Sharing WINS is 🎉. But what about FAILS? Share one of your fails and the biggest thing it taught you.
Come on. Most of us have been there.
A product idea came to you late one night. You saw the path to an MVP immediately. You got to work, programming during your lunch breaks and late into the nights.
A few weeks later, your product is ready to share with the world. You launch it on Product Hunt, share it with all your friends, and...
Nothing.
A few crickets, maybe. And a lonely (and embarrassing) "Look what my son/daughter made!" post on your mom's Facebook page.
But hey, there's NO SHAME in launching something that didn't catch on. These products are often stepping-stones to much better products. So let's share more about what DIDN'T work, and learn from each other in the process.
I'll go first (first comment below).
I first shared this post at Product Hunt, but got no response. Thought maybe IHers would be more willing to admit their defeats. 😆
I remember submitting one of the best Indie Hackers interviews to Hacker News in the early days, then signing off for a day of relaxation. I came back later to find out that the story had hit #1, but the site had crashed and been offline for 8+ hours. Whoops.
Oh man. You see, this is why you shouldn't relax! 😉
I've launched 4 different products over the last 4 years, and shut down all of them. I learned something different from each of them, but my big learning from all those fails is that failing fast is so important.
I'm so glad I quit each of those businesses. I'm a strong believer in it should either be a "hell yes" or a "no", and with each of those I was on the fence and in hindsight it was a great decision to shut it down.
tl;dr -- fail fast
HELL YES vs. NO
I like that way of thinking about ideas!
I launched MailThis on Product Hunt last year. Hit #2 on the day 🎉🎉
So you can imagine what my expectations were like when I launched SincerelyMe -- a similar, but cooler, version of the same basic product a few months later.
I spent a few weeks building it, launched it on Product Hunt, and...nothing. I got a few users, sure. 46 upvotes. But nowhere even CLOSE to the 363 I got the first time around.
The product has sat basically dormant since then. 2-3 users a month. Not profitable.
(It's 2022 now. I forgot. I launched MailThis in 2020 -- not "last year.")
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
Did he keep using the app?
This comment was deleted 4 years ago