I built something nobody wanted ... and shut it down.
Long story short: During an internship couple of years ago, my task was to find a tool to create a survey to identify the top priority projects within the corporate. But project leads should not be able to vote up their own projects. Sounds easy, but no solution was satisfying the requirements.
So I created a minimal web app that was able to do that trick (in my eyes). Anyway, it was too late. They have picked an established survey tool, created multiple surveys, send the links individually, and merged the results manually.
Since nobody was using my app afterward, I buried it one year later.
Maybe it was too early to shut it down!? Maybe nobody was using it, because I was not doing any marketing!? Maybe there was potential for the app, but now I will never know!?
How do you handle situations like this, when you build something and nobody needs your tool? Or are you doing "validations" always before realization?
Hey, agree with others that it's better to validate app ideas with potential users before building them. But when working on their first startup people almost always don't do it, so it's nothing to worry about. Just try to validate it before building next time.
But before shutting down, I would think about how have I tried to attract users to the app. There're tonnes of different ways to attract users to the app. You may checkout first100users.com, but you need to figure out what exactly works for your niche. Where do your users hang out? Which communities do they read?
You may reach out in DMs to some people from the target audience, and ask what do they think about the app and if they would use it.
thanks @DimaDK24. I will checkout the link and definitely invest more time answering those questions for the next project.
You also can check out https://www.indiehackers.com/post/you-have-1-day-to-prove-demand-what-will-you-do-2d93020ba1 for even more ideas on how to prove demand and find potential users even before you create a project code folder
You need a way to reach out to the people who have the problem your solution is solving.
Building software is fun but without a proper distribution strategy, nobody is gonna see your product.
Built it and they will come kind of strategy doesn't work. You have to learn sales and marketing and find a good distribution strategy. That's quite a tough part especially if like me you come from a pure technical background
This is the answer. Where there is no marketing, even if the product is good, people will not know about it.
thanks @mickaelk.
I think there is no way around, even it feels strange to do so without at least a prototype. Somehow I need to built it to validate I can built it. 😬
When I have a product idea – usually after I build a minimal POC – I try to find either an engineer (if I know any in the area of my idea) or a potential user. I like to validate that the idea makes sense and is useful and that there aren't any other viable options out there. It always starts with an idea and some level of building for me, but I won't sink appreciable time into a project without validation.
If your implementation is better than existing market, you can go ahead and build and try to sell that... At least to existing client which is your original team.
Hi @ManuelS
Just curious how did you market the product? have you tried SEO, Google Ads, or other distribution channels?
thanks @bktan for your question.
None! 🙈 Just basic SEO and mouth-to-mouth. That´s it. No posts anywhere. I made it public and left. So for the next time I definitely need to validate an idea and learn more about marketing & Co.
The hardest thing for technical founders like us is marketing and sales, but that's also the most crucial thing that we need to master.
It's part of the journey of growth and learning.
Cheers
Hi Manuel, understanding that your startup is useless is one of the most feelings I had in my founder's journey.
If you're up for launching another one, I can help you build a product that people will pay for. Let's connect on twitter.
thanks @Denis_Shatalin, unfortunately I do not have Twitter. See you on LinkedIn ;)
In a general sense, validating a product is a good thing. I wouldn't consider your workplace to be a large enough validation base, you'd need to expand it to the world. Or even better, since it's already built, show the world what you have and see if there's any interest in what you designed it for, or if people can see other uses that you did not foresee. On the negative side, there are many survey tools out there, so you'd be competing in a very packed market. My suggestion is to show the world (or IH) your idea for validation and go from there. Good luck!
The source code is still available, despite not very great to look at :D But in case I manage to tackle this project once again I will show IH! thanks @antarctican
Hey Manuel, not an uncommon situation. I guess the take-home is yes, always be validating: before building, during building and after. As a dev, it can be far too attractive to have the mindset 'if you build it, they will come' (I've definitely been guilty of this)
If there are no positive signals, then move on quickly, no point throwing more time away.
The time you spent developing isn't wasted though. Think of it as practice for spinning up future ideas more quickly and more efficiently.
true words! thanks @zcbecda