Deciding when to stop is harder than deciding to start, and most people do it by feel, late.
Some founders set a rule in advance. Examples of the kind of rule we mean:
- A date and a number. "If I do not have 10 paying customers by the end of March, I stop."
- A budget. "I will spend this much time and money, and then decide with fresh eyes."
- A signal. "If nobody complains when I turn it off for a day, it is done."
- An energy check. "If I have avoided opening the project for three weeks, I ask myself why."
Reply with:
- The rule you use, or the one you wish you had used
- A time you followed it, or ignored it, and what happened
- What you do with a project you stop: sell it, open-source it, leave it running, or delete it
A point worth arguing about in the replies: a rule set before you start is nearly always more honest than a judgement made in month eight, because by then you have too much invested to see clearly.