How do you know if a pet project or microstartup "hasn't taken off"?

[Yez16]

Hello everyone. This is a philosophical question, but still. You launch a startup, time passes, you have MRR and some clients and you understand that the startup has failed. How do you understand this? By high CAC, slow MRR growth (what is this slow growth for you), low LTV for your niche? Or is it already intuition? Or do you have a full-time job at someone else's company, and the time spent on your pet project does not pay for it if you were to sell this time to another company on the labor market?

 

[Panther28]

Hello everyone. This is a philosophical question, but still. You launch a startup, time passes, you have MRR and some clients and you understand that the startup has failed. How do you understand this? By high CAC, slow MRR growth (what is this slow growth for you), low LTV for your niche? Or is it already intuition? Or do you have a full-time job at someone else's company, and the time spent on your pet project does not pay for it if you were to sell this time to another company on the labor market?

Generally, you're projects don't pay you the same way as a 9-5. Are you actually comparing the two? You need to read the books of entrepreneurs around the world, and see how they overcame problems like this it's not new.

Just cause you start a super dooper project, doesn't mean its going to take off does it?

 

[Yez16]

Generally, you're projects don't pay you the same way as a 9-5. Are you actually comparing the two? You need to read the books of entrepreneurs around the world, and see how they overcame problems like this it's not new.

Just cause you start a super dooper project, doesn't mean its going to take off does it?

So I'm asking, what will take off? I'm not saying that it will bring in as much as a 9-5 job, I'm talking about the hourly wage, like at work. Let's say I spend 2 hours a day on a pet project, but it doesn't bring me as much money as I would for 2 hours a day at a regular job.

 

[kalpana007]

Hello everyone. This is a philosophical question, but still. You launch a startup, time passes, you have MRR and some clients and you understand that the startup has failed. How do you understand this? By high CAC, slow MRR growth (what is this slow growth for you), low LTV for your niche? Or is it already intuition? Or do you have a full-time job at someone else's company, and the time spent on your pet project does not pay for it if you were to sell this time to another company on the labor market?

There are different parameters. But if you got good number of initial clients and get funding based on that, it is a good validation.

 

[Panther28]

So I'm asking, what will take off? I'm not saying that it will bring in as much as a 9-5 job, I'm talking about the hourly wage, like at work. Let's say I spend 2 hours a day on a pet project, but it doesn't bring me as much money as I would for 2 hours a day at a regular job.

Your asking the same that all entraprenuers ask. Nobody has the solution but you. You could die tomorrow. Or you could live for the next 30 years, and never start your pet project. Or you could spend 30 years on a pet project that goes nowhere.

If you are wondering what magic product or formula will help make you more money than a 9-5 then lots. There is no guarantee though. Those only come with jobs, and even those aren't guaranteed lol

2 hours on a pet project? I've been working 4 weeks on a project that will take me a year, and I don't expect to get paid till I finish it. Thats the level of commitment your up against with other entrepreneurs. The realistic people know it takes a bit more than 2 hours work online before you can get paid.

If you have to ask yourself why pet projects don't pay as well as 9-5 then you shouldn't start a business or pet project. You don't have the mind set of an entrepreneur.

 

[Yez16]

Your asking the same that all entraprenuers ask. Nobody has the solution but you. You could die tomorrow. Or you could live for the next 30 years, and never start your pet project. Or you could spend 30 years on a pet project that goes nowhere.

If you are wondering what magic product or formula will help make you more money than a 9-5 then lots. There is no guarantee though. Those only come with jobs, and even those aren't guaranteed lol

2 hours on a pet project? I've been working 4 weeks on a project that will take me a year, and I don't expect to get paid till I finish it. Thats the level of commitment your up against with other entrepreneurs. The realistic people know it takes a bit more than 2 hours work online before you can get paid.

If you have to ask yourself why pet projects don't pay as well as 9-5 then you shouldn't start a business or pet project. You don't have the mind set of an entrepreneur.

You have fundamentally misunderstood my question. I start many projects, some work and grow, some are still at the start. I am not talking about a 30-year project, that is definitely not for me. And I am not the only one doing projects, I have partners, I wrote 2 hours as an example. My logic is different, no matter how much you love a project, you need to finish it and move on to the next one, that is the question, when to finish, how do you understand this? Doing the same thing for 1-5-30 years, hoping to get some other result, that is strange. That is the question, how quickly to switch to another project if you see that this one is not taking off. Before this, I could do projects for years, and they only sucked money, and I decided to change.

