I spent 14 months building a product nobody asked for
🇪🇪 Estonia · 💻 Technology · 20-29
❤️ 2,233 people learned from this
Collective insight
What people learned about technology
Observations aggregated from 2 mistakes submitted to this archive. Not research — just what people told us it cost them.
2
Mistakes
€32,400
Money lost
€16,200
Average when money was lost
2
Countries
What keeps repeating
product1validation1startups1backups1data-loss1storage1
The most expensive of them
I did not back up seven years of work
🇵🇱 Poland · 💻 Technology · 30-39
❤️ 2,011 people learned from this
The lessons
Talk to twenty potential customers before you write one line of code. Being told no in week one is a gift.
Read what happenedA file that exists in one place does not exist. Set up automatic backup today, not after you finish what you are doing.
Read what happened
The mistakes behind them
I spent 14 months building a product nobody asked for
🇪🇪 Estonia · 💻 Technology · 20-29
What happened
I never talked to a customer because I was afraid someone would tell me the idea was bad. Launch day brought 31 signups and 2 payments.
What it cost€30,000Time lost14 monthsEmotional costDeflating
What I learned
Talk to twenty potential customers before you write one line of code. Being told no in week one is a gift.
❤️ 2,233 people learned from this
I did not back up seven years of work
🇵🇱 Poland · 💻 Technology · 30-39
What happened
One drive, no copies. It failed on a Tuesday. Recovery quotes started at €2,400 and none of them worked. Seven years of photos and client files gone.
What it cost€2,400Time lost7 years of filesEmotional costSickening
What I learned
A file that exists in one place does not exist. Set up automatic backup today, not after you finish what you are doing.
❤️ 2,011 people learned from this