Last year I had what I thought was a killer idea for a developer tool. I spent 3 months building it — nights, weekends, the whole deal. Shipped it, crickets. Maybe 12 signups in the first month, and zero of them came back.
Sound familiar? If you're a developer who's ever built something nobody wanted, this post is for you.
The Mistake I Made
I fell into the classic "build first, validate later" trap. The idea felt so obvious to me that I assumed the market would agree. I didn't talk to a single potential user before writing the first line of code. I just... built.
Here's the thing — most developers I talk to make the same mistake. We're builders. We love solving problems with code. But we rarely stop to ask: is this problem worth solving?
What the Data Says
The numbers are brutal:
- 93% of startups fail, and 42% of those failed
- The average developer spends 6+ months building a side project that never gets traction
- Only about 7% of indie hacker projects gene
These aren't just statistics — they're a pattx.
What I'd Do Differently
1. Talk to 10 people before writing any c
Not your mom. Not your developer friends. Act: "How do you currently solve [this problem]?" and "How much does this problem cost you?"
If they can't articulate the pain, you don't have a business.
2. Run a structured validation before committing
This is where I wish I had a tool like ValidMyIdea. It runs your idea through AI-powered analysis — market size, competitor landscape, GO/NO-GO signal before you invest months ofwork.
Would it have saved me 3 months? Almost certainly. The tool flagged several of the exact issues I discovered the hard way.
3. Build an MVP in a weekend, not 3 month
If your idea can't be tested with a landing purs, it's too complex for a first validation.Ship ugly. Ship fast. See if anyone cares.
4. Measure the "very disappointed" metric
Sean Ellis's famous question: "How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?" If less than 40% say "very
disappointed," you don't have product-market vot.
The Real Lesson
Building is the easy part. The hard part is b developers, we need to get comfortable withthe uncomfortable work of validation — talking to users, analyzing markets, and sometimes killing our darlings before they cost us months of our lives.
I've since validated two more ideas before bufitable side project. The other I killed after a weekend of research — saving myself what would have been 4 months of wasted effort.
Both outcomes were wins.
Have you built something nobody wanted? What did you learn? Drop it in the comments — I think we all need to hear these stories more often.
Top comments (1)
This hit way too close to home.
I did the exact same thing last year — spent 4 months building a Chrome extension for freelancers. Had a working product, a landing page, even wrote docs. Crickets.
Your point about "talk to 10 people before writing any code" is the hard lesson I learned the expensive way. I finally started doing customer discovery calls and realized my assumed pain point was... not actually a pain point. People were already solving it with a spreadsheet and didn't care enough to switch.
One thing I'd add to your list: the "mom test". If you describe your idea and someone says "that's nice" instead of "when can I use it?", you have your answer. Real interest shows up as specific questions about how it works, pricing, or timeline. Vague compliments mean nothing.
Thanks for sharing this. More builders need to hear it.