That's the thing, failure stories are entirely uninteresting. I tried so many things, almost all of them ended with "i built and tried selling it but no one was buying". What is it to learn from it, for anyone?
The only two exceptions have been, when once i was simply scammed. Lesson learned: to never get a partner onboard unless it's done in a way that i hold they keys in a way that he physically can't scam me: always pretend to trust, but never really trust anyone. Especially since people who can't be trusted are those you instinctively trust the most because well, it is their job to get people to trust them. But that could be an eye-opener to some 20 years ago when it happened, but hardly is anymore: the entire world is now a low-trust society, so hardly anyone - even a fresh 25-year old guy i was back then - could make this mistake nowadays.
And the other one, is kind of funny! I made an app that allowed people to back up full hard disk, physical, or logical paritions of any file system supported on Windows back then, and re-create them either 1:1, or turning them into FAT32 partitions, onto any other physical device, if need be, adjusting the size. While building and trying to sell it, i talk to another guy who, at the same time, built a similar app, mine was a lot better than his but he had some fresh ideas so we communicated a lot.
After a few weeks, i make several grands of sales and was very happy. But then i had a few refunds because several clients complained on performance (some probably have tried it on damaged file systems, some were real bugs, but no one knows). I felt too bad about making people so upset and after few days of moral struggle, put the app down and quit the whole thing. And the guy who made the other app was the founder of Parallels, he's now a billionaire - the app was Acronis True Image.
libridev•4mo ago
I think both of those stories are interesting.
For the low trust issue, I think it is becoming more clear with the rise of blatantly fake content online. I think a good lesson could be learned in what formalities you should get in place when working with others to prevent getting screwed over. I myself have been screwed over before by business partners and learned that you really need everything in writing and often lawyers.
For the windows app, did you just not have the time to fix all the issues? Or was it the weight of responsibility in what the app did?
anovikov•4mo ago
I had enough time. It was the weight of responsibility indeed. While i realise that my refund rate was quite low and the app was certainly not unacceptably buggy.
libridev•4mo ago
hmmm, sounds similar to myself at times. I think for me its an obsession with perfection. Hard to keep a balance between that and the pressure from non technical people to "Just ship it"
anovikov•4mo ago
Especially when one's main source of income in custom development, and in custom development you are motivated to be a perfectionist and develop a skill of explaining a client how even small defects are unacceptable - because otherwise, you'll never milk enough billable hours out of the limited market in front of you.
libridev•4mo ago
Custom development (contracting) your already guarantee the sale since they are paying you for what you already want so in that case I guess you could perfect your craft.
On the open market there is the trade off of no wanting to waste your time on what people don't already need.
In the case of the windows app you had validated your idea so at that point polishing it wouldn't have been that bad of an investment.
I guess the hardest part about these stories is as they say "hindsight is 20/20"
poppobit•4mo ago
Love the concept. Only thing — asking for email upfront on the form made me hesitate. Any plans for a more anonymous option?
libridev•4mo ago
I updated the email to be optional, I was hoping to get emails just for follow up questions.
poppobit•4mo ago
Just submitted my story. Hope that’s useful. but please, no interviews...
anovikov•4mo ago
The only two exceptions have been, when once i was simply scammed. Lesson learned: to never get a partner onboard unless it's done in a way that i hold they keys in a way that he physically can't scam me: always pretend to trust, but never really trust anyone. Especially since people who can't be trusted are those you instinctively trust the most because well, it is their job to get people to trust them. But that could be an eye-opener to some 20 years ago when it happened, but hardly is anymore: the entire world is now a low-trust society, so hardly anyone - even a fresh 25-year old guy i was back then - could make this mistake nowadays.
And the other one, is kind of funny! I made an app that allowed people to back up full hard disk, physical, or logical paritions of any file system supported on Windows back then, and re-create them either 1:1, or turning them into FAT32 partitions, onto any other physical device, if need be, adjusting the size. While building and trying to sell it, i talk to another guy who, at the same time, built a similar app, mine was a lot better than his but he had some fresh ideas so we communicated a lot. After a few weeks, i make several grands of sales and was very happy. But then i had a few refunds because several clients complained on performance (some probably have tried it on damaged file systems, some were real bugs, but no one knows). I felt too bad about making people so upset and after few days of moral struggle, put the app down and quit the whole thing. And the guy who made the other app was the founder of Parallels, he's now a billionaire - the app was Acronis True Image.
libridev•4mo ago
For the low trust issue, I think it is becoming more clear with the rise of blatantly fake content online. I think a good lesson could be learned in what formalities you should get in place when working with others to prevent getting screwed over. I myself have been screwed over before by business partners and learned that you really need everything in writing and often lawyers.
For the windows app, did you just not have the time to fix all the issues? Or was it the weight of responsibility in what the app did?
anovikov•4mo ago
libridev•4mo ago
anovikov•4mo ago
libridev•4mo ago
I guess the hardest part about these stories is as they say "hindsight is 20/20"