You asked about Design Tools
23 people built something like it. 2 are gone.
That is 9% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 1 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-07-18 | locofy.ai | still up |
| 2022-06-14 | prettysmart.co | still up |
| 2022-06-17 | adcreative.ai | still up |
| 2022-06-18 | ugurkilci.com | still up |
| 2022-04-28 | visily.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | AI-native operating system for home service businesses · broccoli.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCBotCity Observability and Governance for AI-Generated Python scripts. · botcity.dev | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCUnlayer AI-powered content creation infrastructure for apps · unlayer.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCIntuned Code-first scrapers and RPAs — built and maintained by AI · intunedhq.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Open-source, AI-first and no-code business automation tool · activepieces.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | AI-driven HVAC control system for improved energy performance · axross.co | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCPloomber Heroku for AI · ploomber.io | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | No-Code LLM Application / Workflow Builder · queryvary.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Turn user feedback to product insights · monterey.ai | acquired |
| 2022-07-18 | locofy.ai | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | AI for modern automotive dealerships · useclearline.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | AI agents rewriting & optimising your internal documentation for LLMs · refinetrain.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | We make Orca, MIT open source terminal-based agent orchestrator · onorca.dev | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCInstant The best backend for AI-coded apps · instantdb.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCRaven AI Assistants for Manufacturing Operations · startraven.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCMidplane The safety layer between AI agents and your database · midplane.ai | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | AI powered web & mobile automation · dev-tools.ai | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | YCBlink Build fully functional apps with AI. · blink.new | still up |
How this compares
Y Combinator reports its own outcomes, including acquisitions. The other two are judged by asking the domain, so they are not measured the same way and are never averaged together.
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.