Welcome to the very first edition of Failsights.

In a world that celebrates billion-dollar unicorns and overnight successes, Failsights is here to shed light on valuable lessons hidden in business failures from all over the world. Failure in business is common, as the often-quoted stat reveals, 90% of startups fail[1]. Each setback, each pivot and each failure carries within it lessons that can guide us all as we strive for success in our own business journeys.

In each edition of Failsights, I will take a deep dive into the stories of founders who have faced challenges in business. The focus isn’t on the failure itself, but the insights gained, the lessons learned and the wisdom acquired through these experiences, with the hope that you can take these and not have to face the same challenges.

TLDR - At a Glance:

Startup: Parentcontrols.win

Product: AI-powered content filter for children's devices

Development Time: 6 months (October 2023 - March 2024)

Investment: $30,000 (product development and living expenses)

Pricing Model: $20/month subscription

Major Challenges:

• Platform limitations (Windows-only)

• Technical difficulties

• Marketing struggles

• Converting interest to paying customers

Outcome: Limited traction, no paying customers as of publication

Key Lessons:

• Beware of false positive feedback

• Consider platform limitations

• Identify who makes purchasing decisions

• Don't underestimate the importance of marketing

• Be prepared for the long haul

• Always have a backup plan

Ctrl+Alt+Protect - A Startup's Stumble

In today’s edition, I bring you the story of Thomas’s startup, Parentcontrols.win. Thomas set out to tackle an ever-growing issue: protecting children from harmful online content.

The Origin Story

Thomas’s journey begins with a personal experience many parents may find familiar. As a child he found himself immersed in political online communities, becoming what he describes as a “menace”.

“I got into very political online communities. I became like this menace to my parents. Before I stopped believing in Santa, I declared I was an atheist, it didn’t make sense, right? Why is this little kid an atheist before he stops believing Santa at 5 or 6”

With two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s in electrical engineering, Thomas has the technical foundations. With his exposure to the internet at an early age leaving a mark on him, he set about providing content filtering for children’s devices.

The Product Vision

The vision was to use AI to analyse and filter content in real time. This allows for more control over what a child can see online. He explains:

“With AI you could filter all content that goes through a child’s device. Every social media post, for example, Reddit posts can be removed line by line if it doesn’t meet a certain criteria, whilst leaving other posts”

The idea of Parentcontrols.win is sound, the approach going further than simple keyword filtering and site blocking which was the competitors only offering.

Parentcontrol.win’s features went further and included:

- AI content filtering

- Real time analysis of websites

- Customisable filters based on the parents’ criteria

- Political content management

Thomas’s initial research for the product was directly talking to parents. He found talking to customers that internet filters on devices were seen as a parent ‘failing’ to watch over the kids. But when mentioning political filtering as an option, that is when parents perked their ears.

“There is a subset of the population that don’t like certain people, lets take Andrew Tate. Who would want their children exposed to that?”

Building the MVP

Anything you try for the first time; you’re learning on the go. No founder knows everything before setting up a business. Same thing for Thomas, he acquired a whole new set of skills developing his MVP:

“I’ve never written a Windows app, or in C sharp, which I don’t know how to technically. It’s another language which is mostly used in video games, it’s something I needed to take a grasp off.”

This is common for many tech founders, becoming a “jack of all trades”. It’s especially apparent when you are a solo founder like Thomas was. With a decent chunk in savings, he went fulltime on Parentcontrols.win, bootstrapping the project. The development of the MVP took 6 months from October 2023 to March 2024.

“The way it works is you basically have a wireguard VPN on the child's computer, essentially a server which decrypts everything, looks at it, and then re-encrypts. The idea being AI removes content from pages in real time.”

This allows for a deep inspection of all internet traffic on the child’s device, filtering any content a parent might find inappropriate. Sounds great, right?

Startup challenges…you’re kidding, really?

Of course, it wouldn’t be a startup without its challenges. Parentcontrols.win faced many of them:

1. Platform limitations -  Thomas’s initial focus was on devices operating Windows, already limiting his potential user base. Thomas explained that iPhones and Android are protective, they don’t want you adding in root certificates.

2. Technical challenges – developing for Windows proved more difficult than anticipated. C sharp being the code language, a language Thomas was not familiar with.

3. Outsourcing issues – to overcome this technical challenge, Thomas outsourced part of the code generation. "That was a huge mistake," Thomas reflected. "If you try to hire a contractor on a budget, you get people who just can't really do it."

Despite these challenges, Thomas continued to refine the product and launched the MVP in March 2024.

Mums make the decisions and marketing, marketing, oh marketing.

Immediately after the launch, Thomas had found the problem. Whilst parents expressed interest in the product, converting that interest into paying customers proved to be a challenge, an all too familiar problem with startups.

