The Idea Graveyard: What 100 Failed Startups Can Teach You

Every startup founder thinks their idea is unique. But the ways startups fail? Those are remarkably predictable.

We studied 100 failed indie hacker projects from communities like r/SideProject, IndieHackers, and Twitter/X. Here's what we found.

The Top 5 Killers of Startup Ideas

1. Solution Looking for a Problem (42%)

The most common killer. Founders build something cool, then scramble to find customers.

Signs you're doing this:

• You can't describe the problem in one sentence
• Your pitch starts with "It uses AI to..."
• You built it because you thought it was cool

Fix: Talk to 10 potential customers before writing a single line of code.

2. The "Vitamin" Curse (28%)

Nice-to-have tools don't survive. People only pay consistently for painkillers.

Examples of vitamins:

• "A prettier dashboard for..."
• "An easier way to organize..."
• "A tool to track..."

Examples of painkillers:

• "Recover lost revenue from..."
• "Stop losing customers because..."
• "Eliminate the 10 hours you spend on..."

3. Invisible Competition (15%)

"I checked—there's no competition!" Usually means you didn't look hard enough.

What founders miss:

• Incumbent solutions (spreadsheets, email)
• International competitors
• Features inside larger platforms
• "Good enough" free alternatives

4. The Solo Builder Trap (9%)

Building in isolation for months, then launching to crickets.

The pattern:

• 3 months building
• 1 day on Product Hunt
• 50 upvotes, 0 paying customers
• Abandoned after 2 weeks

5. Price Anchoring Failure (6%)

Pricing too low (no perceived value) or too high (no market fit).

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The Survivors' Playbook

The 20% that didn't fail all had one thing in common: they validated before building.

They asked brutal questions:

• Would you pay $X for this today?
• What would make you switch from your current solution?
• If this didn't exist, what would you use instead?

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Don't become a case study in failure. Validate your idea in 30 seconds with AI-powered analysis.