I've yet to see a single product that was improved by being a chatbot.
My app failed: lessons learned
11–20 of 177 posts
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#12So early 2020, I launched Rithm, an app that helps you build habits, reach your goals and stay motivated. The 1st version was a chatbot app, think of it like an accountability coach that you text with to track habits and stay accountable. Rithm landed as the #4 product of the day on ProductHunt, had some good initial traction which proceeded to fall off a cliff. Here are the 8 lessons for a failed version 1, see vide…
Just a minor copy note:
> There are a million and 1 habit and goal apps out there and I made the mistake to think that just because there are a lot of products in this space, doesn’t mean that there is a lot of businesses in that space.
I think you were thinking of two different ways to phrase that, mixed them up, and the result is that it says the opposite?
As in, either remove 'I made the mistake to think that', or 'doesn't mean that'.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#13I've yet to see a single product that was improved by being a chatbot.
You also increase the revenue of Acme Chatbots Inc, who will use those proceeds to hire more people to sell you a better, more comprehensive package.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#14I know this pain.
In my case, I spent most of my life around 18-23 years old living in my parents' working about 100% of my time on something of my own I had a lot of negative support from friends, colleagues, and extended family as many don't see entrepreneurship with good eyes in Brazil.
The last project I worked (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dML0FQIUcTY, I spent 2013-2014 on it), was heading to the right direction, but then my business partner (first and last one so far) always wanted more and more.
In the end I had other opportunities (go back to college, and start a new job), and we just ditched all our efforts. Of course, we both regret it. Especially each time when we see something similar sold for a couple of millions.
Good luck to us next time!
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#15Good lessons. But so many common mistakes
To summarize:
1) Build something people really need, not a nice-to-have
2) Keeping customers is more important than just acquiring them
3) If you're not keeping your customers that means they don't want or need what you have
4) Changing people's behavior is really hard. Unless you have a significant amount of marketing budget, don't try to change people
5) "Distribution" is key. I have a hard time with the word "distribution" when often people mean "marketing" or "promotion" or "channels". That's what is usually meant. If you can't get an audience with the people you are trying to sell to, you might as well be invisible. I still don't get why people use the awkward term distribution for this.
6) You have to be better than what's already out there. If you're just as good, or worse, than the alternatives, then it's going to be really hard to make a sale. Alternatives don't mean direct competition. Anything that is an alternative for a customer to buy or use your product is real competition. This is especially the case if you're requiring the customer to change their habits to switch to your offering. You have to be MUCH better than the status quo and alternatives to do that.
7) Know who your customer is. Your user might not be your customer. Your customer might not have the itch to scratch even if the user does.
A lot of these are pretty common reasons for business failure but I suppose everyone has to go through their own personal challenges to internalize them.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#16The first red flag I see is that the app isn't multiplatform. I know there's plenty of iPhone/Android exclusive apps, but I will very rarely use (much less spend money on) something that is locked-in to one app.
Also, does anyone else find it ironic that a habit tracking app has a monthly subscription? Feels darkly ironic looking at the IAP block towards the bottom.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#17From my experience, if an app takes more than a few months to build and launch, the risk is no longer worth it. Large companies also do this (years building before launching and i have yet to hear of a success)
Games generally take significant time to build sometimes years, but can be quite successful.
You wider point is reasonable though as many people waste a lot of time building something that never gets traction.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#18He mentions a false positive of paying customers. I have some personal experience of customers paying for a product and not using it. We're all guilty of it in one way or another.
What percentage of paying customers should be active? 100% is unrealistic, but 0% is troubling since they are not getting any value from it and its not validating your idea. How does this depend on price of the product or whether its a subscription or not?
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the only question that needs to be asked nowadays. You need user acquisition money. Sad fact is that otherwise it is almost impossible to do anything.
Exactly, I would recommend spending a few thousand on a good PPC marketing agency and let them set up your marketing. You might be amazed at what this would accomplish since your product seems fine.
I'd be interested in hearing of any experience or recommendations. If you have them available, please do send me a message.
Re: My app failed: lessons learned
#20I know this pain. In my case, I spent most of my life around 18-23 years old living in my parents' working about 100% of my time on something of my own I had a lot of negative support from friends, colleagues, and extended family as many don't see entrepreneurship with good eyes in Brazil. The last project I worked ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dML0FQIUcTY , I spent 2013-2014 on it), was heading to the right dire…
I wouldn't have any regrets re:seeing something "similar" sold for millions of $.
Unless "heading in the right direction" means that you had a growing user base and/or solid revenue, in all likelihood the product you were building just wasn't succeeding. The idea in itself is not worth much: think Uber, Coursera, Airbnb, ... these are not novel ideas, many many people had the same ideas but didn't manage to make them a success (bad execution, or just bad luck/timing).
You seem to still be very very young, most successful companies are founded by people in their mid 30s, so don't despair just because a couple of your attempts were not successful. The best is still ahead of you.