nowfound

Commerce · October 31, 2011

FP

First project and lessons learned

A little background. For the last 1.5 years I lost what could be considered an embarrassing amount of money hiring other people to work on a project that I thought had potential, I got some important people involved, had some great coders, but couldn't launch. The failure was depressing, rejection by YC didn't help.. I had to take a job, I didn't enjoy and I had a girlfriend who stood by me despite going into debt. But bouncing back over the last 45 days I've taught myself Rails some Jquery, and Javascript and built this www.hangout.io. It's empowering to build something myself because I'm…

First project and lessons learned launched on October 31, 2011 with 22 votes, #44 of 292 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches.

Alternativestop 15% of October 2011

In plain words

Hangout.io is a commerce platform built by a solo founder who taught himself Rails, jQuery, and JavaScript over 45 days following a failed startup attempt. The product allows users to connect and conduct transactions through a web interface. The maker acknowledges existing bugs and limitations, including lack of mobile support, but emphasizes the achievement of launching a working product and having a clear roadmap for improvements.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

A little background. For the last 1.5 years I lost what could be considered an embarrassing amount of money hiring other people to work on a project that I thought had potential, I got some important people involved, had some great coders, but couldn't launch. The failure was depressing, rejection by YC didn't help..…

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • FoundersWall2025 · founderswall.com · ▲35

    I used to be just a blogger. Now I build internet products, still without code, using AI, design, and taste. I was building in public on X for last 2 months. And honestly, I got tired of how it became performative and started to feel fake. I shipped 2 products. Both failed to get any real traction. I kept sneaking into popular builders’ profiles, hoping to learn how they do it. One thing I kept seeing everywhere, product launch directories. I thought here is the scope. So I started building one. Same UI like the rest. Nothing special. Suddenly one day when it was half built, I realized…

  • MF
    My first start up (30 days in)2011 · onefatpig.com · ▲29

    I quit my job a month ago and have been heads down working on my startup. It's my first time working with Ruby or web development at all. I launched on the 7th - http://www.onefatpig.com Now I'm done with the easy part (code) and working on the substantially harder part (getting users). Any advice?

  • WB
    We built our startup in 100 days2013 · giveit100.com · ▲147
  • FO
    Finally opening signup on my education for business startup, Learndot2013 · learndot.com · ▲55

    HN, I've been mostly lurking, semi-active on HN for over 4 years. For most of that time, I've been working on my startup, Learndot. I have always wanted to do a "Show HN" post, but I never thought it was ready. We've now finally launched web signup and using a freemium business model. I feel I can now post and offer something to the community (a new app to try out) and hopefully get good quality feedback. Here's the site: http://www.learndot.com Would appreciate any or all thoughts: From pricing/positioning, to design/performance. The app is written in Sproutcore and backed by an API written…

  • 2G
    2 guys -- Learned to code in 3 months and built this2012 · knowitapp.com · ▲27

    4 months ago sucked. Our technical co-founder quit after 6 months and we still had no product. My co-founder and I had been 'working' on our startup for 8 months. I say 'working' because as the "business people" - there wasn't a whole lot we could do except philosophize. We had gotten really awesome intros to some of the top VCs and entrepreneurs, but had nothing to show. And now we felt stranded. Had we wasted 8 months of our lives? Identity crisis? Check. So we did what any rational person would do - we ran to the mountains. Literally. In Boone, NC - we talked about why we started Knowit,…

  • IM
    I made a simple platform to find founders and buy side-projects2022 · ▲80

    Hi Guys, I got overwhelming support and feedback from my last post about secondfounder.com but still, I felt the need of connecting founders together so that they can together buy a side project. It's very often when a non-technical founder buys a project they have to find a technical founder to take that project further. Today I have implemented this feature in secondfounder.com Link: https://secondfounder.com/find-founder Your feedback is always welcome. Thanks

Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

Launched alongside, October 2011

the whole month →