November 14, 2025
Genius or junk?
Show HN: Dumbass Business Ideas
Unicorn dreams or Quibi-level flops? Crowd debates AI vibes and real fails
TLDR: A new showcase of silly startup ideas is winning laughs but raising eyebrows. Commenters split between trying one, blasting the AI-styled look, and asking for a submissions “API” (a simple doorway for apps) and real tried failures like Quibi—showing people want human, authentic flops over slick machine-made lists.
Show HN (short for “Show Hacker News”) just dropped a carnival of “Dumbass Business Ideas,” promising pure entertainment and a pinch of startup truth: every unicorn began as a dumb idea. The crowd instantly split. One optimist dared, “Try one of this, you never know which one will work,” while others side‑eyed the glossy, robo‑vibes. Philpax called out an “aggressive amount of designed‑by‑AI,” complaining it’s visually distracting. Another commenter pushed: did the creator include any human ideas at all? Cue the classic internet debate: fun, chaotic brainstorming versus AI‑generated noise.
Meanwhile, the peanut gallery demanded more chaos. Esophagus4 begged for an API—a simple doorway for apps to submit ideas—promising a “FIREHOSE of dumbass ideas.” Hijp wanted receipts: real flops tried in the wild, name‑dropping Quibi like a cautionary mascot. Some cheered the site’s “it’s a SIN to actually build these” wink; others asked for less AI glare and more community‑sourced disasters. On Hacker News, the vibe split into meme-y camps—dumpster fire jokes versus “just ship it” pep talks. Verdict from the comments: people love the humor and want to play, but crave authenticity—messy, human, tried‑and‑failed stories over a slick AI list with unicorn emojis.
Key Points
- •The project is a curated collection of intentionally bad business ideas.
- •It is presented as entertainment and not meant for practical use.
- •A disclaimer warns against using the ideas for anything other than entertainment.
- •The framing notes that some successful startups began as ideas that seemed dumb at first.
- •It acknowledges that most dumb ideas do not become successful “unicorns.”