Graveyard of Ideas

I started creating apps using AI in December 2024. Tried all the hottest tools at the time. Spent money on paid plans to test them out. Lovable, bolt.new, v0 - all were solid, but I didn't enjoy the creation process. Then I switched to Cursor, and the workflows finally felt right.

That's when I dove headfirst into the "small bets" philosophy. I'd build tools I thought would be useful and somehow people would just... find them? Without giving any thought to marketing or distribution, I spent a solid 2-3 months developing generator apps: letterheads, QR codes, calendar files.

What started as simple projects turned into a crash course in everything I didn't know I needed to know. Backend, frontend, hosting, security, authentication, privacy policies, terms of use. I discovered Netlify and Vercel for hosting, then stumbled into the world of SEO through Google Search Console and Bing Search. That led me to analytics with Simple Analytics, which opened the rabbit hole of GDPR and data privacy regulations.

But here's the kicker, while I was busy learning all this technical stuff, I completely ignored the one thing that actually mattered: getting people to use what I built. I thought sharing on LinkedIn would be enough. I have a decent network, and the tools seemed relevant to the professionals I interact with. What a fool. 🙂

The learning curve was addictive, though. I kept exploring new ideas and started juggling multiple projects that never saw the light of day. Big mistake. The hard lesson hit me: multitasking isn't for me. I can only make real progress by focusing on one project at a time.

My graveyard includes: a mobile app for home cleaning using 5S methodology, an app to organize storyboards for creating AI videos (still deployed, i use it), and a detective mystery game where AI would generate mysteries and roleplay as witnesses while users tried to solve murders. All abandoned halfway through.

Still no success to show for it, but it's been an invaluable learning experience. What I'll do differently next time: build the audience first, then the product. Marketing and distribution from day one, not as an afterthought.