Create a founder digest and leads from Hacker News with GPT-4o and Gmail
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Important notice
This workflow is provided as-is. Please review and test before using in production.
Overview
๐ Description
Automate daily founder intelligence from Hacker News without manual monitoring. This workflow scans Hacker News discussions (Show HN, launches, AI, startups, SaaS), filters out noise and non-discussion pages, and extracts only high-signal threads. AI then converts these discussions into a concise, founder-ready daily digest highlighting key trends, why they matter, and practical actions. The digest is delivered via email, while structured insights are logged to Google Sheets for long-term tracking and analysis.
โ ๏ธ Deployment Disclaimer
This template is designed for self-hosted n8n installations only. It relies on external MCP tools and custom AI orchestration that are not supported on n8n Cloud.
๐ What This Template Does
1๏ธโฃ Runs automatically on a daily schedule โฐ 2๏ธโฃ Searches Hacker News discussions via Google using SerpAPI ๐ 3๏ธโฃ Extracts titles, summaries, links, and metadata from results ๐ 4๏ธโฃ Filters out guidelines, index pages, and non-discussion links ๐ซ 5๏ธโฃ Aggregates valid discussion threads into a single dataset ๐ฆ 6๏ธโฃ Uses AI to identify key trends, problems, and founder-relevant signals ๐ง 7๏ธโฃ Generates a concise daily founder digest (trend, why it matters, actions) โ๏ธ 8๏ธโฃ Sends the digest automatically via email ๐ง 9๏ธโฃ Cleans and normalizes insights for storage ๐งน ๐ Appends structured founder intelligence to Google Sheets for tracking ๐
โ Key Benefits
โ Eliminates manual Hacker News scanning โ Surfaces only high-signal, founder-relevant discussions โ Converts raw discussions into clear, actionable insights โ Delivers a daily, skimmable founder digest automatically โ Builds a historical intelligence log in Google Sheets โ Creates a repeatable founder research workflow
โ๏ธ Features
- Daily scheduled execution
- Hacker News discovery via Google Search (SerpAPI)
- Noise filtering with custom JavaScript logic
- AI-powered trend and insight extraction
- Founder-focused digest generation
- Email delivery via Gmail
- Insight archiving in Google Sheets
๐ Requirements
- SerpAPI account
- Azure OpenAI credentials
- Gmail account connected to n8n
- Google Sheets account
- Self-hosted n8n instance
๐ฏ Target Audience
- Startup founders tracking early signals
- Product and growth leaders monitoring trends
- VCs and analysts scouting emerging tools
- Teams needing automated market and founder intelligence