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Show HN: A store that generates products from anything you type in search

(anycrap.shop)
1160 points kafked | 4 comments | 13 Sep 25 12:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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lucasyvas ◴[13 Sep 25 14:20 UTC] No.45232277[source]▶
You could make money off of this if you are able to pair willing manufacturers to realistic and popular ideas that get generated. It could become a real market place.

Hilarious project.

Edit: I did both Mouthwash Ramen and Time Machine to the Present. I’m now addicted to this, thanks.

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haolez ◴[13 Sep 25 14:22 UTC] No.45232298[source]▶
I know of a company that is huge in laser for physics and started like this in the 80s (through magazine catalogs).

They would list all kinds of lasers. When they got some offers for one of them, they'd sell it and schedule the delivery in 90 days. Then, they started the project from scratch. Crazy stuff and borderline legal :D

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1. nilamo ◴[13 Sep 25 15:51 UTC] No.45233061[source]▶
A previous boss did this in the early 2000s. Put up a bunch of single page descriptions with "coming soon" labels, include an email subscription to "stay on top of news", turn on AdWords to get some traffic... and then start working on what people were actually interested in.
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2. prerok ◴[13 Sep 25 16:50 UTC] No.45233462[source]▶
Isn't this just sort of market research for how to prioritize the roadmap? I think it was a great way to do so.
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3. pinkmuffinere ◴[13 Sep 25 19:17 UTC] No.45234572[source]▶
Ya, I know this strategy under the name “smokescreen mvp”. I don’t remember exactly, but I think it is advocated in the lean startup. Personally I am a big supporter of the strategy. Many startups fail because _nobody cared about the problem_, and this is totally avoidable
4. SequoiaHope ◴[13 Sep 25 19:34 UTC] No.45234693[source]▶
Yeah this seems like the kind of thing people would have advised me to do when I was trying to start startups around 2010. But I was too focused on engineering and had no head for the business side so I never tried it.