🥷 Complexity: The Silent Killer in Your Product (A Cautionary Tale)

Alright, let’s talk about Max. You’d have loved his app—gorgeous UI, six front-end engineers, enough GraphQL to make your head spin, and a design system so over-engineered it could probably land a rocket on Mars. Every pixel? Chef’s kiss.

Except… users stopped logging in.

When the Churn Interviews Hurt

The post-mortem was brutal. Users said things like:

• “It never loaded.”

• “There was too much going on.”

• “I thought it was broken.”

Meanwhile, inside the team, feature velocity was off the charts. Metrics? Well, they existed. Somewhere. In a chart. Maybe.

The Product Became a Maze

Here’s the kicker: what felt elegant and logical to Max’s crew was basically quicksand for actual humans. Real people, with real jobs, and a low tolerance for digital nonsense. Every “smart” decision? Just another layer of confusion.

The Gutsy Pivot

So Max did the unthinkable:

• Paused all new features.

• Fired the agency.

• Tossed the precious design system.

• Had two engineers rebuild onboarding from scratch.

• Shipped what they jokingly called a “dumb product.”

Result? Retention doubled in two weeks. Yes, doubled.

From Bummed Engineers to Love Letters

Engineers grumbled… for about five minutes. Then users started sending fan mail. Support tickets dropped like a rock. Suddenly, Max could actually run experiments again instead of just untangling spaghetti.

The Takeaway

Simplicity isn’t just “nice.” It’s a superpower. While everyone else is busy building labyrinths, you can win by being obvious.

Gut Check for Founders

• What part of your product is secretly just for other builders?

• Where are you over-optimizing?

• Has your team stopped talking about user friction?

Simplicity compounds. So does noise. Pick wisely.

Max’s team wasn’t short on talent. They just, like the rest of us, sometimes confuse clever with useful. Startups don’t have to feel slow or boring, but they should always feel obvious.

Ever been Max? Or, honestly, are you Max right now? Hit reply and tell me your story.

🙏 Help me validate my business idea…by validating YOUR business idea…

Today’s non-sponsor of this newsletter is ME.

Use Validate AI (vldt.ai) and let me know what you think!

The problem with last issue’s writeup about the three types of “Ideal people” is that all of us are on the spectrum. Not THAT spectrum, necessarily, but the idea validation spectrum. I admit that I go through stages where I personally struggle with overbuilding. Honestly I’d probably be better off if I had more of a “Dreamer” in me.

Anyway, my buddy Ron and I created Validate AI to help us quickly validate our startup ideas. It’s currently focused on validating SaaS ideas. It creates a beautiful validation plan and even a landing page that you can chat with (Like Replit) to rearrange until you’re ready to publish and start gathering leads. Think of it like a PRE-Replit.

Please try it 🙏 

I am anxious to get your feedback! —> https://www.VLDT.ai

🙅🦄 Not Every Startup Needs to Be a Unicorn (And That’s a Good Thing)

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but get this out of the way: not every founder needs to chase the unicorn dream. Seriously. The billion-dollar valuation game? It’s like playing the lottery, except you’re burning out while you buy the tickets—no jackpot, just a lot of sleepless nights.

The Tech Pressure Cooker

There’s this bizarre expectation in startup land: raise a ton of money, scale at warp speed, hire an army, and pray for a TechCrunch mention. But here’s the thing nobody admits—most founders aren’t built for that, and that’s perfectly fine. You’re not broken if you don’t want the rocket ship ride.

The Underrated Win: A Business That Doesn’t Ruin Your Life

Let’s talk about the so-called “lifestyle business.” People toss that term around like it’s a consolation prize. Honestly? I call it winning. Imagine a business that pays your bills, lets you sleep, and doesn’t make you dread Slack notifications. That’s the dream, right there.

Small Can Be Mighty

Here’s a little secret: you don’t need a 100-person team to make something meaningful. Sometimes, smaller is actually better. Less drama, more control, and—dare I say it—real weekends.

Growth for Growth’s Sake? No Thanks

I’ve watched founders chase growth like it’s the only metric that matters, only to wind up running companies they secretly hate. It’s like building your own prison, but with worse snacks.

Freedom Over FOMO

So if you want to bootstrap, stay lean, or just keep your business weird and small—don’t let anyone tell you that’s failure. That’s freedom. Unicorns are fun to read about, but there’s a quiet joy in being a happy zebra.

Your Turn

Would you rather swing for the fences, or build something solid and chill? Genuinely curious—hit reply and let me know.

💡 Business Idea of the Week

The “Crystal Ball” Etsy Opportunity Engine 🧙‍♂️📈

1. Etsy has over 100 million active buyers and more than 8 million active sellers as of 2025.

2. 82% of Etsy shops are run by just one person, and 97% are home-based.

The Gap: Every Etsy research tool today is obsessed with “what is.” They pull in sales data, keyword trends, and competitive analysis, but they’re missing the magic: prediction. Nobody’s giving you a heads-up when a micro-niche is about to pop, or when a competitor is about to leave a gaping hole in the market.

The Idea: Build a predictive, cross-platform Etsy opportunity engine. Think of it as a “crystal ball” for indie e-commerce founders. Here’s what would make it different:

• Proactive Opportunity Alerts: Real-time notifications when a product or keyword is heating up—before it hits the top charts.

• Micro-Niche Radar: AI that surfaces hyper-specific, underserved product categories (the weird, quirky stuff that Etsy buyers love).

• Competitor Blind Spot Finder: Tools that highlight what top sellers are missing, so you can swoop in and own the gap.

• Predictive Testing Sandbox: Simulate how a new listing might perform using historical data and trend forecasting.

• Cross-Platform Insights: See what’s trending on Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Shopify, then catch the wave on Etsy before it crests.

• Community Intelligence: Gamify trend-spotting—think badges for users who surface winning ideas early, with crowdsourced validation.

Why Now? Etsy sellers (and honestly, most e-commerce founders) are drowning in data but starving for foresight. Everyone’s playing catch-up. If you can help sellers move from “what’s working now” to “what’s about to work,” you’re not just another analytics dashboard—you’re the secret weapon.

What’s Next? If you want to riff on this, I’ve got a list of feature ideas, validation hacks, and a few spicy takes on how to get early traction. Hit reply if you want to jam on it or poke holes in the concept. As always, take it or leave it—but if you build it, send me a beta invite. I want in on the action.

⚡️ Quick Hits: Lightning Round

• Please don’t forget to check out my new platform [alpha] (it’s free!) — VLDT.ai — anxious for any and all feedback.

• My buddy Will built a fun (addictive) game called Tulip Mania which he adorably launched on Product Hunt if you have a minute, please check it out!

• YC backed Browser-use.com has been performing a lot better than ChatGPT Agents for me. I recommend giving it a try if you have any remaining repetitive tasks in the browser.

THE END

That’s a long one! If for any reason you think you’d enjoy reading more throughout the week, I’ve been doing a good job of being active on X so please follow me there: https://x.com/hancockenator 

As always, seriously, THANK YOU for reading and for all the wonderful replies every week!!

Love you lots,
— John