The case files
Every build has a story
One honest write-up per product — how it started, what happened, and where it stands today. The ones we killed get the same treatment as the ones that worked. That's the point.
The post-mortems
What we killed, and why
Most studios bury these. We write them up — because the reason a thing gets shut down is usually more useful than the reason it got built.
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whatsum
Pausedwhatsum worked and had a paying client, but the infrastructure cost of summarizing WhatsApp traffic at scale exceeded what it earned. It was retired for that reason, not because the product failed — a clean case study in unit economics.
Read the post-mortem -
buyiffy
Pausedbuyiffy compared shopping prices across the UAE and India. It got as far as a working demo, and then hit the wall that kills most price-comparison products: keeping the catalogue accurate takes continuous, funded research. We stopped rather than let it quietly go stale. The traffic it did get turned out to be mostly bots, not shoppers.
Read the post-mortem -
Samchatter
PausedSamchatter gave event and booking partners a WhatsApp chatbot their own admin could run — the partner edits what it says, their customers just message it. It is paused: the assistant work that mattered went into Sam PA and the voice products, and nobody was pushing this one.
Read the post-mortem -
CameraUse
PausedCameraUse watches existing camera feeds and flags what matters — unattended baggage, a fight breaking out, someone where they should not be, someone falling. It is paused, and not for lack of belief: it is a big project that needs proper hardware and a real sales motion, and we would rather say that than run a pilot we cannot support.
Read the post-mortem -
MediTrack
PausedMediTrack read lab reports and tracked a family's health trends over time — the numbers that only mean something when you can see them move across years. It is paused. Holding other people's medical reports is a responsibility we are not taking on casually alongside everything else.
Read the post-mortem -
OnlyWAO
PausedOnlyWAO turned a product photo forwarded on WhatsApp into a tappable shop link, so a social seller could sell without a storefront. It was started in July 2026 and put down: the same WhatsApp-first selling idea is better served inside the products that already have sellers on them.
Read the post-mortem -
EasyInstaPost
PausedEasyInstaPost turned a sentence into a finished Instagram post — image, caption and hashtags, in every format Instagram wants. It never shipped on its own: VideoGuru became the creative engine and this folded into it. Paused rather than retired, because the 'one line in, finished post out' idea is still the right one.
Read the post-mortem -
MovAuto
RetiredMovAuto was a near-duplicate of EasyInstaPost, built before we admitted the two were the same product. Both folded into VideoGuru. This one is retired for good rather than paused: there is nothing in it that EasyInstaPost's own entry does not already cover.
Read the post-mortem -
MasterOdds
PausedMasterOdds works out a match's fair win probability from 25 years of cricket data, then compares that with the price the market is quoting and says whether the market is wrong. It is an analysis engine, not a betting operator — it never takes a bet. It is paused: the model is built and backtested, and what it needs is a decision about whether we want to be in this space at all.
Read the post-mortem -
Refplat
PausedRefplat was a two-sided marketplace where a startup or brand posts what it can offer, and micro-influencers who like it post about it and collect the reward. It is paused on the cold-start problem — both sides have to arrive at once — and there are others in that space now, so it needs a fresh look before it gets another go.
Read the post-mortem -
SmartNotes
PausedSmartNotes let you drop any scrap of text and filed it for you — into a bucket that already existed or a new one it made, asking when it was not sure, and always keeping the day you wrote it. It folded into Sam PA, where the same capture happens in a WhatsApp message. Paused as a standalone app.
Read the post-mortem -
Ultiassist
PausedUltiassist streamed a phone's screen and microphone to an assistant that talked the user through whatever they were stuck on — and deliberately never tapped anything itself. That restraint is what made it safe, and the same capability now lives in SamSupport and Sam PA. Paused as a standalone assistant.
Read the post-mortem -
phonebrain
Pausedphonebrain ran the model on the phone itself, with nothing leaving the device. We tried the local models that would fit and they were not good enough to stand behind. Paused until they are — and they are improving quickly.
Read the post-mortem -
easyagent
Pausedeasyagent drove a phone by itself through Android's accessibility controls — tell it what you want and it taps through the apps. It is paused because that is exactly the capability Play's policy treats as dangerous. The version worth returning to is the one built for elderly users, where the same machinery is the point rather than the risk.
Read the post-mortem -
DataForcast
PausedDataForecast predicted what a clothing company would sell, week by week and line by line, from its own sales history. It was built for one client, delivered, and never turned into something we sell. It is paused rather than retired because the forecasting work inside it is good and would transfer to any business carrying stock.
Read the post-mortem -
NeoService
RetiredNeoService was an internal service-desk build: tickets with a real lifecycle, agent and manager roles, and a dashboard over the whole thing. It never had an outside user, and it is retired rather than paused — every business it would serve is better off with software that already exists.
Read the post-mortem -
WorMa
RetiredWorMa was a personal kanban board with one opinionated rule: the two 'do this first' columns were capped at five cards, so declaring everything urgent was physically impossible. Built for one person, never intended for anyone else, and retired.
Read the post-mortem -
VisionMnemonics
PausedVisionMnemonics was a weekend experiment in AI-generated visual mnemonics — turning a thing you need to remember into an image absurd enough to stick. It never grew past the experiment, and it is paused rather than retired because the idea keeps coming back.
