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Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#21

Post by suresk »

suresk wrote: post #19

Too many to remember/list, unfortunately - some of them before I even started, many when I was halfway through building sort of an minimum product, and some after I'd actually launched them. The one that hurts the most is an advertising analytics service (one of the first of its kind) I built over a decade ago - I was young and stupid, so there were some technical things I did wrong, but I also failed spectacularly a…

Perhaps somewhat more interesting - why my side projects have failed.

For the longest time, I didn't really mind - side projects were at least partially a way for me to learn new techniques/languages/frameworks, and the experience generally made the effort worthwhile, even if I didn't make any money directly in the process. For the most part, I think this was fine for a while - I'm in a decent spot career-wise, and I think part of it is due to all the knowledge and experience I've gained from working on side projects.

That said, earlier this year I realized I needed to get more serious about making money directly off of these things - one of my long-term goals is having enough passive income to live semi-comfortably off of, and building websites or software seems like the best way to do this for me. Part of rectifying this situation has been identifying why I've failed so many times. Here are some reasons I came up with:

1) Not thinking an idea all the way through

2) Getting hung up on petty things, like choosing a domain name

3) Getting hung up on the design (I'm unbelievably bad at design)

4) Getting hung up on the technology choice (I've built something in probably just about every semi-common language/framework over the past few years)

5) Not being very good at marketing and not taking the time to learn or employ the services of someone who is

6) Not committing to one idea/project at a time

So, my goal for the next little bit is to sift through my ideas and find one that can hold my interest and has long-term profit potential, use technology that I'm already comfortable with, set aside money to pay for things I'm not good at (design and marketing, for example) and devote some time to building it.

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#23

Post by zachsnow »

struppi wrote: post #11

I have several ideas I never started working on. I guess they don't count. Then I had some others that I never finished/validated. http://gclimbing.com is not really a failed idea, more like a failed project. Some years ago, I administered a shared climbing blog in Austria. After some time, nobody was using it anymore (It was quite complicated to use). I wrote a new software and put it online, which is gclimbing.com…

I was pretty interested in scribblingspree.com, sounds fun! But got frustrated by how hard it was to draw (especially if you accidentally release your click off of the drawing space). In the short term you could listen for mouseup on the whole body/document instead of just the canvas, I think that would help.

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#24

Post by greendestiny »

I made a website where you put sunglasses on a photo - seemewith.com. After face.com shut down its facial landmarking service I deleted it, but it was a failure anyway. I spent a ridiculous amount of time implementing various strategies for turning photos of sunglasses into 3d models (using bundle adjustment, advanced appearance models, and some symmetry specific photogrammetry) - in the end I did the simplest thing I could think of and it worked better than any complex option. The results were still a bit poor though.

Another side project was a flash based plugin to do teeth whitening on photos. End up implementing a decision tree approach that worked ok, but it didn't seem to really have legs as an idea.

What else... I spent an inordinate amount of time on the Netflix prize, that really amounted to nothing - although it was fun to try a lot of different approaches at a tricky scale.

Just released 'What animal?' on the App Store, that's pretty much doing nothing download wise - http://scottvallanceapps.com/app/what-animal-are-you/

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#26

Post by michaelbuckbee »

1. Before the craziness with Netflix I had created an iPhone app called 'Flickscan' which let you go into Target/BestBuy and scan the barcodes of movies and have them automatically added to your queue.

2. I used to run Fabjectory, which created 3d printed statuettes of figures for SecondLife and Nintendo Wii characters, but shut it down with the demise of people who considered themselves Secondlife consultants (who were the main source of business).

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#27

Post by sachingulaya »

AppointmentReminder for doctors. The idea was to build an appointment reminder system that was also an insurance eligibility checker(eligible API has actually made me want to reboot the project). The end goal was to be a Yelp for physicians.

It turns out selling to doctors is fucking hard. Their attitude towards salespeople is to treat them like pharm reps and make them buy you lunch and then wait 2+ hours. No thanks.

I sell products now. I will never go back to selling anything that isn't a product.

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#28

Post by hilti »

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #18

http://www.hackerbooks.com is a direct financial failure. The income does not cover the hosting as is! Early on I expected it would be a small earner (maybe $50/mo) but we're not there even. On the other hand, it had a fairly positive impact on the consulting/learning side of things (ETL, data processing etc).

I think Your site has great value. Just keep it up and do marketing.

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#29

Post by wlievens »

sachingulaya wrote: post #27

AppointmentReminder for doctors. The idea was to build an appointment reminder system that was also an insurance eligibility checker(eligible API has actually made me want to reboot the project). The end goal was to be a Yelp for physicians. It turns out selling to doctors is fucking hard. Their attitude towards salespeople is to treat them like pharm reps and make them buy you lunch and then wait 2+ hours. No thanks…

What do you sell now?

Re: Ask HN: What are your failed projects / ideas?

#30

Post by BerislavLopac »

Hmmm, let's see. Note: Most of these domains are now dead or squatted.

2005: Fo.gg: Calendar and scheduling tool with a focus on time-zone usability, aimed at international travellers.

2009: Enjoble.com: SaaS for embedding job postings by topics to any site.

2010: Stellient.com: P2P real-time networking platform.

2011: Seenery.com: AirBnB for sightseeing tours.

Most of these failed because I couldn't build a good team, or the one I had fell apart. I'm working on another project now with a great partner, hopefully this will work out this time.

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