switchstance

I started Bestlist.com around two years ago. It is a search and discovery app that allows users to find the best of anything. The idea came about after I had grown tired of the current state of search, where a query often resulted in SEO-optimized blog posts instead of the desired information. In a nutshell, Bestlist works by taking the user’s query, scraping the internet for reputable articles and social media posts relating to the query and extracting the mentioned “listings.” To form our ranking, we take many factors into account. We look at occurrences, the listing’s ratings on various sites, sentiment regarding the listing, and a few other things. Our results are not perfect, but we’re improving them on a daily basis.

We launched on Producthunt with lackluster results. After talking with users and getting feedback, the main issue I see is that people all have their own ways of searching and finding what they’re looking for, and Bestlist doesn’t provide enough of an “Aha” moment to stay at the top of mind to form new habits.

I’ve been funding the five person company with revenue from the sell of my first company, but I’m having a hard time stomaching spending more money each month, when we seem to be make little to no progress in winning users over. Add to that, the seemingly overnight onslaught in AI capabilities and the fear that what we’re creating is heading towards obsolescence, and I feel absolutely defeated.

A competitor of our’s raised a $10 million series A recently, so there are clearly some believers in the problem we’re trying to solve.

I'm at a loss. When do you know it’s time to shut your startup down? Any feedback is welcomed.

Thank you, Tyler