Lessons from a Year of Side Projects: What Actually Worked (and What Didn’t)

Question

Over the past year, I’ve built more side projects than I can count. Some made it to launch. Most didn’t. A few gained traction. One or two even brought in a little revenue. But the honest truth? The majority just vanished — as if they never existed.

Here are the most valuable (and rarely talked about) lessons I’ve learned along the way:

1. Impressive ≠ Useful

One of my earliest projects was an AI-powered researcher agent — it could scrape academic papers, summarize findings, and generate insights in seconds. I was proud of it. I believed it would catch fire.

I launched it.
The response? A few “cool” comments. That’s it. No one stuck around.

Turns out, looking impressive isn’t the same as being needed. People didn’t have a strong enough reason to come back.

2. Technical Brilliance Doesn’t Guarantee Adoption

At one point, I challenged myself to build an AI-powered resume maker with job-hunting integration. It crafted tailored resumes, matched users to job listings, and even suggested cover letters. I went deep — natural language processing, job board APIs, sleek UI, and more. It was one of the most advanced things I’d ever coded.

But I was solving problems for myself, not users. There was no real demand, no organic interest.
Eventually, I burned out — even though the project was technically beautiful. Even hired interns for it. Still didn’t take off.

3. Cutting-Edge AI Won’t Save a Useless Product

I’ve worked with advanced models — building an AI post writer for social media that generated viral-ready captions, hashtags, and even scheduled posts. The tech was cool.

But “cool” doesn’t pay the bills. If you’re not solving a real pain point, people won’t care. You can pile on all the AI buzzwords you want — it won’t matter without genuine utility.

4. The Simplicity That Worked: A Telegram Bot

Ironically, the simplest project I launched — a Telegram-based NSFW AI chatbot — became the most successful.

No major announcements. No public launch. Just a quiet drop in a few private WhatsApp groups.
But it spread via word of mouth. Slowly and steadily. No hype, just use.

I almost didn’t ship it. I worried it was “too simple” or wouldn’t reflect well on my portfolio.
Now? It’s the only project I actively track. Over 700 active users. 80+ paying subscribers. Still small — but growing every week.

Final Lesson: Shipping > Perfection

It’s easy to get caught up in polish, complexity, or cleverness. But those things don’t matter if the product doesn’t pull people in.

What matters most is:

• Shipping fast
• Listening hard
• Staying in the game

Perfection is a moving target. Momentum and real user feedback beat theory and polish every single time.

Comments

This is truly inspiring and insightful. Thanks for sharing your experience. Do you have any advice on how to look for ideas that may have potential for organic interest? How did you come up with the telegram bot idea?

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Thanks a ton, really appreciate it!
Honestly, I stopped chasing “startup-y” ideas and just started paying more attention to unfiltered convos in group chats, Reddit threads, random DMs — that’s where the gold is.

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Great insights! Thank you for sharing what didn't work. We learn from what doesn't work more than success, but nobody wants to talk about it.

Thomas Edison, ""I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

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Yes, well said. I've built several side projects for myself as well. I don't plan to launch, for now, mostly because I agree my personal needs are way specific. Thank you for the writing.