Hacker News.love – 22 projects Hacker News didn't love
2 days ago
- #technology
- #innovation
- #startups
- Dropbox was initially dismissed but IPO'd in 2018 at a $12B valuation.
- GitHub, perceived as just a git host, was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5B in 2018.
- Bitcoin, with minimal initial interest, grew to a $2 trillion asset class.
- DuckDuckGo overcame name criticism to reach 100M+ daily queries and a $600M valuation.
- Uber faced skepticism and legal challenges but IPO'd in 2019 at a $160B valuation.
- Airbnb, doubted for scalability and trust issues, IPO'd in 2020 at a $100B+ valuation.
- Stripe, compared unfavorably to PayPal, reached a $106B+ valuation.
- Instacart, seen as non-scalable, IPO'd in 2023 at a $12B valuation.
- Segment was acquired by Twilio for $3.2B in 2020.
- TypeScript became the most impactful programming language of the 2010s.
- React, criticized for mixing markup and logic, became the most popular UI library.
- Product Hunt became the go-to platform for launching tech products.
- Airtable created a new product category and reached an $11B valuation.
- Figma, initially met with 'MEH', was valued at $20B and IPO'd at $60B+.
- Tailwind CSS became the most-downloaded CSS framework.
- Warp, criticized for being VC-backed, became the most popular modern terminal.
- Bun became a legitimate Node.js alternative with 80,000+ GitHub stars.
- ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history.
- Cursor IDE, initially unnoticed, was valued at $10B by 2025.
- Windsurf was acquired in a $2.4B deal.
- Claude Code hit $1B in annualized revenue within 6 months.
- An AI agent project surpassed 145,000+ GitHub stars and spawned an ecosystem.