What I Learned From an Unsuccessful Launch

I shipped a product recently but it failed to gain much traction. Here is my post-mortem. I hope that this post helps my future self, and the readers.

I liked the article. Very objective and helpful. I think that estimating the impact of your solution to a problem could guide you to avoid misfires. However, I believe the experience you get from anything (success or failure) will lead you to something greater. It's a trial and error for me. Also, I think knowing when to let go of a project is an essential trait. My opinion though is that the most valuable thing we have is energy. So my comment is "pick your battles, preserve energy for a big one but be sure about the impact first". Doing some research maybe at first could help. Thank you for sharing your experience.

>"We are living in a time when doing what gives us meaning and what market demands from us are ever so aligned. Building things that motivate me gives me meaning. And there is a market for those things"

Apparently not tho, right?

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There are conflicting pieces of advice in the start up world I think.

1, do something that you're passionate about, a startup is a tough and long, to remain engaged enough to put in the effort necessary you have to want to do it.

2, Build something people want.

Ive heard both of these pieces of advice from y combinator folks via videos etc.

If people don't want what you're passionate about, it won't do you any good to build it anyway. You have to be passionate about something that people just happen to want too.

Yet if I look at success stories I don't really believe the founders were that passionate about what they ended up with ; they later will rationalise what they have with something that sounds like a legitimate passion by abstracting out to a level that meets that requirement.

So I think the advice that says 'do what you love!' even when combined with 'make something people want', is not particularly useful.

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I think you have to be passionate about making a business work. Not necessarily passion for that project, but passion and determination to make your own thing a success. The market has to determine the eventual shape that thing takes. Chances are you won't be particularly thrilled in your gut about your apartment rental solution, or cloud file sharing service. Honestly, thats not that exciting is it. But when asked the founders will talk about it like they're saving humanity. I don't buy their enthusiasm for the project itself, what I think happens is they have a passion for making their own thing work.

Market fit first + passion is great. But passion needn't be for that idea. I think passion for the idea can be a problem as shown here.

The idea that you can build something and then tweak it until you find customers is deeply flawed. You built something that nobody needed or wanted. Don't do it again. Don't try to validate a product or an idea, identify a need and then find the best way to fill it.

It is always so obvious when you have similar experiences(founders, maybe):

  #0:I left my job to work on my side projects. 

Never quit your real job unless you gained traction from your project.

  #1: the project does not motivate me any more.

I had exactly the same problem from my previous startup. Later I found out it is because of long hours work without enough exercises.

From my experiences, you need to prepared to explain your project/company with 2 sentences at most. Otherwise you will get lost during the development, also your project is probably too complicated.

Your article is timely. Two days ago I went live on my first github project called Wheatbin: http://wheatbin.com and I'm not sure what to expect.

Thanks for sharing your insights. And Vym is a great name!

kudos to the author for the self-awareness. this kind of failure is good fuel for personal development.