From 30 failed projects to a successful $10K/month app | Starter Story

From 30 failed projects to a successful $10K/month app | Starter Story

"I failed way more often than I ever succeeded." That's how Thomas opens his story—not as a boast about resilience, but as a plain fact. Over many years, he launched more than 30 ideas that went nowhere. Then something finally clicked, and his new project started rolling step by step until it reached $10,000 a month in revenue. On this episode of Starter Story, host Pat Walls talks with Thomas about what actually changed—the five core reasons his earlier projects failed, what separates a good idea from a bad one, and why his last attempt finally worked.

The five reasons projects fail

Thomas has a clear framework for why his first 30 attempts tanked, and he walks through each one with the specificity of someone who has lived through them all.

First, building for nobody. Many of his early ideas were solutions to problems that didn't exist or that he had no personal connection to. He was guessing at what people might want, and the market never validated those guesses.

Second, over-engineering the product. Thomas admits he would build elaborate features before anyone had even used the thing. He'd spend weeks or months on polish, only to launch and hear crickets. The effort was wasted because he never tested the core value proposition early.