You asked about Retail
28 people built something like it. 6 are gone.
That is 24% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 3 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-06-01 | AI-powered checkout for retail. · standard.ai | still up |
| 2012-06-01 | YCThread Thread makes it incredibly easy to dress well, using stylists and AI · thread.com | gone |
| 2020-06-01 | YCBIK Agentic AI CRM for ecommerce · bik.ai | still up |
| 2009-06-01 | YCOlark Olark gives you an AI agent that works your marketing funnel 24/7 · olark.com | still up |
| 2013-01-01 | Data and AI platform for Ecommerce & Cross-Border Logistics · semantics3.com | acquired |
| 2022-01-01 | One-click checkout and AI sales assistant for LatAm. · comprarapida.co | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | Helping furniture companies create product visuals with AI · presti.ai | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCCaper Plug-and-play cashier-less retail powered by computer vision and AI · caper.ai | acquired |
| 2024-01-01 | An AI-powered supply chain compliance engine · retailreadyai.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | In-store analytics AI assistant to fix your retail stores · auravision.ai | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | YCSprintAI AI-led platform for inventory and fulfillment optimization · getsprint.ai | gone |
| 2025-09-01 | YCProx AI product specialists for equipment manufacturers · useprox.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCLizza AI-assitant for managing creator-brand partnerships · lizza.link | still up |
| 2024-09-01 | YCMetreecs AI-powered demand forecasting for retail · metreecs.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YCAnglera AI-Powered Product Data Enrichment · anglera.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Mobile app for CPG brands to connect to millions of stores globally · milkyway.ai | gone |
| 2024-01-01 | Smart grocery pricing with AI · betterbasket.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Building Gong.io for offline retail. · outloud.ai | gone |
| 2025-06-01 | YCAstor AI advisor for retail investors · astor.app | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | AI for R&D of consumer brands like P&G to develop better products · turingsaas.com | still up |
| 2023-09-13 | solutions.lykdat.com | moved |
| 2019-01-01 | We make $1,000 Amazon Go stores. · maitian.ai | gone |
| 2021-01-01 | YCAvocado AI-Native Restaurant POS · avocadopos.com | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | AI Overview Search, as a Service · branch-ai.com | gone |
| 2024-01-01 | YCScout AI insights for consumer products · cpgscout.ai | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCBooth AI Generative AI Photographer for E-Commerce · booth.ai | acquired |
| 2024-06-01 | YCRefactor Deploying secure and reliable AI agents across healthcare, retail,… · refactor.co | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCVersable AI powered product description enhancement for the auto parts industry · versableai.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCSoco Visual AI shopping · socosearch.com | still up |
How this compares
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.