Thomas realised:

“Mums make all the financial decisions. Dads might be more politically invested in their kid for whatever reason, but the mums are the financial decision makers in the house, especially for what they’re purchasing for the children”

The struggle was convincing mums to pay for his product. Oh, and marketing.

Thomas went old school with his marketing approach. Flyers! He went to schools and handed out flyers to parents. Turns out, the worst payment per clicks ever. He generated very little interest. He tried Google and Facebook Ads – no result.

He contacted magazines and political figures, all of them saying the idea is sound, but the cost to promote it was his entire budget for the project (which he was also living off).

Even in a political year with the US elections upcoming, the product did not generate the traction needed.

Financial Snapshot and Product Market Fit

- $30,000 for product and living expenses

- Monthly costs - $40 for a CPU server, $50 for webhosting and database

- Pricing model: $20/month subscription

"We had someone do a free trial and then they cancelled and…I think there's like 20 people who made an account”

Tough pill to swallow. Despite all the effort and investment, the lack of signups signalled that the product might not have market fit. As Thomas described so aptly, there is a disconnect between expressed interest and actual market demand.

Grit and Determination

To promote his product, Thomas moved multiple times to different cities to attract different political demographics. Even with little traction, Thomas seems optimistic about the future:

“I have 6 to 9 months rent left from my savings. I eat a lot of rice and lentils, it’s a cheap meal. I am still promoting my project but also applying for jobs. Given my education, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a job”

And he’s right. Thomas is an incredibly gifted individual, smart and a hard worker. He has the discipline to work on a product knowing traction has been limited, but also has the awareness that he needs to let go at some point.

Failure is fine. He has learnt a lot, developed new skills and understood the rough road of building a business. But it was a calculated risk he took. He had savings, he had a good education to fall back onto and he’s happy that his learnings from this experience will most definitely put him in good stead for a future startup. All is not lost for Thomas; his determination and grit will take him far.

Lessons Learned

Thomas’s journey is an interesting one, on the face of it the idea sounds great, the reality is different. Parentcontrols.win offers several valuable lessons:

False Positive Feedback - While many people expressed interest in the concept, converting that interest into paying customers is always a challenge. Ask a customer would they pay for your product, get a deposit from them to show actual interest.

Platform limitations – as Thomas himself admitted, limiting himself to only Windows meant alienating many users on other platforms. Consider who your target market is and what devices they use, is your product accessible for the largest number of users?

Know who’s paying – in Thomas’s instance, mums. The dads may be more politically inclined, but who swipes the credit card? Knowing who pays helps tailor your marketing efforts.

Get a Cofounder – going solo might work. But as Thomas illustrates, the product worked but the marketing didn’t. Having a cofounder that knows sales, knows advertising and knows how to promote a product is crucial. It helps split the burden, and not having to do everything!

Be prepared for the long haul – it’s been almost a year with no paying users for his product. This requires resilience and discipline, to continue to iterate your product and try to make it better. But be prepared for failure, its not all sunshine and roses.

Back-up Plan – always have one. For Thomas, it was making sure he had enough to build his product but to also live on. He’s given himself a deadline, and as that deadline is approaching, he is actively applying for jobs. Don’t go gung-ho into starting up a business without having a plan to fulfil your current obligations, you know…rent, mortgage, bills, food etc etc etc

Founder-to-Founder Insights

At the end of each interview, founders will pose a question they’d like answered by the next founder. Our next featured founder will answer this question and, in turn, ask a new one for the subsequent founder. I hope this brings about a virtual dialogue between founders spanning different industries, experiences and challenges.

To kick this off, I asked Thomas the question:

What's the one skill that you think you've developed during your startup journey that you never expected to gain?

“I’m not a good speaker, but you do have to talk to a lot of people. At times it feels almost humiliating, but there is a lot of courage that comes with that. That is a skill I think I’ve developed”

Thomas Question for the next founder on Failsights:

How did you get your first 10 customers? There's a big gap between having no customers and having 50 or a 1000. I'm curious about how others bridged that initial gap."

Stay tuned for our next issue to see how our next founder answers this question.

Final Thoughts

Building a business will never be easy. There are challenges from the get-go. It’s hard, its lonely and takes a lot of will power to continue at its lowest points. Thomas’s journey is a testament to the challenges of bringing a technical product to market. The startup may not have achieved the success he hoped for, but the lessons learned are invaluable.

Remember, failure is not the end – it's a stepping stone to success. Keep building, keep failing but most importantly keep learning. Your next venture might be the one that changes everything.

If any of you would like to get in touch with Thomas, you can contact him via https://thomashansen.xyz/