AI Generated Website,
Almost No information on the creator,
Fake Testimonial...
Yeah, no
Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
51–60 of 132 posts
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#52What if they’re really a large group of businessmen and investors pretending to be a 16 year old?
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#53What if they’re really a large group of businessmen and investors pretending to be a 16 year old?
I assume all these "I am 16" type posts are just ways to help market, unless the account exists for some time before the Show HN with clear evidence they are in high school (I have seen many younger people talk about high school internships, for example - if they then have a Show HN I will believe it!)
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because near everything about this appears to be a low effort scam. The gmail is to add to the "authenticity" of the scammer being 16, because this way they can add a presumed birthyear, wheras with domain email it would make no sense. Proof is in that the address williamcranna@gmail.com is avaliable, which would be the first thing a reasonable person would have tried, before adding the year like a dickhead.
…or they could genuinely be 16 and thus have no experience in how to do this professionally. I’m sure when you were 16 you might have made the same mistakes too.
Nah, I don't buy it. Theyre good enough at higher level skills / comprehension that such enormous failures in more foundational skills makes no sense.
the website advertises a product that makes use of web infrastructure signficantly more complex/sophisticated than webmail tied to your domain. It's a zero effort zero cost addon for most hosting services these days.
so either this whole thing is a LLM project, and the 16 year old just has their name and reputation as a biological human of young age propping up / hyping the llm based product, or its a scam.
bottom line. It's either unremarkable or untrustworthy, likely both.
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
…or they could genuinely be 16 and thus have no experience in how to do this professionally. I’m sure when you were 16 you might have made the same mistakes too.
FUD
It might be more productive to explain how this scam works instead of dismissing my counter argument with an incorrectly used meme.
I really don’t see how a learning app for students who also frequent HN is a valuable enough demographic to target. And ironically, the red flags identified would be mistakes a scammer would know not to make.
Everything about this submission can be easily explained by inexperience but it’s a lot harder to explain why it’s scam.
You could apply Occam’s Razor here and reasonably say that this being an inexperienced 16 year old is the hypothesis with the fewer assumptions.
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
…or they could genuinely be 16 and thus have no experience in how to do this professionally. I’m sure when you were 16 you might have made the same mistakes too.
Nah, I don't buy it. Theyre good enough at higher level skills / comprehension that such enormous failures in more foundational skills makes no sense. the website advertises a product that makes use of web infrastructure signficantly more complex/sophisticated than webmail tied to your domain. It's a zero effort zero cost addon for most hosting services these days. so either this whole thing is a LLM project, and the…
> Nah, I don't buy it. Theyre good enough at higher level skills / comprehension that such enormous failures in more foundational skills makes no sense
It wouldn’t make sense for a scammer to make those mistakes either. So you’re not proving anything nefarious by pointing out those mistakes. All you’re proving is mistakes have been made.
You might be surprised to learn this, but people makes a lot of mistakes at the start of their career. And 16 is very early on.
I suspect there might have been some “vibe coding” going on, but that’s the worst criticism I’m willing to make. And even if I’m correct here, everyone has to start somewhere. I grew up with massive printed books, others on here learned from Stack Overflow. Vibe coding is only a problem if you don’t learn from it too.
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#57[flagged]
I wouldn’t say scam, but definitely low effort vibe-coded product
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#58For the last few months I've been using notebooklm.google.com.
I can't see anything better from this site/ author...is there something I'm missing? Tried youtube to see it in action...nothing.
On a privacy note, item 4 of the privacy link states: You can request deletion of your data by contacting us at [email address].
So if, in the future, something happens...what then? Seems like a lot of info [for me] to give out, but no future, cast iron, guarantees. What if something happens to williamcranna2008@gmail.com?
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#59Why is every app a startup now? It's a serious question. Is the focus studying fast for tests (quoted from OP)? Or running a business? If the real goal were studying, the app could be banged out quickly and you could get back to studying. The business is a time sink - which at this stage OP would have presumably discovered - he's already out here spending time promoting it.
> Why is every app a startup now?
Because VC money doesn't invest in apps, and it's trendy.
Re: Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
#60Congratulations on launching William. There's quite a bit of criticism here that'll help you refine your app I think. I'm working on a something similar and already learning from the discussion here around user experience and privacy. All the best.