"For example, a social network for pet owners. It doesn't sound obviously mistaken. Millions of people have pets."
I once worked on a social network for dog owners. Not pet owners, dog owners. And not actually dog owners, but their dogs. A place for people to have a social network of ... dogs.
But all the features made it an interesting enough project. The guy even came up with enough money to pay the web agency I was working at for the development - yes, outsourcing core product to an agency.
It took a year for the project to go from "I need devs" to "Build this". By then I had already given my notice at the agency with the dream of launching a cool startup.
I don't know that the dog social network ever launched.
Having heard this idea from multiple relatives over the years, I have to imagine that the trap of building the dog social network that everybody likes the idea but nobody would actually use has cost the economy several basis points of GDP.
These days, being a developer without a social network death-march project story is like being an EMT without a gory accident story. They do exist, but their box of anecdotes seems a little bare.
I once worked on a social network for dog owners. Not pet owners, dog owners. And not actually dog owners, but their dogs. A place for people to have a social network of ... dogs.
But all the features made it an interesting enough project. The guy even came up with enough money to pay the web agency I was working at for the development - yes, outsourcing core product to an agency.
It took a year for the project to go from "I need devs" to "Build this". By then I had already given my notice at the agency with the dream of launching a cool startup.
I don't know that the dog social network ever launched.