Ask HN: Your startup failed. Do you regret the path you chose?
There's tons of statistics of how many startups fail a year. But statistics don't tell the full story. If you created your own startup, how many of you regret the path you chose? And why?
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2012 where @thuang513 convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:
Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.
CATEGORY Ask HN Roundtables →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE 10 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 4 comments
Not at all, it's primed me well for an upcoming project that might turn into Startup #2.
I'm not taking the best path for making the most money (risk coefficient * CHEESE!), but time spent learning as much as I have and enjoying doing so is well spent.
It's a value proposition, with variables to weigh on each side.
If you value security, it's not likely to be a good idea for you. If you're risk insensitive, then the economic insecurity isn't likely to bother you as much.
If you like being able to go party week in, week out with your friends like clockwork with nothing likely to disturb your social schedule, less of a good idea to do a startup.
If you're obsessed with building a product that solves real problems for people, more of a good idea to do a startup.
Just know yourself, where your values and priorities lie. Be honest, then you'll know if it's something you really want to do.
As they say "a life without regrets is a life not worth living". I don't know if you could term any of my side projects as startups but that was what was in my mind as I plugged away at them until they failed or fizzled out.
I've no regrets about building those things, I learned a lot and applied that knowledge next time round. I regret certain decisions like spending a beautiful summers weekend working on code no one would use instead of spending it with my friends and family and building something a bit more MVC. But that's how I learn so ultimately to regret it would be to constantly beat myself up.
Had the impact of those decisions been bigger maybe I'd have regrets, I don't know.
Do NOT outsource your tech. Learn to code. This a million billion zillion times.
Oh my god how I wish someone had branded this on my chest.
Words can't describe the satisfaction of thinking of a change, sitting down and making it happen. Right there and then. Without communicating it to someone distant, and paying for the privilege.
As long as it doesn't ruin your relationships, or health or lead to poverty, I don't see how one can regret it.