
Show HN: RandomStartup.org – Refresh the page to discover another startup - paulborza
http://www.randomstartup.org/
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stevewilhelm
When is a startup no longer a startup?

Should mint.com (acquired by Intuit five years ago after raising thirty
million in five rounds) or redfin.com (ten years old, and has raised a hundred
million dollars in seven rounds) really be considered startups?

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dublinben
I think a reasonable point at which to consider startups just normal companies
is upon IPO or acquisition. That's certainly the end goal for most startups,
and when the structure really changes.

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duaneb
...unless they don't IPO, or they aren't acquired. Hopefully there are less
grim options for startups to be validated.

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fooyc
This looks like a collection of startups whose web site is vulnerable to click
jacking [1]: they all allow to be embedded in an iframe.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking)

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gohrt
Seems crazy that sites need to individually opt in to anti-Clickjacking with
CSP, instead of modern browsers disabling it by default.

In other cases, the default is to not let a page mix origins:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-origin_policy#Cross-
Origin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-origin_policy#Cross-
Origin_Resource_Sharing)

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PSeitz
I thought this is a really good startup generator, until I realized it's real
...

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kubiiii
Same here. A generator was posted a few days ago and it took me a couple of
startups to realize this was not a (far) better generator. Great initiative
though.

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adevine
Simple and useful, very cool.

One thing I thought was interesting as I was clicking around was how so many
of the sites have "converged" to a single UI design style, e.g. full screen
photo background overlaid with a short blurb about the site, and a big
slightly rounded-rectangular "start" button (sometimes some text fields), then
as you scroll down you usually get a couple horizontally laid out big icons,
etc. etc.

Of course, this isn't surprising, but it just becomes so apparent as you click
refresh. Just thought it was interesting, that's all.

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knd775
Most sites seem to look like a Bootstrap template, even if they don't use
Bootstrap.

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vhost-
Just goes to show the impact those guys from Twitter have made. Whether that's
a positive thing or a negative thing, it is still massive.

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bdevani
Very addictive and a neat way to see what is going on out there with a quick
browse.

I'd suggest more modern look and feel for the top bar, maybe something like a
black bkgd with opacity? Currently it pulls the feel of the site down a bit.

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rtkwe
A mechanism to flag sites as 'not a start-up' would be good. There are already
sites like 9gag and upworthy in the mix. (4 & 144)

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melvinmt
What counts as a startup? Both 9gag and Upworthy raised many VC millions.

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michaelbuckbee
Neat! It's like Stumbleupon for Startups. Also, I tried to add mine, but it's
restricted?

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paulborza
You're right, it's restricted :| I'll fix it soon. Sorry for the
inconvenience.

~~~
paulborza
It's fixed now!

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desireco42
I was thinking on making something like this, I am happy you beat me to it.
Just remember, this should be used for discovery.

Scratch that, google docs for submittal :) seriously?! Even graduates from
devbootcamp's can do 100 times better and we should give them some slack.

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city41
What's wrong with Google docs for submitting? By using it he was probably able
to whip this site up in a few hours instead of a day or two. Why waste time
building something you won't end up pursuing?

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ecesena
Good job! How do you check if the startup's site can be embedded into your
iframe?

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uptownhr
i check for the x-frame-header

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crixlet
Nice, simple, and addictive! If you don't mind, adding it to startuplister.com

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iamshs
It is kind of addicting.

1)The top bar can be improved.

2) Hackerrank constantly refreshes for me. Some sites do not load properly.

3) Lots of startups appear again, if a startup site has been shown can it be
removed from the queque?

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nawitus
You could add a link to the startup in question to the panel. Sometimes the
startup's page doesn't have a clear link to click on.

EDIT: Noticed that you can click the #<number>

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computerjunkie
I actually like this. Although it "feels" a bit slow when loading up the page,
its compensated with a smooth scrolling experience which is not choppy.

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ltcoleman
Strangely enough, the first startup that was shown is the only startup from
Arkansas that has gone to Y. I am a developer in Arkansas. Creepy.

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paulborza2
It's just a coincidence. The selection of the startup to show is done randomly
on each request.

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bhaumik
Similar to: [http://startuptabs.com/tab/](http://startuptabs.com/tab/)

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uptownhr
Yup, there's also a chrome extension available.

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ashleyp
Would be good if considers user location. I'm not interested in startups
outside of my country =)

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paulborza
I've built this over the weekend so that I get a chance to play around with
Node.js

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BillFranklin
Awesome. Hook it up to Angel List and you'll have made a fun sweepstakes
investment game for VCs. How do you add a startup?

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canweriotnow
Definitely! Angel List has a really simple REST API, it shouldn't be hard to
do.

I used it with my (fake) EdTEch Startup Generator[1], to check if my fake
startup is actually a real startup. I was surprised how often it happens.

[1] [http://eduwampus.herokuapp.com](http://eduwampus.herokuapp.com) *

* May load a little slow, it's on Heroku free tier.

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techaddict009
Everything looks fine. Please try to modify the css of the top frame. It looks
little old. You can try modern flat colors.

