“I spent five years on an app before Shot Pattern. Never broke $500 in a month. I kept building features thinking 'this will be the thing that makes people pay.' It never was. Looking back, nobody had a problem worth paying for.”

Five years on the wrong app taught what PMF isn't — no purchasing intent means no problem to solve

Duffett's first app (a coaching tool for a sport he played recreationally) never generated meaningful revenue despite sustained effort and multiple pivots. He now diagnoses it as a fundamental PMF absence: users were mildly interested but didn't have an urgent, recurring problem that made them willing to pay. The lesson is that feature iteration cannot substitute for a problem people are already motivated to solve.