As someone creating a similar platform (Kicklet.com), I'm curious. Historically, are failures like this reliable indicators that competitors should reconsider their business as well?
Then again, there's a lot of businesses that were successful because they found the magic sauce that all of their predecessors were unable to find. If you think you've found it, then definitely go for it! If you think your concept is pretty much a rehash of Assembly, then I would probably start thinking seriously about how you are going to succeed where they failed.
On the other side, I'm about to release an open-source project. Obviously, I hope to get people really excited about it. I want people to contribute and I want to spread the word about my project.
I guess I WANT something like Kicklet to work, but what I'm missing is you showing me that it does.
Dare I say, I think the login wall is a barrier. I can't see what other projects are on Kicklet so I have no idea how active your community is.
What if, rather than having to sign-in, you listed a bunch of projects. Let me know about them, help me get interested in them. Then, maybe for commits that I make for projects, the project owner gives me a rating. I earn points. As I gain points, it is a signal to the community of the value and quality of my work. Maybe some people want to do code-reviews, let them get points. Lets help us all become better developers.
Maybe this is what happens now, but I have no idea because I can't see it.
I have no idea what the business model would be. But at the current state, I can't see that you're adding a large enough value, and I think that is the statement that comes out of Assembly. They didn't quite nail the product/business model equation.
Failure CAN be reliable indicators of a bad market, but that doesn't mean successful companies can't exist in that market. I'm thinking about not that long ago when everybody and their dog were creating playlist sharing sites. I worked in the music industry and that time, and saw copy-cat after copy-cat with minor tweaks and you knew they were all going to fail. Even when Spotify came out, it was kinda like, are these guys really thinking they can sort out this whole music industry mess. But, they did. So, I think failure in a market can be a sign that someday, somebody will figure this out. Maybe we'll be saying that about Kicklet, but you've got some work to do.
It may not sould like it, I'm cheering for you.
That startup playbook that just came out, and countless other sources, anecdotes, etc all say the same thing : work with people you know, that you know well. Friends, former colleagues, etc.
It is quite a barrier to meet someone and jump on a project with them as a co-founder. Especially as a side project where the commitment level is low. I think you should think seriously on that.
I'm not saying it's a 1:1 correlation, of course. But in a market where your competitors are extremely successful, it proves that it's possible you can be successful as well. That's not always the case in every market since many markets out there just won't be viable for a successful company.