Show HN: WhatToBuy – Describe your situation, get AI-curated shopping carts
TL;DR
WhatToBuy is a web app where you describe your situation – e.g. 'camping weekend with two young kids' – and receive ready-to-shop carts with real products and prices.
Key Points
- Two modes: 'Fast' instantly returns three carts (Budget, Balanced, Premium); 'Deep' first holds a conversation with you before building a single tailored cart.
- The team cites 30–60 minutes of typical pre-purchase research time as the problem they are solving.
- All products come with direct buy links, so the app handles both recommendation and checkout path.
Nauti's Take
The concept is solid and the use case is real – nobody wants to spend 45 minutes browsing product pages before a camping trip. What is missing is transparency: where does the product data come from, how current is it, and does the app earn on clicks?
Without those answers, 'curated' could mean either 'best for you' or 'best for margins. ' Deep Mode sounds like the more interesting product – a conversational agent that gathers context before recommending is closer to a knowledgeable friend than a search filter.
If product quality matches the UX promise, this is a credible threat to affiliate-driven comparison portals.
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