How do you know when it’s time to quit?

This seems like a dry well. Time to move on. I've been there, I quit after 5 months, then came back to it a year later. Spent another 12 months, then quit again, for good. We had a few sales, totaling a few hundred a month, paid the server costs but that's it. I finally just quit it completely and haven't looked back.

The sooner you quit this loser, the sooner you can try again.

Best of luck.

I had a similar experience. Shut this down while you don't have any customers to annoy then bring it back in a year or two if the market improves

You're not as bad as me. I spent 3 years with zero traction (but lots of positive feedback) - I managed to continue for so long because I was consulting on the side. I finally shelved the idea and went back to work full time. 2 years later I look back and its still a great problem/market.... but I now can see why there was no effin way in hell it would've taken off.

I'm having the same problem. I recently quit on a startup that I've been working on. I also have previously started other companies that went nowhere. Before I used to be full of hope and optimism that I would one day be successful, but now I've pretty much given up hope. I've fallen into a deep depression.

We are in the same situation. I'm a solo founder in a 16 month old startup. I'm also not making real money yet, so I understand your fear.

But I guess the difference from my startup is... mine now gaining traction. I get a lot people using my product. I just need to implement a proper business model since everything is still free right now.

Success is base on your belief. If you believe on what you do, you will succeed. But it's NOT easy. You are in the phase where most losers starts to quit. And to tell you the truth, I've been in this phase so many times. There are times I would cry in my shower. Seriously. But I didn't quit. Because I believe I will succeed.

Unless you did something that people doesn't really want, then that's a different story. But you said people wanted it, you just got to figure out why they are not buying.

I wonder what is your product though.

You've built something nobody wants. I'm getting tired of all this "problem solving" gibberish .....Did Flappy Bird -solve a problem ? Farmville ?Angry Birds ?

Facebook ? They built something people wanted to "use". You can --want to use --Dropbox. It doesn't really solve a problem,when you can back up data at home.

Get my point.? You're building stuff nobody cares if it exist or not.Please--I know I sound cold.But get this through your heads and save yourself time, money, embarrassment and heartache.

Clueless is you, with your pretensions to "problem-solving". You're trying to move a product to make money. If it "solves a problem", great. There are plenty of products that didn't solve a single problem and probably introduced more--and they do fantastic. There's other things that are successful that just reinvent the wheel, or do things that the target market already has "solved" but work by segmenting existing markets.

Glorifying "problem solving" is just another bit of the startup mythos bullshit. You "solved a problem"--or are you trying to launch a successful product?

I work for a "startup" that won't pull the plug or shut its doors, and it's been burning through cash for years now with no success after at least two pivots and lots of re-re-re-vised products. We've never managed to cover operating expenses, even with cost-cutting measures everywhere and below-industry pay.

Which is to say: we're chumps. It's incredibly draining emotionally to know that the "Mission Impossible" project you've been on for years has turned into a suicide project. It intensifies office politics in an ugly way, and does a lot of things that can be difficult to deal with that you haven't expected.

When they say "Fail fast," that don't like to say "hey maybe your company sucks so you should give up", but that's implicit in the message.

To respond to OP: that's a tangential way of saying, you don't go broke cutting your losses. You go broke by doubling down and attempting to count sunk costs. You go broke by getting emotionally committed to an already-expensive dead end. You go broke by not walking away from a losing proposition.

When you play poker, in most games, your chances of winning any given hand are low--there's five other people, and luck evens out skill more than people, especially amatuer psychologists trying to read tells, like to admit. You should fold regularly and often. Chances are, your company isn't Next Facebook Whatsapp.

Every rejection is feedback. What are the reasons you're getting when people decline your offering? Can you address at least the common ones? Quite often people give you 3 or 4 reasons but not the real one - have you asked them what really concerns them about your offering.

My suggestion? Go back to the people who have rejected your product and ask what it would take to make your offer compelling. If you can make the common things happen, ask for a commitment from them and make them happen.

It may not end up being the idea you initially had, but that's OK. What is better - your idea or an idea that makes money?

If not, turn it in. Good luck either way.

-Set an absolute pull the plug if not ____ date.

- Seek partnership with a hitter who has been there done that.

- Don't talk to 100 people / Take 100 more NEW action steps

- I guarantee you there are methods you have not considered

- maybe your product is the "free" add on from bigger ticket item / partnership

- maybe it's bolted on to a subscription offer/ partnership

- maybe it's unique financing via allotment process if applicable to military personal

- maybe - well no maybe about it / I'm sure that my advise is meaningless seeing as I have no idea what this is

- offer split to a rock star , if no interest / pull the plug because your service does not have a true advantage.

Good luck

I say let us critique your platform.What have you got to lose ?

OP here. Sincerely appreciate the offers. I'd rather not be public.