I built a social app, it failed — here’s what I’d do differently today

Hi everyone,

A few years ago I worked on a social app focused on group-based matching —groups and individuals connecting around shared interests.

After several years of effort, we actually shipped the app — but it didn’t work in the way it needed to.

Looking back, the failure wasn’t about code or effort. The main issues were:

-Weak product discovery
-Building too much before validating the core behavior
-Outsourcing development without enough product control
-Underestimating how hard network effects really are

Since then, I’ve closely followed similar products in the broader app market. That experience helped me clearly see two things:

First, many social products struggle with how monetization is designed. Users are often asked to pay very early, before they clearly understand the value they’ll get — or before the product is mature enough to justify that ask. I now see this as a core product design problem, not just a pricing decision.

Second, I have a much clearer picture of how this kind of product needs to be designed from day one to avoid both the mistakes I made — and the ones I keep seeing in current apps.

One key lesson for me was this: “having the app” is not the same as having a product.

I’m not here to pitch or sell anything. I’m exploring a reformulation of this project and, for now, I’m mostly interested in exchanging experiences with people who’ve worked on social products, marketplaces, or early-stage discovery — whether inside Indie Hackers or elsewhere.

If you’ve built (or failed to build) something in this area, I’d love to hear what surprised you the most.

Thanks for reading.