What I learned shutting down Kindling

Kindling was a habit app for writers. People loved it for a week. By the third week, most of them had forgotten it existed. We spent a year trying to fix that with features, when the real problem was simpler.

What happened

We raised a small round, hired eight people in four months and built fast. Every chart went up for a while, then flattened, then quietly went down.

We were measuring how many people signed up, not how many people still cared.

What I kept

• Charge early. Money is the clearest feedback there is.
• Hire late. Every person you add makes changing your mind harder.
• Write every decision down. Future you will want to know why.

The email

The hardest part was telling our customers. I wrote it plainly, gave refunds and an export, and thanked them. Some of them still read Second Draft today.