT3s4X.jpg
      - system2 10mo ago
        I see, thank you. I believe morningbrew people are following HN for juicy blog posts.
        elysionmind 10mo ago
        i believe they monitor reddit... this was ranking on r/InternetIsBeautiful for a while
doppelgunner 10mo ago
Try one of this, you never know which one will work.
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  I was really bored 2 days back and ended up creating this.
  - Esophagus4 10mo ago
    Out of curiosity, it has 10,000 votes and 100 ideas and was created 2 days ago, which is impressive! Are those real users? Or some bootstrapped content?
    - elysionmind 10mo ago
      I know right! see this: https://snipboard.io/DyxiNm.jpg https://snipboard.io/DyxiNm.jpg It got featured in morningbrew.com newsletter somewhere and traffic blew up lol
Philpax 10mo ago
This has an aggressive amount of designed-by-AI. Can you turn it down a bit? It's quite visually distracting right now.
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  I suck! :( it was just a hobby project...
  - mym1990 10mo ago
    I did not think of it as over AI generated, it just looks like a fun site with an aesthetic that goes along with that theme. Cool project!
    - elysionmind 10mo ago
      thanks! ^_^
hijp 10mo ago
i’d love it more if they were ideas people actually tried, like quibi!
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  try it! would be useful tbh... mine was unfortunately intended to be humorous.
- akudha 10mo ago
  And that juicer, can’t remember the name now. It cost like 400$ or something like thst
  - bigfishrunning 10mo ago
    Juicero!
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
sema4hacker 10mo ago
I was expecting a list of actual business failures with maybe some facts or history, but it's essentially a joke site.
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  unfortunately, it was never planned that way :( it was a result of boredom from day job.
- faster 10mo ago
  Sounds like you were expecting fuckedcompany.com. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucked_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucked_Company
  - burnt-resistor 10mo ago
    I miss FC. That was /. standard reading in 2002-5. Obligatory waves to all who had <= 6 digit user ids and posts back then.
CodeCrusader 10mo ago
A funny idea, I like it
projektfu 10mo ago
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu but with the caveat that the Chindougu inventions actually were prototyped.
rekabis 10mo ago
If enough people are willing to pay, is it truly a dumbass business idea? Because I have seen plenty of premises that I would have WTF-ed over, and yet enough people are paying for it to keep someone gainfully employed doing it. I think that is the real threshold: not how stupid it sounds, but rather how few people stump up the money to have it done.
burnt-resistor 10mo ago
In the subset of possible physical objects, it reminds me of Halfbakery and Chindōgu. https://www.halfbakery.com/category/Product https://www.halfbakery.com/category/Product https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unuseless.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-... This of course leaves out impossible products and services like: - Tardis - Unlawful goods and services sales platform, now with physical vending machines for assassination contracts
sphars 10mo ago
One suggestion (feel free to ignore) is to hide the vote counts until after a choice is selected, just to prevent some sort of bias. But again it's your site, thanks for the fun!
- elysionmind 10mo ago
  done!

42 points by elysionmind 10mo ago

Discover hilariously terrible business ideas that probably shouldn't exist. Get inspired by the worst startup concepts, share them with friends, and submit your own dumbass ideas!

Esophagus4 10mo ago

Love it. If you open up an API for idea submission, I can send you a FIREHOSE of dumbass ideas.

elysionmind 10mo ago
oh man.. dont have the infra for that most probably :P

system2 10mo ago

It does look and read like AI-generated ideas. Did you include any of your own ideas?

elysionmind 10mo ago
It got featured in morningbrew.com newsletter somewhere and traffic blew up lol I have been monitoring google analytics for past 6 hrs lol
- system2 10mo ago
  Sorry, I didn't understand your answer. Are the "dumbass business ideas" featured on morningbrew.com? Or did you find an article that was featured with the ideas you turned into a website? It is normal to get a spike for a frontpage HN post; unsure if you added that part as an answer. Or after posting it on HN, did morningbrew.com pick up and post an article about it? I know I am reading into it too much, but I kinda hate vague answers. :) I am asking: Did you create these ideas with AI, or found somewhere, or did you sit down and write them yourself?
  - elysionmind 10mo ago
    People are submitting their ideas and im approving them (i dont generate them): https://snipboard.io/JjyGUh.jpg https://snipboard.io/JjyGUh.jpg (current backlog) about morningbrew, the initial traffic as per GA was from here (but couldnt find the article tbh.. https://snipboard.io/OT3s4X.jpg https://snipboard.io/OT3s4X.jpg
    - system2 10mo ago
      I see, thank you. I believe morningbrew people are following HN for juicy blog posts.
      - elysionmind 10mo ago
        i believe they monitor reddit... this was ranking on r/InternetIsBeautiful for a while

doppelgunner 10mo ago

Try one of this, you never know which one will work.

elysionmind 10mo ago
I was really bored 2 days back and ended up creating this.
- Esophagus4 10mo ago
  Out of curiosity, it has 10,000 votes and 100 ideas and was created 2 days ago, which is impressive! Are those real users? Or some bootstrapped content?
  - elysionmind 10mo ago
    I know right! see this: https://snipboard.io/DyxiNm.jpg https://snipboard.io/DyxiNm.jpg It got featured in morningbrew.com newsletter somewhere and traffic blew up lol

Philpax 10mo ago

This has an aggressive amount of designed-by-AI. Can you turn it down a bit? It's quite visually distracting right now.

elysionmind 10mo ago
I suck! :( it was just a hobby project...
- mym1990 10mo ago
  I did not think of it as over AI generated, it just looks like a fun site with an aesthetic that goes along with that theme. Cool project!
  - elysionmind 10mo ago
    thanks! ^_^

hijp 10mo ago

i’d love it more if they were ideas people actually tried, like quibi!

elysionmind 10mo ago
try it! would be useful tbh... mine was unfortunately intended to be humorous.
akudha 10mo ago
And that juicer, can’t remember the name now. It cost like 400$ or something like thst
- bigfishrunning 10mo ago
  Juicero!

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

sema4hacker 10mo ago

I was expecting a list of actual business failures with maybe some facts or history, but it's essentially a joke site.

elysionmind 10mo ago
unfortunately, it was never planned that way :( it was a result of boredom from day job.
faster 10mo ago
Sounds like you were expecting fuckedcompany.com. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucked_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucked_Company
- burnt-resistor 10mo ago
  I miss FC. That was /. standard reading in 2002-5. Obligatory waves to all who had <= 6 digit user ids and posts back then.

CodeCrusader 10mo ago

A funny idea, I like it

projektfu 10mo ago

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu but with the caveat that the Chindougu inventions actually were prototyped.

rekabis 10mo ago

If enough people are willing to pay, is it truly a dumbass business idea? Because I have seen plenty of premises that I would have WTF-ed over, and yet enough people are paying for it to keep someone gainfully employed doing it. I think that is the real threshold: not how stupid it sounds, but rather how few people stump up the money to have it done.

burnt-resistor 10mo ago

In the subset of possible physical objects, it reminds me of Halfbakery and Chindōgu. https://www.halfbakery.com/category/Product https://www.halfbakery.com/category/Product https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unuseless.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-... This of course leaves out impossible products and services like: - Tardis - Unlawful goods and services sales platform, now with physical vending machines for assassination contracts

sphars 10mo ago

One suggestion (feel free to ignore) is to hide the vote counts until after a choice is selected, just to prevent some sort of bias. But again it's your site, thanks for the fun!

elysionmind 10mo ago
done!