5 lessons from my first SaaS failure this year

Not every project in this challenge will be a success, and my second SaaS attempt taught me some valuable lessons through its failure. Here's what went wrong and what I learned:

1. Validate Before Building

I fell in love with the idea and started coding immediately. Big mistake. After launch, I discovered that while people liked the concept, they weren't willing to pay for it. I should have tested pricing sensitivity with potential customers first.

2. Focus Groups Can Be Misleading

The initial feedback from friends was overwhelmingly positive, which gave me false confidence. Friends are inherently biased – they want to support you. I need to seek more objective feedback from strangers who match my target market.

3. Overengineering Is a Time Sink

I spent too much time perfecting features that users didn't care about, while rushing through elements that turned out to be crucial. This imbalance came from my assumptions rather than user needs.

4. Marketing Can't Fix a Product Problem

When initial traction was low, I doubled down on marketing rather than reevaluating the product. No amount of promotion can save a product that doesn't solve a real need.

5. Sunk Cost Fallacy Is Real

I kept trying to salvage the project long after I should have moved on, because I'd invested so much time. I've now set clear metrics for my projects – if they're not met within a defined timeframe, I'll pivot or move on.

Moving Forward

For my next project, I'm implementing a staged approach: concept validation with strangers, a pre-sale period to test willingness to pay, and an MVP focused only on core value. I'll also set clear KPIs to evaluate success objectively.

Failures aren't fun, but they're inevitable in a challenge like this. The important thing is to extract the learning and apply it going forward!