Startup sci-fi novel that took me 5 years to write
It started after reading Stephen King's "On Writing" where he likened the art of writing as the unearthing of an archeological site after you stumbled upon a unique bone of a story. His advice was to choose a domain you are deeply intimate with. For me, I've been a struggling startup founder for 15 years—enough material to inspire a novel. A 1,000-word writing exercise turned into a complete 125k-word manuscript over the course of a year. In year 1, I learned the sheer joy of unencumbered creative flow and authentic expression. A similar flow I used to get from coding (and more recently vibe…
Startup sci-fi novel that took me 5 years to write launched on June 8, 2026 with 27 votes, #764 of 22,647 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
This is a science fiction novel written by a startup founder drawing on 15 years of entrepreneurial experience. The 125,000-word manuscript emerged from a writing exercise that evolved over five years, exploring themes rooted in the author's intimate knowledge of startup culture and founder struggles. The work emphasizes authentic creative expression and was developed without initial publication intent, allowing for unencumbered storytelling before eventually being refined through feedback from close readers.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
A near-future startup novel by Milo C. Kingston. Read sample chapters for free. Book available for purchase.
When Terry is promoted to VP of Engineering, he decides to quit rather than partake in his company's capitalistic data mining practices to boost ad revenues. Determined to create a more ethical platform, he poaches his colleagues to build his own social media startup on the blockchain, promising user privacy and an ad-free experience. Two years later, his blockchain has yet to launch, and Terry's about to miss payroll for his team. He sank all his savings and maxed out his credit lines. Desperate to save his startup, he flies to Hong Kong to meet the only investor who throws him a lifeline. Little does he know that the too-good-to-be-true investor works for the Chinese government.…from blockchainednovel.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
It started after reading Stephen King's "On Writing" where he likened the art of writing as the unearthing of an archeological site after you stumbled upon a unique bone of a story. His advice was to choose a domain you are deeply intimate with. For me, I've been a struggling startup founder for 15 years—enough…
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about itFeb 2026 · derekyan.com · ▲208The complete book: A founder
A self-published art book about Google's first 25 years2024 · damaia.com · ▲77This took me 3 years to finish. (It is 100% self-published, not endorsed by Google.) So… I wrote a book. It’s a different book with a unique approach. It’s not a novel or a technical book. It’s a biography, a company’s biography. My hope is that it serves two purposes: to inspire founders and to captivate interior designers. It all started three years ago. My wife and I were discussing interior design for our living room and she brought up what beautiful coffee table books should we have. After looking at her favorites I realized there’s nothing like this for tech startups. Digital products…
First Book ai2024 · firstbook.ai · ▲90Hey HN, I'm an author and I spent 2+ years writing my first book and getting it published. After my experience, I realized that 99% of all business books follow the same structure. So, with the rise of AI solutions, we asked ourselves if we could simplify the process to help first-time authors achieve their dream of writing and publishing a book. Together with a friend, we created First Book ai. Now, we can create coherent, full-size books in hours, saving first-time authors years in the process. We hope this tool will be helpful for as many upcoming authors as possible. Would love your…
SourcePilotNov 2025 · sourcepilot.co · ▲158It’s been a while since I’ve started to write a book . The process of creation of it has not been easy , first because I’m not a writer , I’ve created well though out internet posts here and there, which ended up creating my first book. It was a good experience , but then I’ve started to think that a book that just gathered my thoughts online it’s not entirely “writing” a book , I needed more. And than I’ve opened google docs and start typing. Then I started to figure out what I wanted to write: should it be a fantasy story, a self-biography, or an observation of the world? I believe most…
Finding Success in Failure2015 · amazon.com · ▲58A startup tell-all from a 10-year serial entrepreneur
I worked on a sci-fi book for the 2025Jan 2026 · docs.google.com · ▲5Just about a year ago, the concept for a sci-fi book popped into my head. I instantly knew I have to see it through despite not having any writing experience (and a pretty demanding job). Over 2025, I attended writer circles, improved my writing, and structured the story. Here is the first chapter. I hope you enjoy it :)
More dev tools this month
the category →
open-source IDE for thoughtful software design. Contribute to devdotfast/whiteboard development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 29d ago · github.com
Contribute to reladraw/reladraw development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 27d ago · github.com
Contribute to oosexgang/hackios-xnu-kernel development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 15h ago · github.com
OpenBot▲362Grok Bot alternative: free, local, open-source, multiplayer
Dev tools · 24d ago · openbot.run
Talanoa▲346Hi HN, I’m a fullstack developer, and honestly, I’ve lost count of how many side projects I’ve worked on over the years. But one idea kept coming back to me: a different kind of email client. It first came to me in 2014: “What if we could handle emails more like conversations?” Every year, I’d revisit this concept in my “Build Notes.” Ten years later, no one had built exactly what I had in mind — so I finally decided to do it myself. That’s how Talanoa was born. I wanted something focused on people, not timelines. I was tired of marking messages as unread just to remember to reply later, or…
Dev tools · 21d ago · talanoa.email
Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
Launched alongside, June 2026
the whole month →
Fundraisly▲1,537AI fundraising agent that finds investors and books meetings
AI · Jun 2026 · fundraisly.com
Homebrew 6.0.0▲1,481Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 6.0.0. The most significant changes since 5.1.0 are a new tap trust security mechanism, the new faster, smaller, default internal Homebrew JSON API, sandboxing on Linux, better defaults informed by our user survey, many brew bundle improvements, improved performance and initial support for macOS 27 (Golden Gate). Happy to discuss any questions here!
Dev tools · Jun 2026 · brew.sh
Hi HN! I was super frustrated at apps like tiktok and wechat preventing me from saving or downloading the animated gifs, so I made a little tool to turn a screen recording into a slack-sized emoji. Hope you get some value from this!
Life & fun · Jun 2026 · vorpus.github.io
Search 18 years of Hacker News and chart how any topic, tool, or person trended. Overlay terms to compare their rise and fall across 45M posts and comments.
Life & fun · Jun 2026 · hackernewstrends.com