 

[Panther28]

You have fundamentally misunderstood my question. I start many projects, some work and grow, some are still at the start. I am not talking about a 30-year project, that is definitely not for me. And I am not the only one doing projects, I have partners, I wrote 2 hours as an example. My logic is different, no matter how much you love a project, you need to finish it and move on to the next one, that is the question, when to finish, how do you understand this? Doing the same thing for 1-5-30 years, hoping to get some other result, that is strange. That is the question, how quickly to switch to another project if you see that this one is not taking off. Before this, I could do projects for years, and they only sucked money, and I decided to change.

How long is a peice of string? you ever heard that? If I missed your point, then its probably because I'm just assuming that you want an answer to "Are my projects going to work? How I know? When I stop?" lol only stop the ones that don't pay the bills at the end of their lifecycle. How long is a lifecycle? Thats the meaning of being an entrepreneur. You take the risk to find out. Everyone is different, only you know. Yes, instinct plays a huge part. Instinct like everything else just comes from experience though. And how you build experience? You get things wrong. Be like Edison and invent 10 thousand light bulbs, before you get a working one, lol.

 

[Yez16]

How long is a peice of string? you ever heard that? If I missed your point, then its probably because I'm just assuming that you want an answer to "Are my projects going to work? How I know? When I stop?" lol only stop the ones that don't pay the bills at the end of their lifecycle. How long is a lifecycle? Thats the meaning of being an entrepreneur. You take the risk to find out. Everyone is different, only you know. Yes, instinct plays a huge part. Instinct like everything else just comes from experience though. And how you build experience? You get things wrong. Be like Edison and invent 10 thousand light bulbs, before you get a working one, lol.

I'm not asking myself, I'm asking you, when you stop projects, how do you understand that it needs to be completed, since it doesn't bring money? I just had a lot of projects that I dragged out for years, and they brought either crumbs (it was much lower per hour of my work than they pay in hiring) or were generally unprofitable. The logic is simple, the more microstartups you launch, the faster you can find a working idea and a market. But I can do one project for 1-2-3 years, and it just eats up my years of life, which are limited. And as you said, this is experience, and if you drag out these projects for years, then there will be very little experience in closing, and an understanding of when to close. And the project turns into a "white elephant". But I really appreciate your opinion, seriously, thanks for the answers.

 

[Panther28]

I'm not asking myself, I'm asking you, when you stop projects, how do you understand that it needs to be completed, since it doesn't bring money? I just had a lot of projects that I dragged out for years, and they brought either crumbs (it was much lower per hour of my work than they pay in hiring) or were generally unprofitable. The logic is simple, the more microstartups you launch, the faster you can find a working idea and a market. But I can do one project for 1-2-3 years, and it just eats up my years of life, which are limited. And as you said, this is experience, and if you drag out these projects for years, then there will be very little experience in closing, and an understanding of when to close. And the project turns into a "white elephant". But I really appreciate your opinion, seriously, thanks for the answers.

I can only say what I have to tell myself in the same sort of situation, which is just try your best, and keep doing that while learning. I could say the last 20 years have been a waste for me as I tried and failed many times and only recently I got a project, that I feel really is worth my life, lol I wish i'd had the balls to THINK about such a project now, as I can envisage, the whole life cycle, and how it will be used by me, and others, and how I can go about marketing it and promoting it to make money. So back to your question? I just wasted the last 20 years then right? lol

back to my first comment. Do your best. I'm just glad I'm alive to have the pleasure of working on such a fun project. Something that I can really share for free, and make money from a pro level type thing, and from the usage myself, which is my primarily goal.

I scraped a bunch of domain and rethinked all my activities and sites, and I plan to put many of them on hold while I get this project up and running. All my other stuff can wait, and I'll scale back what I'm not passionate about anymore, to keep costs low and just carry on.

