Ideas that were investigated, and then stopped.

Most write-ups about failed businesses are vague, and most are written to make the author look good. These are the opposite. What it cost, what the numbers actually were, and the specific thing that ended it — in enough detail that the next person can skip the expensive part.

Why this exists

Nearly everything written about starting a business is written by people whose business worked. That is a small and unrepresentative sample, and it leaves out the part that would have been useful: the specific arithmetic that made someone stop.

The useful information is in the details people leave out. Vendor terms. Acquisition costs. The regulatory clause nobody mentions until you have already committed. That information exists, it just dies quietly with each project.

This is a place to put it.

What a case includes

  • §The idea, in one line, with no pitch
  • §What it cost, in money and in months
  • §The real numbers: quotes, terms, unit economics
  • §The specific finding that closed it
  • §What the author would do differently
The archive
Case 001 · Pediatric OTC pharmaceutical Closed

A children's ibuprofen you don't have to fight over

Half of parents say they have held a child down to get medicine into them. The same children eat vitamin gummies willingly. Eight weeks to find out why nobody has fixed that, and what it would have cost to try.

Spent~$25K Investigated8 weeks Gates passed3 of 6 Ended byUnit economics
Read the case →
Case 002 — open for submission

File your own

If you investigated something seriously and stopped, that is worth writing down. You do not need a polished essay — answer the questions below and I will work with you on the write-up. Publish under your name or anonymously, your call.

Nothing is published without your sign-off.
Keep other people's names, confidential terms, and anything under NDA out of your submission — write about the structure, not the person.