Spent 2.5 Year Working on a Side Project. How Should I Continue?
Postedabout 2 months agoActiveabout 2 months ago
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Side ProjectProduct DevelopmentMonetization
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Side Project
Product Development
Monetization
The author spent 2.5 years working on a Todo app side project and is now seeking advice on how to proceed, sparking a discussion on the challenges of launching and monetizing a personal project.
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Nov 11, 2025 at 1:29 PM EST
about 2 months ago
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Nov 11, 2025 at 1:44 PM EST
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I hadn't considered monetization until now since it started as a passion project. There’s a slim chance it could attract paying users (and maybe earn some pocket money), but at worst, I’ll remain its only user.
It doesn’t have fancy features, but they’re executed well enough to meet my workflow needs:
- Every todo list is text-based, allowing external work with .txt files. - Extremely responsive UX, as most data syncs locally. - Minute-level analytics to track time spent on tasks and projects.
If I decide to monetize it, it could provide valuable experience in running a business, though it might also become a significant time sink. I’d feel very proud if others used my work, but I know how competitive this field is, so that might not be realistic.
I’d greatly appreciate any recommendation or sugesstion! :)
Note: I'm based in Canada.
* where you are
* what you want to accomplish
For instance, if you wanted to be a bootstrapped indie hacker, then maybe this is a product to start marketing and selling.
If, on the other hand, you want to be a FAANG engineer, then you might want to keep using this yourself, but do nothing else with it.
Or, if you wanted a job at a normal software product company, you could open source this and use the lessons you learned building it as material for interviews and proof you can do the job of a software engineer plus other aspects.
However, I realized I might already be doing it wrong — as the old saying goes, “build and validate early.” I wonder how might one navigate this scenario?