At some point, I looked back at everything we'd built (Extenure, the engagement dashboards, AI video inspections, micro-checks) and realized there was a pattern.
We'd built five different products.
Each one smarter, faster, and simpler than the last.
And almost none of them had real customer engagement.
That was a hard truth to sit with.
The Illusion of Progress
Every pivot felt like forward motion.
We were shipping features, refining code, tightening UX, iterating fast.
But the truth was, we weren't getting closer to customers, just closer to what we thought customers wanted.
Every version solved a problem, just not one anyone was actively trying to fix.
It wasn't a lack of effort.
It was a lack of connection.
We weren't learning from customers. We were learning from our own assumptions.
The Comfortable Trap
The funny thing about building in isolation is that it feels productive.
You can spend weeks polishing architecture, perfecting flows, optimizing friction away, all while avoiding the scariest part: talking to people who might not care.
Writing code is safe.
Conversations are not.
I told myself I was "still validating," when in reality, I was just avoiding rejection.
It's easy to say, "I'll reach out once it's ready."
But "ready" never comes. There's always one more feature, one more fix, one more thing to prove before you show it to the world.
That cycle is comforting and deadly.
The Real Pattern
Looking back, the through-line across every pivot was clear:
We built things for customers, but not with them.
- Extenure had predictive models, but no conversations with HR managers.
- The engagement platform had surveys, but no pilot feedback loops.
- PeakOps AI inspections had models, but no live stores testing them.
- Micro-checks had the perfect UX, but no daily users yet.
We were building "solutions in search of problems."
It's a classic founder trap: mistaking technical learning for customer learning.
What I Learned
Customer feedback is the only real validation. Everything else is noise.
A perfect product without users is still a prototype.
Feature progress ≠ business progress.
If you're not uncomfortable, you're probably not learning.
Recognizing the pattern was painful, but also freeing.
Because once you see it, you can't unsee it.
The next phase wasn't about another product.
It was about fixing the approach.
And that's what the next chapter became: learning what $0 in revenue can teach you that $1M never will.
Next in The Pivot Chronicles
Part 8: What $0 in Revenue Teaches You (That $1M Can't)
Silence is data. When there's no money coming in, you can't hide behind vanity metrics. Just the truth.