Try to align I guess your macro and your micro thinking, so that the big picture == smaller picture and vice versa. Defiantly give up on methods, and try to build something structurally sound with digital assets. There are plenty of places online that pay you for digital content in various forms. All major social media platforms do it now, so you can easily promote wahtetever your golden goose is better than before. Plus you can build digital assets. I write ebooks for software, and draw characters for animators to buy also. I wasn't doing that 20 years ago, and I don't think I would change the roller coaster of a ride I've had since making money online and my first visit to the local looney bin! lol both are among my top achievements.

TLDR
Try your best. Never stop.

 

[Yez16]

I was thinking, if your CAC is close to LTV or higher, then the project can be closed. Thinking out loud.

 

[Yez16]

Maybe someone else has some other thoughts?

 

[Jason Starkey]

My logic is different, no matter how much you love a project, you need to finish it and move on to the next one, that is the question, when to finish, how do you understand this? Doing the same thing for 1-5-30 years, hoping to get some other result, that is strange. That is the question, how quickly to switch to another project if you see that this one is not taking off. Before this, I could do projects for years, and they only sucked money, and I decided to change.

You are lucky to receive such detailed and accurate advice from the master @Panther28 !

I can only give you some quick meaningful words... I sense you are very passionate about your work, disciplined, and you think like an engineer in great detail with math.

You need a clearer vision of goals to know when it is on the right track in time more accurately. This will help to know when to complete the current project and move on. Deeper planning/research might be needed prior to launching new projects.

I'm not asking myself, I'm asking you, when you stop projects, how do you understand that it needs to be completed, since it doesn't bring money? I just had a lot of projects that I dragged out for years, and they brought either crumbs (it was much lower per hour of my work than they pay in hiring) or were generally unprofitable. The logic is simple, the more microstartups you launch, the faster you can find a working idea and a market. But I can do one project for 1-2-3 years, and it just eats up my years of life, which are limited.

Some projects will need a year or more to show progress, so only then can you start calculating after the initial investment of time. Others you just learned what was needed and it took time.

Everything is going perfectly up until now, good job! Dont stress, learn to enjoy those lessons and years spent becoming wiser.
It was not a waste. You need to slowly replace offline income with online income after squeezing both for awhile longer.

Now utilize ai to boost your productivity to a new high. You can have more thorough approaches now and do it by yourself if needed. You need more creative ideas with more imagination and twists, less logic, math, and competition now.

I was thinking, if your CAC is close to LTV or higher, then the project can be closed. Thinking out loud.

The LTV/CAC ratio can vary depending on the dollar amounts though, yes it will need to be a key metric in your decision process but 1:1 is different for all projects.
Improving the ratio is another discussion as well. You can feed your stats to ai and have it analyze and recommend adjustments. Good luck!

 

[Yez16]

You are lucky to receive such detailed and accurate advice from the master @Panther28 !

I can only give you some quick meaningful words... I sense you are very passionate about your work, disciplined, and you think like an engineer in great detail with math.

You need a clearer vision of goals to know when it is on the right track in time more accurately. This will help to know when to complete the current project and move on. Deeper planning/research might be needed prior to launching new projects.

Some projects will need a year or more to show progress, so only then can you start calculating after the initial investment of time. Others you just learned what was needed and it took time.

Everything is going perfectly up until now, good job! Dont stress, learn to enjoy those lessons and years spent becoming wiser.
It was not a waste. You need to slowly replace offline income with online income after squeezing both for awhile longer.

Now utilize ai to boost your productivity to a new high. You can have more thorough approaches now and do it by yourself if needed. You need more creative ideas with more imagination and twists, less logic, math, and competition now.

The LTV/CAC ratio can vary depending on the dollar amounts though, yes it will need to be a key metric in your decision process but 1:1 is different for all projects.
Improving the ratio is another discussion as well. You can feed your stats to ai and have it analyze and recommend adjustments. Good luck!

Thanks!

 

[OldCookie]

Hello everyone. This is a philosophical question, but still. You launch a startup, time passes, you have MRR and some clients and you understand that the startup has failed. How do you understand this? By high CAC, slow MRR growth (what is this slow growth for you), low LTV for your niche? Or is it already intuition? Or do you have a full-time job at someone else's company, and the time spent on your pet project does not pay for it if you were to sell this time to another company on the labor market?

