Founders publish their own breakdowns: what they earned or lost, over what period, and what actually worked. We extract four things from such posts — the number, the period, the channel and the takeaway — and keep the link so every number can be re-read at the source. Failure is just as useful here: if three teams shut down for the same reason, that is knowledge normally bought with years.
Videoreplicate.com was an AI-powered tool that helped content creators analyze viral videos and plan their own.
You need to validate product demand and willingness to pay before building, and also analyze traffic acquisition channels.
Launched a lifestyle app on Google Play.
Starting from scratch is very hard; without a distribution plan, there will be no organic growth.
Called It is an iOS app where groups of friends make predictions on anything using virtual currency.
Paid user acquisition for a new app is nearly impossible when conversion is 0% and the app page lacks reviews and social proof.
Shunbox helps Gmail users make their email experience less annoying.
Lack of consistent promotion, premature spending, development without feedback, and an unprepared Product Hunt launch led to no customers.
This app helps women track chronic illnesses.
Validating a real problem and building a solution for it led to initial growth.
Elementle is a daily puzzle game, similar to Wordle, but with numbers and guessing historical events.
The developer failed to attract users despite creating the product, due to a lack of marketing skills and strategy.
A personal finance app that automatically tracks expenses and helps you plan your budget for future months.
Building the product is the easy part; distribution is the real game.
Where the stories come from: founder communities on Reddit (r/startups, r/SaaS, r/SideProject, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong, r/Entrepreneur, r/indiehackers, r/productfails and others) through the official API, plus crowdfunding campaigns. Numbers are taken from the post text — what the author wrote themselves. We do not decode charts or screenshots, so this section only holds numbers you can re-read at the link; unverified ones are marked separately and never feed into idea scores.