Dang great story. I've been working on a few projects here and there. The first one was too big a project and I called it quits after 2 months because 1) I did it for learning purposes and 2) it was too big to complete and launch in regards to other competitors. But 3 years is a long time to spend on a project. There are definitely lessons to be learned here and as long as you don't lose hope, you will eventually find something that works. Your mention of testing if people would actually buy your service/product w/o writing the code behind it is a great idea, much like what I read in the 4 Hour Work Week. Definitely something entrepreneurs should apply if possible in order to reduce the amount of time potentially spent on doomed projects or projects that need to pivot.