While I have not struck Gold yet, here is how my failure resume looks like -
2011 - Conceptualized a T-shirt printing business. Got samples, got first order. Partner bolted before we could service the order
2013 - Built an intersection of Twitter and Rotten tomatoes. Shipped it but couldn't monetise.Had big plans..had to shut down
2017 - Helped a few friends build web version of a quizzing app. Policies got in the way. Lost momentum
2019 - Built a landing page to validate an idea about highlights of favourite topics. Got close to 80 subscribers..mostly friends and family..Never launched.
2020 - Hustle continues....
What does your failure resume look like?
2001 - 'real-time' monitoring and analysis of data coming from the ATE stacks on the factory floor with various trending graphs and other stuff for consumption by quality and manufacturing engineers. It worked well, but politics in the Mexico factory sunk it to create more jobs to do this stuff manually.
2006 - automation of XRF process. The technician blew the power head, so most of this testing was eventually outsourced to a local lab.
2007 - automation of "Type" tests and high-speed data acquisition for single fault conditions and thermals and other stuff. UL was too stupid to understand anything, and would not accept data unless the tests were done manually and data was hand recorded.
2019 - 'universal' environmental recording and control systems for use in test chambers and agricultural. Reliable and accurate, but too expensive and required the customer to understand a bit of physics to implement the zone mixing feature.
2005 — Desktop app for creative writers. Made about $90k in total over its 10 year history
2010 — Secret sharing website. Made $0 revenue.
2011 — Hugely popular forum for poultry breeders in Ireland that ran for a few years. Made about $6k in advertising and sold it in 2015 for a few €k, can’t remember how much now.
2012 — Desktop journaling app. Made about $15k over its 5 year lifespan
2012 — Desktop password app. $3k over its short history.
2014 — Editing app for creative writers. Made about $20k over the 4 years.
2015 — Microsoft Word add-in for editing documents. Made about $50k over the past 5 years.
2017 — Another Desktop app for creative writers. See 2005 above. Made about $5k in two years before pulling the commercial version.
Takeaway: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. Building B2C apps for consumers who don’t have money or don’t like spending money is a model for continuous failure. It took me a long time to realise this.
Current project is a B2B SaaS app for dev teams. Work in progress.