Show HN: I’m 16 years old and working on my first startup, a study app
67 WilliamCranna 49 5/11/2025, 6:26:37 AM notiv.app ↗
As a student with a lot of notes I had a problem with studying fast for tests. So I created Notiv an AI study app that analyzes your notes and prepares you for test.
https://llrnghrthzeonfuakaew.supabase.co/auth/v1/verify?toke...
Hahahaha, I can't believe I found the meme in the wild!
The first thing I learn about this app on the landing page - is that it's going to be a business and what it's pricing plans are.
This is before me being SOLD on the damn thing to begin with.
So the order the app introduces itself is:
1. Pricing (it's a SAAS)
2. Asks to create an account.
3. The user here closes the tab somewhere here, unless they apriori know they want whatever it is you're offering. Or they have been sold this from word of mouth.
The order it should be in:
1. Oh, wow, this is cool. I like this, this is exactly what I need. So lets create an account to save the things I've already created here while playing around.
2. As you create account, introduce user to pricing plans and extras you get from a paid account.
https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/20-jae...
Her product https://www.bulletpoint.app/
If i would be a VC, i would spend only 5 min on the product and hand them 500k without any discussion :)
You shouldn't also use the same image for the testimonial as the first image in your xyz users are using app.
(and unlimited may generate for you too high costs ;))
Otherwise seems nice, will test, good luck!
The user has no background, and I couldn't find any info on the creator itself.
I'd say the hardest bit about running a business is not running the business. It's everything else - admin, figuring out what you actually want to do, reaching customers, retaining customers etc.
But also that's the bit you have lots of time to figure out. Focus on the bits you enjoy and try to learn as much as you can (unless you are really desperate for cash out of this, in which case focus on all that!). You can figure out the boring bits later.
I wish you all the best with your initiative!
Haven't used it but that's pretty cool!! This is something I struggle with as many of my topics don't have free/cheap practice tests.
How are you analyzing and marking up the notes? Assuming it is with a partner/third-party AI, isn't this sharing my data with (for example) OpenAI?
I’m sure when you were 16 you might have made the same mistakes too.
This sounds kind of fake, like a character playing a customer saying good things about your product.
Only God knows how much I needed better grammar when I was 16. Tbh I still do.. LoL
It's very good that young people are engaged. It's encouraging for us grey beards interested in the future of technology and a healthy action for us old people to encourage younger people.
As my beard gets greyer so my pattern recognition library of samples gets bigger and it has recognised a "I'm 16" prefix to popular HN submissions!
https://hn.algolia.com/?q=i%27m+16 https://hn.algolia.com/?q=i%27m+17
No comments yet
Yeah, no
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.
From my point of view, for this not to be a scam: 1 - there should first be a video presentation of the program's operation with all functions, not a website with a bunch of promises and a PAY button 2 - You should definitely write your FIRST startup without any AI generation at all!
Congrats on launching though, this is an amazing achievement and the dedication/skill set will take you far.
https://vocal.media/families/this-is-not-your-way-story
Turns out I misread the Unicode, and it is actually "Tôi Là Một Con Lừa", which is Vietnamese for "I am a donkey", which probably makes it suitable reading material for yours truly.
I’m fairly confident this isn’t due to jealousy, although I used to believe that was the reason. Given recent geopolitical developments, I’ve become increasingly convinced that it stems from a deep aversion to narcissistic personality traits.
Please be humble. Some people might reward you for your marketing skills, but others find it off-putting. You probably won’t hear much from them on Hacker News, though.
Still, I wish you best of luck in developing your programming and business skills!
Are you referring to the actual post? What age would it be appropriate to post one's creations would you say? Or is it the "I'm 16-" prefix? But I can't work out where the narcissism comes in.
I'm not saying that one or the other approach is objectively better, I was merely sharing my personal opinion on the matter, so that perhaps someone can learn from that data point, or to offer some comfort to those who frequent Hacker News for the critical thinking rather than the money-making news.
(Apart from the title, the website with legal matter suggest a focus on things that I certainly do not associate favorably with a "hacker".)
There's still time left to apply to YC's 2025 summer batch: [0] You have 48 hours left until applications close on May 13th.
Who knows, maybe you could achieve fast growth like Scale AI (YC S16) [1] did.
All you have to do is to keep building.
[0] https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20620578
Kudos, William, for putting this app together. Keep a thick skin when reading and acting on the comments and you’ll have a sweet project on your hands