The Failure Resume Nobody Wants to Share

Let me start with my track record:

• 7 years in the indie hacker game
• 15 product launches
• 1 product that gained some traction
• 14 complete failures

Success rate: 6.67%

Most people don't share these numbers. I'm sharing them because they're more typical than the success stories you see on Twitter.

The Hall of Failures

Here's my complete failure resume (names changed to protect my ego):

2017: The Beginning

1. TaskMaster Pro - Project management for freelancers
   Result: 3 users, $47 total revenue, shut down after 4 months

2. SocialScheduler - Content scheduling tool
   Result: 0 paying customers, gave up after 6 months

2018: The Learning Year

3. CodeSnippet Manager - Developer tool for code organization
   Result: 12 downloads, no engagement, abandoned

4. PodcastGrow - Podcast promotion platform
   Result: Built entire platform, 0 podcasters signed up

5. EmailFlowz - Email automation for small business
   Result: Competed with Mailchimp, predictably crushed

2019: The Pivot Year

6. MealPrepPro - Meal planning for fitness enthusiasts
   Result: 50 users, couldn't figure out monetization

7. StudyBuddy - Study group coordination for students
   Result: Launched at wrong time (summer), no traction

2020: The "Pandemic Opportunity" Year

8. RemoteTeamSync - Remote work coordination
   Result: Too many competitors, too late to market

9. HomeWorkoutTracker - Fitness tracking for home workouts
   Result: 200 users, couldn't compete with free apps

2021: The NFT Distraction Year

10. CreatorCoin - NFT marketplace for digital artists
    Result: Built right before NFT crash, perfect timing

11. MetaEventz - Virtual event platform
    Result: Zoom integration broke, users left, never recovered

2022: The "One That Worked" Year

12. DevToolBox - Developer productivity suite
    Result: Actually worked! 500+ paying users, $2K MRR
    Status: Still running, my only "success"

2023: Back to Reality

13. AIWriterPro - AI writing assistant
    Result: ChatGPT launched, made this irrelevant overnight

14. CryptoPortfolioX - Crypto investment tracking
    Result: Crypto winter killed demand, 5 users total

2024: Still Trying

15. CreatorAnalytics - Social media analytics for creators
    Result: In progress, early signs not promising

The Brutal Mathematics

Let me break down the real numbers:

Time Investment

• Total hours: ~8,400 hours (roughly 4 hours/day for 7 years)
• Average per project: 560 hours
• Successful project ratio: 1 in 15 (6.67%)

Financial Investment

• Development costs: ~$45,000 (tools, hosting, domains, etc.)
• Revenue generated: ~$28,000 (mostly from DevToolBox)
• Net loss: $17,000 over 7 years

Opportunity Cost

• Salary I could have made: ~$560,000 (at my day job rate)
• Actual indie hacker income: $28,000
• Opportunity cost: $532,000

Yeah, the math is brutal.

Why 99% of Indie Products Fail

After 15 attempts, here's what I've learned about why most products fail:

1. Building in a Vacuum

• My mistake: Building what I thought people wanted
• Reality: People don't want what you think they want
• Example: PodcastGrow seemed obvious to me, but podcasters had different problems

2. Competition Blindness

• My mistake: Thinking I could build a "better" version
• Reality: Better doesn't matter if you can't reach users
• Example: EmailFlowz was objectively better than some features in Mailchimp, but who cares?

3. Timing Everything Wrong

• My mistake: Building for current trends instead of future needs
• Reality: By the time you build it, the moment has passed
• Example: CreatorCoin launched right as NFTs were crashing

4. Underestimating Marketing

• My mistake: "If you build it, they will come"
• Reality: Marketing is harder than building
• Example: SocialScheduler was a good product with zero marketing strategy

5. Solving Problems That Don't Really Hurt

• My mistake: Solving mild inconveniences, not real pain
• Reality: People only pay for solutions to painful problems
• Example: CodeSnippet Manager solved an annoyance, not a real problem

The One That Worked: DevToolBox

So what made DevToolBox different?

It Solved a Real, Painful Problem

Developers were wasting hours switching between tools for common tasks. DevToolBox bundled them into one interface.

I Was the Target User

I built it because I needed it. I used it daily before anyone else did.

Simple Monetization

$4/month per developer. Simple, clear value proposition.

Lucky Timing

Launched right when remote development teams were exploding (pandemic effect).

Word-of-Mouth Growth

Early users shared it because it genuinely saved them time.

The lesson: Success requires solving a real problem for people you understand, with a clear business model, at the right time, with users who want to share it.

That's a lot of variables to align.

The Question Everyone Asks: Why Keep Going?

After 14 failures and marginal success with #15, why am I still doing this?

1. The Math Still Works (Barely)

• DevToolBox generates ~$2K/month passively
• That's $24K/year for something I built 2 years ago
• If I can build 5 products like DevToolBox, I'm financially free

2. I'm Getting Better

• Failure #15 was better than failure #1
• I'm making different mistakes, which means I'm learning
• My failure cycle is getting shorter (less time wasted per failure)

3. The Alternative Isn't Appealing

• Going back to a 9-5 feels like giving up
• I've learned too much to stop now
• The upside potential still outweighs the downside risk

4. It's Become Who I Am

After 7 years, I'm no longer someone who "tries indie hacking"
I'm an indie hacker who sometimes fails

What I'd Tell My Past Self

Start with the Problem, Not the Solution

Talk to potential users for weeks before writing a single line of code.

Build Smaller

All my failures were too big. DevToolBox was the simplest thing I'd ever built.

Validate with Money

People saying "that's cool" means nothing. People paying $1 means everything.

Marketing Is Half the Product

Spend as much time on distribution as you do on development.

Most Ideas Are Bad

That's okay. Build it fast, test it fast, fail fast, move on fast.

For Other Struggling Indie Hackers

You're Not Alone

The success stories get amplified. The failures get hidden. Most of us are failing most of the time.

The Statistics Are Real

99% of indie products fail. Most never get a single customer. This isn't pessimism, it's reality.

But the Math Still Works

You only need one success to change everything. DevToolBox proves that even average creators can hit if they keep swinging.

Persistence Beats Talent

I'm not the smartest person building products. I'm just too stubborn to quit.

Product #16 Is Already Planned

Despite everything I've shared, I'm already planning product #16.

Why? Because now I know:

• What real problems look like
• How to validate before building
• How to fail faster and cheaper
• That one success can fund many failures

The goal isn't to stop failing. The goal is to fail better.

The Real Success Metric

After 7 years, here's how I measure success:

• Not: How many products succeeded
• But: How much I've learned from each failure
• Not: How much money I've made
• But: How much better I am at identifying real problems
• Not: How quickly I can build
• But: How quickly I can validate and quit bad ideas

Product #16 will probably fail too. And that's okay.

Because product #17 will be better than #16, just like #15 was better than #1.

And eventually, the math will work out.

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The Anonymous Veteran is an indie hacker with 7 years of experience and 15 product launches under his belt. He continues to build and share lessons from the trenches of indie entrepreneurship.