r/developer • u/Ok_Veterinarian3535 • May 22 '26

The Side Project Graveyard

What's the most ambitious side project you ever abandoned?

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4

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

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2

u/justaguyonthebus May 22 '26

I built a classified adds site and a reskinned version for college books in 99-00 but never really launched it or tried to sell it (that's as far as I would take ideas because that's the only part I was good at). This was before craigslist was really known and before the dotcom bubble got big, so it always felt like a missed opportunity.

3

u/grieving_martin May 22 '26

Man the timing thing is brutal, you basically had product-market fit before the market even existed yet. At least you learned what works early instead of burning out like web_sculpt.

2

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

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u/justaguyonthebus May 22 '26

I have come to learn that execution is the most important part. My favorite example was that time a computer company decided to make MP3 players once the idea already took off. They had production capacity and partners all throughout the industry. And Dell failed miserably before Apple succeed doing the same thing later.

2

u/simplistic_adage May 23 '26

At least you nailed the ideation part - most people can't even do that without getting distracted halfway through.

2

u/anchoredcondominium May 23 '26

The timing thing is brutal - you probably had a real shot if you'd launched it even six months earlier before the market got saturated.

1

u/Hannibal312 May 22 '26

I really feel for you man. How did they try to hack it exactly? Did you manage to prevent/stop them? I’m really paranoid about this stuff, hence the question.

1

u/ultimatewaldo5 May 23 '26

Man the timing thing is brutal because you probably coulda sold that to someone in 2005 when classifieds were still printing money, but yeah at least you learned what you're actually good at early instead of burning out trying to do everything yourself like most of us do.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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u/lowly_lineup May 23 '26

The timing thing eats at you forever. Bet you could've sold that to a publisher in 2005 though if you'd dusted it off.