I built a failed startups goods website and named it VcSubsidized.com

  • Everything for sale on this site seems to be a joke, but there are real firms that specialize in liquidating the assets of failed startups. There was an HN post about this a few weeks ago:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42790536

  • Flagged:

    - should be a [Show HN]

    - two plausibly real listings, neither of which is a deal ($700 aeron which are $540 new, 8 year old alexa for $25)

    - many spam/joke listings, and 1 of the 2 real listings is a joke (the aeron)

    - there's plenty of real sites for this

    - "Built with Cursor by Heshie Brody (on @heshiebee also Stop Being Broke)"

    - Comments not pointing these things out are odd in a way that is strongly indicative of spam

    -- "will you open source it?" (I rarely see this on HN, and makes ~0 sense in this context)

    -- "have you considered making a startup for this?" (the website purports to be a business?)

  • Neat idea. Random initial impressions:

    * On search listings, make clicking anywhere in the rounded-rectangle for the search hit go to the details view. (Actually, maybe make the whole rectangle a hyperlink, so people can middle-click and do all the normal browser link things with it.)

    * On the detail view, there's no obvious button to go back to the search view. Even if you support old-school browser back feature, which is commendable, you might want to also have a button/link.

    * On the detail view, the Twitter/X logo button in the upper right corner of the window almost looks like a close-window X like we see on some other sites for going back to the search view.

    * You might want to make a clear argument for why people should use this instead of a liquidator, eBay, CraigsList, Facebook Marketplace, etc. (As a buyer, I'm thinking maybe I can find a deal here because there's not many other buyers. But as a seller who just lost their startup, I'd be thinking what's the easiest way to make these Aeron chairs and standing desks go away, with money a second priority, since there are better uses of my time and storage space.)

    * You have a spam.

  • From the title I thought this would be a site to get, like, weird startup gadgets that never took off. Looks like this is just craiglist for office furniture/IT from startups.

  • I dunno about Herman Miller but my local Steelcase dealer (an hour away) was pretty pissed when I showed up wanting repairs for a chair I bought on eBay.

    (Personally I can't sit in the Aeron, the mesh causes my hamstrings to explode in pain, so I could care less that I have a Herman Miller dealer in town.)

  • From the name I was hoping this would be a list of services being offered at a loss as they burn VC money to get marketshare.

  • My first thought was that the was gonna be more like the defunct VC Fund My Life (vcfml.com), but I suppose growth-hacking startups that offer extravagant coupon codes for "Uber for naps" are so last decade. The new hit thing is apparently startups folding.

  • ZeroInterestWaste dot com

  • Beware dangling modifiers!

    > I built a failed startups goods website and named it VcSubsidized.com

    Is better written as: I built a website named VcSubsidized.com for failed startups goods

  • I think as social satire it's pretty funny.

  • Looks like you'll need to curate that front page at least, if not all the listings :)

  • wow, memelord.tech is… cringe.

    & this whole post seems like a slight joke / promo for it.

  • looks great, have you considered making a startup business for this?

  • It's largely overpriced.

  • Another post flagged for dubious reasons?

  • I thought this meant the website was a failure... and looking at it, I think its due to become one.

  • [flagged]