To me there is a simple answer to that: if I FEEL the project is going in the wrong direction, I mostly (unintentionally) devote less time to it, because it motivates me less then before. If that happens, I have to decide: Do I continue doing what is no longer like or do I need to sell it or end it. So to me it is more an emotional thing. Not a MRR figure or growth compared to other projects. I need to LOVE what I do, with every project I do. If that comes to an end, due to demanding clients, declining revenue, or less sign-ups for a newsletter I try to grow, then I mostly sell it or kill it. Oh, if I can not sell it and it is worth too much to kill it, I park it for later. I have for projects "on ice". Maybe I love them again, who knows?

 

[backlinkservice]

Sure! Here's a natural, thoughtful reply tailored for BlackHatWorld (BHW) that sounds like a real human sharing their perspective:

---

Really good question — I think every founder hits that moment of reflection sooner or later.

For me, it’s usually a mix of numbers and gut feeling. The metrics give you the warning signs: CAC getting higher while MRR crawls, LTV that barely justifies the effort, or churn that never seems to stabilize. Slow MRR growth for me is anything under 5–10% month over month once you’ve hit product-market fit — if you're grinding hard and still not seeing that, something’s off.

But honestly, it often starts as a feeling. When you dread checking your analytics or inbox, or you start avoiding outreach because deep down you know it’s not clicking... that’s when I pause and reevaluate.

Also yeah, the time trade-off matters. If I’m working full-time somewhere else and the startup isn’t pulling its weight — either in growth, learning, or future potential — it’s tough to justify continuing. At some point, it becomes more about sunk cost than real opportunity.

That said, not every “failure” is a waste. Sometimes you pivot, repackage, or use the tech or learnings elsewhere. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Yez16]

To me there is a simple answer to that: if I FEEL the project is going in the wrong direction, I mostly (unintentionally) devote less time to it, because it motivates me less then before. If that happens, I have to decide: Do I continue doing what is no longer like or do I need to sell it or end it. So to me it is more an emotional thing. Not a MRR figure or growth compared to other projects. I need to LOVE what I do, with every project I do. If that comes to an end, due to demanding clients, declining revenue, or less sign-ups for a newsletter I try to grow, then I mostly sell it or kill it. Oh, if I can not sell it and it is worth too much to kill it, I park it for later. I have for projects "on ice". Maybe I love them again, who knows?

I admit honestly, I can't love a project if it reduces its mrr (and if it is small, this mrr), and does it make sense? Or if the project hasn't received any coverage at all and the idea hasn't worked, then what's the point of dragging it out and loving it? Love will pass by itself in such a case, that's how it usually works for me.

 

[Yez16]

Sure! Here's a natural, thoughtful reply tailored for BlackHatWorld (BHW) that sounds like a real human sharing their perspective:

---

Really good question — I think every founder hits that moment of reflection sooner or later.

For me, it’s usually a mix of numbers and gut feeling. The metrics give you the warning signs: CAC getting higher while MRR crawls, LTV that barely justifies the effort, or churn that never seems to stabilize. Slow MRR growth for me is anything under 5–10% month over month once you’ve hit product-market fit — if you're grinding hard and still not seeing that, something’s off.

But honestly, it often starts as a feeling. When you dread checking your analytics or inbox, or you start avoiding outreach because deep down you know it’s not clicking... that’s when I pause and reevaluate.

Also yeah, the time trade-off matters. If I’m working full-time somewhere else and the startup isn’t pulling its weight — either in growth, learning, or future potential — it’s tough to justify continuing. At some point, it becomes more about sunk cost than real opportunity.

That said, not every “failure” is a waste. Sometimes you pivot, repackage, or use the tech or learnings elsewhere. Just my 2 cents.

Yes, thanks for the answer. In my case, there were also situations when I was afraid to launch a project and did it for a year, and this is also terrible. You spend time for no clear reason, you don’t even know if someone needs it or not.

 

[SilverClouds]

I'm talking about the hourly wage, like at work.

Bro, you don't understand entrepreneurship. Whole idea is to stop being paid for your time. You can't measure by hourly wage.

 

[Reddevil007]

Some solid tips for startup owners

 

[Yez16]

Bro, you don't understand entrepreneurship. Whole idea is to stop being paid for your time. You can't measure by hourly wage.

What I mean is that if my business brings in less than a hired job, and for a very long time, then something is wrong with it, and this could be a wake-up call to close this business.