We had a bunch of good ideas the world didn’t care about. For example, actual user IDs and a feedback system. We launched it as an add-on for radio station websites and learned that they were an endless source of feature requests, which we foolishly granted. Finally, it didn’t scale well because a lot of behind the scenes content moderation was necessary.

Mostly I blame myself for not validating the idea properly. If “The Mom Test” book had been around at that time I could have saved that money and a lot of strain on my marriage. I feel strongly that it is by far the most important business book to be published in the last three or four decades.

That’s the way to go. My best to you, friend.

You’re very kind, thank you. That’s business! The upside would have been high, so I accepted the risk. Still alive, still have most of my health and family. I’m a fortunate man.