Which technology, product, or startup do you think deserves a comeback?
Yesterday, I kept thinking about the launch of @Startups.RIP by @sfoscar .
It was a really interesting concept, and it made me reflect on how certain technologies tend to come back to life in waves across different eras.
For example, these I remember from university lectures:
Technology | First emergence | Major hype waves | Recent/modern phase |
|---|---|---|---|
3D | 1950s–60s (early experiments) | 1980s–90s (graphics), 2009–2013 (3D movies boom) | 2010s–today (3D printing, industrial use, steady adoption) |
VR | 1960s (early prototypes) | 1990s (first consumer hype), 2012–2016 (Oculus revival) | 2016–now (gaming, enterprise, spatial computing) |
NFTs | 2012–2015 (early blockchain experiments) | 2017 (CryptoKitties), 2021 (mainstream boom) | 2022–now (post-hype, utility-focused use cases) |
Sometimes things don’t fail because they’re inherently bad, but because:
the founder didn’t have enough stamina or resources to keep pushing it forward
the market wasn’t ready at that exact moment
the timing was off (regulation, infrastructure, or user behaviour wasn’t aligned yet)
the narrative around the product wasn’t strong enough to keep attention long-term, etc.
And yesterday's launch made me wonder:
Which products, companies, or technologies do you think deserve a second chance, even though they didn’t make a huge impact the first time around?
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