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I didn't quite understand this. Presumably, you're developers and just created a I assume fairly complex backend product (better than Google Maps). What stopped even just one of you from picking up a book on react-native/electron/whatever and knocking out a workable front-end? Did you exceed your runway, run out of time etc? edit: to clarify, I meant after the third-party didn't work out. Also not critiquing just genuinely curious

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I simplified the story a little bit, but two factors contributed to the sad outcome:

1. making a _live routing_ app is tougher than it looks

2. our team was really emotionally exhausted after this (the whole process consumed around 2 years) and some key team members needed some time off

But yeah, it could have been possible to make the app ourselves.

I hear you, and appreciate your honesty. Not many founders talk a lot about the technical challenges of building the app itself. A lot of startup stories I read take this as a given, whereas I'm sure it's one of the biggest factors if not the biggest that causes many startups to fail.

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