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Create a founder digest and leads from Hacker News with GPT-4o and Gmail

Workflow preview

Create a founder digest and leads from Hacker News with GPT-4o and Gmail preview
Open on n8n.io

Important notice

This workflow is provided as-is. Please review and test before using in production.

Overview

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๐Ÿ“Š 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.

โš ๏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.

๐Ÿ”„ What This Template Does

1๏ธโƒฃ Runs automatically on a daily schedule โฐ 2๏ธโƒฃ Searches Hacker News discussions via Google using SerpAPI ๐Ÿ” 3๏ธโƒฃ Extracts titles, summaries, links, and metadata from results ๐Ÿ“„ 4๏ธโƒฃ Filters out guidelines, index pages, and non-discussion links ๐Ÿšซ 5๏ธโƒฃ Aggregates valid discussion threads into a single dataset ๐Ÿ“ฆ 6๏ธโƒฃ Uses AI to identify key trends, problems, and founder-relevant signals ๐Ÿง  7๏ธโƒฃ Generates a concise daily founder digest (trend, why it matters, actions) โœ๏ธ 8๏ธโƒฃ Sends the digest automatically via email ๐Ÿ“ง 9๏ธโƒฃ Cleans and normalizes insights for storage ๐Ÿงน ๐Ÿ”Ÿ Appends structured founder intelligence to Google Sheets for tracking ๐Ÿ“Š

โœ… Key Benefits

โœ… Eliminates manual Hacker News scanning โœ… Surfaces only high-signal, founder-relevant discussions โœ… Converts raw discussions into clear, actionable insights โœ… Delivers a daily, skimmable founder digest automatically โœ… Builds a historical intelligence log in Google Sheets โœ… Creates a repeatable founder research workflow

โš™๏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

๐Ÿ”‘ Requirements

  • SerpAPI account
  • Azure OpenAI credentials
  • Gmail account connected to n8n
  • Google Sheets account
  • Self-hosted n8n instance

๐ŸŽฏ 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