Launching today
Startups.RIP
Rebuild 1,738+ dead YC startups with AI
36 followers
Rebuild 1,738+ dead YC startups with AI
36 followers
Startups often fail because of timing, not ideas. Startups.RIP is a wiki of 1,700+ YC startups that shut down or got acquired. Our AI research agent writes a detailed post-mortem (what they built, why they failed, what's changed since) and a rebuild playbook with implementation-ready technical specs you can drop straight into your AI coding agent. Every failed startup is a validated market with unfinished business. Shortcut the idea maze. Start with what almost worked.
Startups.RIP
Hey Product Hunt, I'm Oscar, the maker of Startup.RIP 👋
The best startup ideas aren't always new. They're remixes that entered a market at the right time.
Lyrebird (S17) introduced AI voice cloning in 2017 then folded. Years later, ElevenLabs hit $11B valuation on the same idea. Multiple YC companies attempted prediction markets before regulatory changes enabled Kalshi (W19) to go mainstream. It pays to learn from startup history.
Startups.RIP is a database of 1,700+ YC startups that died or got acquired. Our AI deeply researches post-mortem for each one — what they built, why they failed, what's changed — and generates a rebuild playbook with implementation-ready specs you can drop into Claude Code, Codex, or your coding AI of choice.
As covered by Forbes: dozens of YC fintech startups that took teams of engineers years to build can now be shipped in an afternoon using AI.
The first 32 reports are free. Pro ($20/mo) unlocks everything. We're giving 25% off the Pro subscription to our first 100 supporters (use the code PHLAUNCH). We also offer a 50% BUILDER discount for anyone who builds and ships a project inspired by an idea they found on Startups.RIP.
The product is still rough around the edges, so any feedback is much appreciated. Drop a comment; I read everything.
Interesting dataset. Looking at failed startups is always useful.
But I’m not fully convinced by the framing that “every failed startup is a validated market.” Many of them failed because the market simply wasn’t there, or the economics never worked. Timing matters, but sometimes the idea itself was flawed.
Also curious how the AI determines why a startup failed. Post-mortems are messy and often speculative even for humans who were inside the company.
Still, the archive itself sounds valuable. A structured database of 1,700 YC shutdowns could be a great learning resource for founders if the analysis stays grounded in real signals and not just narrative.
Startups.RIP
@niksmac You're right, that was probably too strong a statement. I was mostly thinking of startups that hit PMF (in YC's words, "made something people wanted") but still failed. Many were over-capitalised for the size of the market they were in, so while it might not have made sense as a venture-backed co, it could be a great bootstrapped business.
Re: economics, AI changes the landscape too. E.g. Atrium (W18) tried to do a tech-enabled law firm, but most of the work still had to be done by expensive lawyers. Years later, startups like Harvey, Legora (W24), and Crosby were able to benefit from offloading legal work to LLMs.
Our specialised Deep Research agent prioritises any post-mortem / retrospective-like commentary from the founders themselves (blog posts, tweets, podcast interviews, etc.) We try to ground the claims in primary accounts as much as possible and note speculations.
Appreciate you checking us out!
Loved the idea and the name, all the best for the launch. Small feedback it would be great if u could add TL;DR for each startup.
Awshar AI
@gamifykaran yes karan i also think so
Startups.RIP
@gamifykaran great idea! we will for sure add this. thx for suggesting 🙏
Cyris
I always loved browsing this site before I even launched my first product. Absolute gold mine for when you have founders-block
Startups.RIP
@krishnam_goel So glad it helped! If your next project is inspired in part or whole by the ideas on Startups.RIP, please let me know! We'd love to feature you 😁
Cyris
Startups.RIP
@krishnam_goel that amazing! learning from the prior attempts at solving the same / similar problem will save you a bunch of headache down the road. congrats on your launch 🎉
lol at Delve being the first featured company hahaha. This is cool to see though. Love that it does so much of the heavy lifting... it's not an aggregated graveyard, more like a treasure trove + AI planning so you can avoid any pitfalls
Startups.RIP
@chris_u_han thx for the kind words! "treasure trove" is a great way to put it, I hope Startups.RIP can inspire people who are looking for their project to tackle!