A few months ago, I wrote about building FoxHunt - a Chrome extension born from an Instagram story about managing multiple shopping carts. A few weeks ago, we shut it down.
The project started as a solution for a friend and turned into an experiment in building Chrome extensions. That's really what it was - an experiment. Not a product, not a business, just me scratching a technical itch and solving a specific person's problem.
Why Kill It?
- No real market validation. I built it for one person's use case, never really testing if this was a widespread problem worth solving
- Limited time. I've got other projects that need focus, and FoxHunt was always a side experiment
What I Learned
- Building Chrome extensions isn't as straightforward as it looks. The architecture limitations forced some interesting workarounds
- Just because someone has a problem doesn't mean it's a business opportunity
- Working with vanilla JavaScript after a long break was refreshing
- Sometimes it's okay to build something just to learn, then let it go
The code will stay on GitHub, but I won't be maintaining the extension. If anyone wants to pick it up or learn from my mistakes, feel free to reach out.
Sometimes killing a project is the right move. No dramatic story, no big failure - just a simple acknowledgment that it's time to move on.