You asked about Virtual and Augmented Reality
13 people built something like it. 1 is gone.
That is 9% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 2 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-01 | Building the next generation AI creative studio · moonvalley.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCRamen VR Ramen VR is transforming game development with advanced XR + AI tools. · ramenvr.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | YCPhiar We are developing a revolutionary AI-powered augmented reality… · phiar.net | acquired |
| 2018-01-01 | We make AI technology for Robotic and AR Surgeries · algosurg.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | YCLeena AI We at Leena AI build a virtual assistant that answers employee's… · leena.ai | still up |
| 2022-04-04 | hirequotient.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Virtualizing brick-mortar infrastructures of clinics w/ generative AI · ankr.us | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCEdwin Edwin is virtual English tutor - an AI-powered service for learning… · edwin.ai | acquired |
| 2023-09-05 | ethical-ai.eu | still up |
| 2021-01-16 | meetgeek.ai | still up |
| 2026-08-20 | secondreality1993.com | unverified |
| 2022-06-01 | API for Retrieval Augmented Generation · superpowered.ai | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | YCPostal An AI native virtual address & mailroom for businesses. · usepostal.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCMercoa AI Agent for Billpay platforms to pay invoices with virtual cards · mercoa.com | 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.