Read the post-mortem
The whole index
Every story, by where it stands
The complete list — live, in pilot, in the works, weekend builds, and retired. Every name is a link to its full case file.
Live 13
- BoxCostCal A corrugated-box cost calculator for packaging manufacturers.
- LoveCardGames A multiplayer card-games portal running 12 game engines — Teen Patti, Buraco, Truco and more.
- Maryada Packaging The company site and partner portal for a real, operating packaging business.
- MeetNotes AI meeting notes in any language — speaker-separated transcripts, summaries and to-dos for the whole team.
- MyProductAI AI product photography, try-on and video for Indian fashion, ethnic-wear and jewelry sellers.
- PlaceAnyAI AI surface and product try-on for furniture, flooring, and decor in a real room photo.
- Sam PA (JustTellSam) A WhatsApp-native personal assistant for tasks, reminders and expenses in 10+ languages — and it can call you.
- SamCaller AI voice-calling platform for Indian SMEs and agencies — outbound campaigns with a live agent on the line.
- SamSupport A drop-in live voice-assistant SDK that gives any web app page-aware spoken guidance.
- Shopify Try-On Virtual try-on inside a Shopify storefront — a shopper taps a garment and sees it on a model before buying.
- shruti A scripture-grounded chatbot that cites verses across 9 sacred texts.
- TruePackScan Signed-QR verification and cashback for packaging brands fighting counterfeits.
- WakeyCall An AI wake-up call you have to talk to — and a companion that journals your day at night.
Pilot 9
- JewelAna AI jewelry photo analysis with live gold valuation in INR.
- ModuleWorkFlow A P&ID (piping and instrumentation) diagram builder for engineering teams.
- MyInvoAI A multi-tenant ERP for inventory, production batches and dispatch.
- SchoolDeskAI A multi-tenant AI workspace for Indian schools — lesson plans and quizzes.
- Secureye Anti-cheat guard-attendance SaaS using QR, GPS and selfie checks.
- tallyAIchat Ask your Tally accounting data questions in plain language, with WhatsApp alerts.
- TutAI An adaptive daily-quiz PWA for K-12 students (CBSE/IB) with a parent dashboard.
- Vendai Extracts and compares vendor quotes straight out of Gmail for procurement teams.
- Virtual Waiter A virtual waiter: scan the table QR, talk to the menu, and order through it.
In the works 11
- Alumnai An alumni platform replacing Google Forms and Excel for institutions.
- BarKit An inventory and barcode manager — label printing, stock in/out, aging, dispatch analytics.
- BrainDump A second brain for businesses — forward documents and get them extracted, linked, and reminded.
- Forai An AI astrology, tarot and numerology app with 60+ modules.
- HairTry See a haircut on your own face before the barber does it — part of the ProductAI family.
- LeadGenAI Finds sales leads across X, Reddit, LinkedIn and Hacker News and scores buying intent.
- TattooTry Try a tattoo on your own skin before the ink is permanent — part of the ProductAI family.
- teachai An AI-literacy course built for Indian seniors (50+).
- VideoGuru The AI video-generation studio that powers our own product and ad videos.
- Wardrobe AI An AI wardrobe manager app, part of the ProductAI family.
- WebsAI A QA agent that checks any website like a human and reports what's broken.
Weekend builds 8
- BrainLoop An infinite trap-logic brain-puzzle game with ELO ratings and leaderboards.
- Detective X An infinite AI murder-mystery interrogation game.
- Hunny A brochure site for a confectionery exporter, built for a friend.
- MadhuCrystal A Reiki and crystal-healing site with an AI advisor and booking, built for family.
- PathPilotAI A real-time AI career advisor for study-abroad consultancies.
- Rap Epics & AI Anime AI music and anime content IP experiments.
- The iOS Port Spree Seven Unity games ported to iOS in two days using a home-built port kit.
- whySlowLaptop A dashboard that diagnoses why your Mac or PC is slow, with one-click fixes.
Paused 15
- buyiffy A UAE/India shopping price-comparison tool.
- CameraUse Computer-vision safety monitoring for unattended baggage, fights, intrusion and falls.
- DataForcast Sales forecasting for a clothing company — built for one client, never productised.
- easyagent An accessibility-control automation app.
- EasyInstaPost Describe a post, get a finished Instagram image and caption back.
- MasterOdds Cricket prediction and value analysis — an independent fair win-probability, and whether the market price disagrees with it.
- MediTrack An AI lab-report analyzer that tracks health trends across a family.
- OnlyWAO Forward product photos on WhatsApp and get back a tappable shop link.
- phonebrain An on-device Android AI experiment.
- Refplat A two-sided referral platform.
- Samchatter An admin-managed WhatsApp chatbot SaaS for event and booking partners.
- SmartNotes Write anything down and it files itself, keeping the date it was written.
- Ultiassist An Android assistant that watched your screen and talked you through it — guidance only.
- VisionMnemonics A visual-memory technique experiment.
- whatsum AI daily digests of WhatsApp groups and DMs for busy operators.
Retired 4
- MovAuto An automated video/content creation tool.
- NeoService An internal ticketing system for service issues — roles, lifecycle, and an analytics view.
- SheetBoy AI Google Sheets analytics and PDF-to-Excel conversion.
- WorMa A sticky-note work board — five columns, hard caps on what you can call urgent.
Still curious
Want the number behind a claim, or the story we haven't written yet?