50 Startup Ideas I Abandoned at the MVP Button
I don’t finish every project I start.
But I do name the folder and register the domain - like a normal person.
Over the years, I’ve started dozens of ideas with intense, unearned conviction…
and abandoned them just as fast.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- A browser extension that turns recruiter emails into drinking games
- A meditation app that just screams “FOCUS” every 90 seconds
- A crypto-powered punch card system (please don’t ask)
- A startup that matches lonely founders with imaginary co-founders (beta never launched)
- A budgeting app that only displays regret
- A “startup idea validator” that just returns
404 Not Found
Some got past the whiteboard.
A few even got users.
None got far enough to replace the existential hole I was trying to fill.
But here’s the thing:
Every one of those false starts taught me something -
about workflows, about priorities, about the weird psychology of building.
I started noticing patterns.
I kept rebuilding the same internal tools.
I’d spin up the same dashboards, the same status trackers, the same task boards - over and over again.
Eventually, I stopped asking, “What should I build next?”
And started asking, “Why do I keep rebuilding the same things from scratch?”
So I’m trying something different now.
A little more focused.
A little more open-ended.
Still chaotic - but in a reusable way.
It might work.
It might not.
But this time, I’m shipping it anyway.