I Built Five Failed Products. Here's How I Learned to Stop

I used to think the Minimum Viable Product was the smartest idea in the startup world. Build a small version, get feedback, iterate. It sounded so logical. So lean.

Then I watched a friend drive himself into the ground doing it. Five times. Five different ideas, five different MVPs. Five perfect little apps that nobody wanted. He had a digital graveyard full of clever code and zero paying customers.

After the fifth failure, he realized something: we were all doing it wrong.

The Problem with "The MVP"

Most advice about building an MVP sounds like a race to the launch button. "Ship fast," "get feedback," "find product-market fit." We all got so obsessed with the Product part that we completely forgot about the Viable part.

The real issue isn't that building things is bad—it's that we build them based on assumptions, not commitments. Your MVP becomes a solution looking for a problem, and the "feedback" you get is usually just a bunch of nice people saying "this is neat!" before they close the tab forever.

It’s a trap. It feels like progress, but you’re just getting really efficient at building stuff nobody will pay for.

What Actually Works: Three Things I Wish I'd Known

Instead of building a product, you need to validate a problem. And the only validation that matters is a credit card number. Here’s how you get one.

1. Sell an Outcome (Not an App)

Stop talking about your software. Seriously. Nobody cares about your tech stack, your features, or your slick UI. They care about their own problems.

Your job is to sell them a future where their biggest headache is gone.

I’ve seen this work again and again when founders change their pitch:

Instead of: "Would you use an app that manages projects?"
Try: "What if your team lead got 5 hours back every week?"
Instead of: "Check out my new feedback tool!"
Try: "What if you could get 20% more insights from your best customers?"

These work because they sell an outcome. The app is just the delivery mechanism. It’s a supporting character in the story of how you solve their expensive, time-consuming problem.

The key: You’re not a software vendor. You’re a painkiller.

2. Make an Offer They Can't Ignore

Forget asking for a $49/month subscription for something that doesn't exist. That’s a weak ask. You need to make a real offer.

Pitch a Paid Pilot Program.

A friend on a startup forum nailed it with this pitch: "$300 upfront for priority access and to help us shape the roadmap."

This is genius because:

It’s a real commitment. A $300 payment proves the pain is real. A "let me know when it's ready" proves nothing.
It makes them a partner. They aren't just a user; they're a co-creator. For the right person, getting to build the exact solution to their problem is incredibly valuable.
It filters out the time-wasters. The people who need your solution will see $300 as a bargain to fix a problem that's costing them thousands.

To make this offer, you don't need a prototype. You just need a one-page Google Doc. Call it your "Promise One-Pager." It should have: The Pain, The Promised Outcome, How It'll Work, and your Paid Pilot Offer (with a 100% money-back guarantee). This makes saying "yes" ridiculously easy.

The key: You’re selling a partnership, not a product.

3. Have Conversations (Not Demos)

You've got your offer. Now you need to talk to people. But for the love of god, don't book a "demo call." You have nothing to demo.

Book 15-minute "discovery calls." And your only goal on these calls is to listen.

Good questions to ask:

"Tell me about how you're dealing with [the problem] right now."
"What's the most frustrating part about that?"
"What have you tried to fix it? What happened?"
"If you could wave a magic wand and make this problem disappear, what would that look like?"

They are literally telling you what to build. Listen. Only after you’ve confirmed their pain is a perfect match do you pivot: "That's exactly what I'm working on. We're looking for a few founding partners to help us build it right." Then you show them the one-pager.

The key: Shut up and let them tell you what hurts.

The Real Rules of Pre-Selling

Every industry is different, but here’s what actually matters:

Go where the pain is. Don't cold email. Hang out in the Slack groups, forums, and LinkedIn threads where people are already complaining about the problem you want to solve.
Listen first. Your first interactions should be you offering helpful advice with zero mention of your product. Just be a useful human.
A "yes" is not a yes. A verbal commitment is worthless. The only thing that counts is money in the bank. Send that Stripe link or invoice immediately.
Accept that you'll get rejected. Most people will say no. That’s fine. You’re not looking for most people. You’re looking for the 2-3 who feel the pain so acutely they’ll pay to make it stop.

What This Actually Looks Like

Let's go back to Lukas. For his sixth idea, he did it differently.

He was thinking of building a tool to help founders manage customer feedback. Instead of opening his code editor, he joined a few founder communities. He just listened. He saw people complaining about "survey fatigue" and "drowning in feedback from a dozen places."

He DMed one of them: "Hey, saw your post about feedback being a mess. I'm exploring a way to fix that. You open to a 15-min chat so I can learn from your experience? Not selling anything."

On the call, he just listened for 10 minutes. The founder vented. Then Lukas said, "What you're describing is the exact problem I want to solve. I'm putting together a small group of founding partners to build the solution. It's a one-time $300 fee to help shape it."

Result: The founder paid that afternoon. After two more calls like that, Lukas had $900 and three passionate customers on speed dial. Now he could start building.

The Long Game

This isn't about a quick cash grab. It’s about starting on the right foundation. It's about building a business where customer needs are baked in from day one, not bolted on as an afterthought.

This takes patience. But the payoff is real: you build something you know people will pay for.

Getting Started (Without the Complicated Playbooks)

Pick one specific problem for one specific type of person.
Spend a week just reading and listening in the online communities where those people hang out.
Start having helpful conversations. Your goal is to book a few 15-minute calls to "learn."
Make your "Paid Pilot" offer to the people whose pain is the most obvious.
Don't write a line of code until someone pays you.

That's it. No "growth hacks." No "launch strategy." Just finding people in pain and offering to help.

The Bottom Line

Building an MVP works when it's not a product at all. It’s a conversation that ends with an invoice. When you genuinely focus on solving a painful problem, people will pay you to build the solution. When you’re just trying to sell an app, they can tell.

The best validation doesn't come from a keyboard. It comes from a customer. And that's not a process you can automate—it's just good business.