
Flopstarter: a platform for bad ideas - olifrost
http://flopstarter.com/
======
jccalhoun
[https://www.productrunt.com/](https://www.productrunt.com/) is a site that
collects the lowest voted posts from product hunt.

------
natch
The undefeated champion in this category is this guy:

[https://www.amazon.com/What-World-Needs-Now-
Daydreamers/dp/B...](https://www.amazon.com/What-World-Needs-Now-
Daydreamers/dp/B00D5FEOWW/)

~~~
reaperducer
$2,317.50 for the paperback.

Probably reason enough to disable one-click ordering.

~~~
natch
Ouch! The HN comment editing window on this has closed for me, but here's a
better link:

[https://www.amazon.com/What-World-Needs-Now-
Daydreamers/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/What-World-Needs-Now-
Daydreamers/dp/0615630413)

------
ww520
There was the fuckedcompany website for all those failed companies. There are
lessons to be learnt from all these.

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
What was the best lesson in your opinion?

~~~
smt88
Mine were: 1) start with a market you have access to, not with an idea, and
listen to what the market asks for; 2) hardware is 5x-10x more expensive than
you expect

------
ada1981
I like the idea of Natural Death Meat.

There are some farms that actually do this. They milk the cows and when they
die they are eaten.

~~~
brod
lol, yeah they do but this is the lowest grade of meat and typically graded
for non human consumption.. best beef is fit / healthy and knocked quickly.

~~~
ada1981
I’m vegan. I’m confused on the actual risk for meat eaters and if they could
really tell the difference.

~~~
ddorian43
Well for starters the meat absolutely sucks in taste.

~~~
ada1981
I don’t eat meat at all, so this would be an option for people who are
ethically against meat but might feel they “need it” for health.

------
BoppreH
For more abstract inventions, see also
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/)

~~~
twic
You kids and your sub-reddits! The ancient ones of the web have been
collecting bad ideas since the 20th century:

[http://www.halfbakery.com/](http://www.halfbakery.com/)

------
bufferoverflow
Flops aren't necessarily bad ideas. Some startups fail due to a lack of
funding, bad execution, bad leadership, bad teams, burnouts, legal mishaps,
patent trolls, fatal bugs, etc.

~~~
iamgopal
And stupid bad timings. Like when you do doctor appointments and drug home
delivery and every thing in between on mobile app in 2008 in India. Lesson
learnt, never bet on technology or platform whose working future or adoption
you can not control.

------
filesystemdude
So a platform with only 1% fewer good ideas than Kickstarter?

~~~
madeofpalk
When I saw the link I was hoping it would just redirect to kickstarter.com
(like fisteggplant.com), but then I knew that wouldn't be on the HN

------
cobbzilla
Truth is stranger than fiction; With regards to [1] I'm pretty sure drinking
"raw" rainwater is now a thing and multiple real companies exist in this
space, much to the chagrin of the FDA.

[1]
[http://flopstarter.com/cloudfallenwater/](http://flopstarter.com/cloudfallenwater/)

~~~
reaperducer
In some places, like Colorado, harvesting rainwater is actually illegal
because the groundwater table needs to be replenished.

~~~
cobbzilla
well then there's a whole green-field market in Colorado, since they can't get
their own, right? /s

------
api
Some of these are actually good ideas that would sell. The Mort clothing line
would be a huge hit in the pomo shock art crowd.

~~~
lapnitnelav
It would make a killing.

------
josu
I think that a $600 wireless juice machine, that all it does is press pre-made
juice packages could belong there.

~~~
pram
Considering it had $100+ million in funding, a lot of people apparently
listened to that same exact pitch and thought it was brilliant lol

~~~
jacquesm
Classic example of dumb money and herd mentality among investors. See also:
Theranos, Ubeam.

------
chiefalchemist
This isn't __that__ funny. If they were more believable and less high school-y
it might be worth a revisit.

~~~
carb
I disagree entirely. These are hysterical.

------
bluedino
TrustMessenger, “a chat app that sends every message to your significant
other”, sounds funny, but there is actually a market out there for
accountability software. In one example, your browser history is sent to a
third party (or sponsor) for review.

------
xander2011
Nice to see a lighter side on HN sometimes. The satirical nature of the site
reminds me of when I fell for marketing tactics displayed there.

~~~
icebraining
Reminds me of the
[http://www.stupidhackathon.com/](http://www.stupidhackathon.com/)

~~~
sitkack
Hackathons should be a place for outlandish ideas that otherwise wouldn't get
exposure. As it is, most hackathons are quick PoC so the C-levels have some
projects to choose from.

~~~
detaro
The transformation of basically all hackathons from "do something fun or
interesting" to "product prototype competition for prizes" is sad.
Interestingly, the term "hackday" seems less taken over by that madness.

~~~
setzer22
I couldn't agree more. The hackathons I've won something in were the ones I
enjoyed less due to the huge amount of marketing vs actual technology involved
in the projects.

------
sitkack
I wanted one for feuds, shitstarter.com

------
jpindar
There are many mobile games that are the equivalent of Park Assist Auto, and
they seem popular enough.

~~~
rwmj
Indeed, _Densha de Go_ is one of my all time favourite games, and it's
basically driving a train as precisely as possible.

~~~
reaperducer
I picked up about five of these a few years ago in Japan. I'm terrible at it.
In two weeks of playing I think I got it right maybe once.

------
jkestner
These are funny but only bad ideas.
[http://kickfailure.com](http://kickfailure.com) has some bad ideas with
spectacularly bad execution as well. And they're real. Truth is stranger than
fiction.

I would definitely buy a potato skin jacket.

------
perfectshade
For giggles, I have a novelty twitter account that advertises this sort of
enterprise:
[https://twitter.com/MakingQuillions](https://twitter.com/MakingQuillions)

------
cuddlypsycho
Reminds me of that eccentric Japanese inventor with the silliest inventions:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjuCwnoNWQw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjuCwnoNWQw)

~~~
cuddlypsycho
Kenji Kawakami

------
tbodt
Does this actually take your money? I sure hope not.

~~~
an_account_name
It appears to attempt to auth the card, at least with the “known test card”
4111 1111 1111 1111 (which fails).

------
luckydata
This is redundant, Kickstarter does a great job of being a platform for bad
ideas.

------
rainbowmverse
Finally, real innovation.

------
afandian
halfbakery.com for the millennial generation

~~~
reaperducer
But with an interface that's five million times better.

Half-bakery is impossible to navigate and one-word descriptions are worthless.

------
Grue3
Honestly, I can see AnkleHub being popular.

------
reificator
I have one, I have one!

What if we made Kickstarter, but only slightly worse? We could call it
Flopstarter!

------
matte_black
The timeless watch would actually be very cool. A great accessory for
reminding you to be in the moment.

~~~
voiper1
This already exists.

here's a childish version of one: [https://www.amazon.com/Now-Watch-Present-
Moment-WristBand/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Now-Watch-Present-Moment-
WristBand/dp/B01M35R5KA)

~~~
c22
When I was a kid I had a cool analog watch made of wood that I could just spin
the hands around to wherever I wanted.

Now I have a worn out self-winding watch which loses 5 minutes/hour that I
wear when I don't want to know what time it is.

------
cronjobma
This was hilarious. I’d be cool to have flopstarter come up with 20 projects
every day. I’d go to the website every morning just for laughs. Well done.

