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Show HN: I built a site where 100k strangers each pay $1.99 to upload one photo (onetile.me)

3 points by omara123 ↗ HN
Attempting to get 100,000 strangers to each pay $1.99 to upload one photo to a collaborative digital mural. Inspired directly by the Million Dollar Homepage but instead of anonymous pixels its real human photos that grow the mural in real time. Built in a single evening using AI tools. Stripe went live the same night. Currently on day 3. The internet experiment angle...does this concept still work in 2026? The Million Dollar Homepage sold out in 2005 with zero social media. This one is trying to do it with 195 Twitter followers and a reply game.

13 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.9 ms ] thread
obayesshelton
Why though... what benefit do I get for that $1.99
omara123
Happy to answer any questions about the build or the concept. Built the whole thing in one night using Base44, no code (i have zero coding skills). Stripe integration took about 2 hours. Currently the hardest part is distribution which is why I'm on HN at 9am.
xzmhxdxh
Can you add a feature for external links?
omara123
for anyone curious, just checked analytics. onetile.me is seeing its biggest traffic spike since launch. seems like HN readers are at least curious enough to click. appreciate the honest feedback in this thread either way
omara123
Day 4 update.....130 visits, 8 tiles, first $9.99 link tier live
omara123
Update: first paying customer came in overnight ! someone from the HN thread actually. They pushed back on the $1.99 value, I built the $9.99 tier based on that feedback, and they bought it a few hours later. That exchange was more valuable than anything else I did yesterday
ozgurds
As a totally technical person with almost 20 years of experience in the industry; I still cannot understand some of customers' behaviors. Same for the million dollars home page. But people are nondeterministic. Sometimes you cannt directly explain ehy but it still happens. Hope the second million dollars bome page twill be successful as well
omara123
That nondeterministic point is exactly it. The million dollar homepage shouldn't have worked by any rational measure. That's kind of the whole experiment here.. does it still work in 2026 with no budget and no audience? Finding out in real time.. Also, we've seen way way dumber ideas and things takeoff just for the hell of it
omara123
woke up to 3 tiles sold overnight. same guy bought all three. emailed him to ask why. day 8, 14 tiles, strangers are finding it on their own now
omara123
update: 2 more sales since this morning! now at 16 tiles, $73.50 revenue. two different buyers each purchased multiple $9.99 tiles for different businesses in the same session. still figuring out where they're finding it.
omara123
Day 9 update: someone bulk deleted our entire database today via a security vulnerability. Caught them in the audit logs, patched the hole, personally restored every customer's tile by hand. Reddit thread on the incident got 18k views. Still standing. onetile.me