I built something, got hype, launched… and nobody used it. What did I do wrong?

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something that’s been bothering me and maybe get some honest feedback.

I recently built a tool to help users of WordPress to push AI generated react components into Wordpress blocks in minutes.

During the building phase:

• I shared progress on LinkedIn
• Got decent engagement
• Had people DM me interested
• Collected 33 people on the waitlist

That felt validating. I thought I had something.

Then I launched a couple of weeks ago now

Results:

• 13 signups
• Zero real usage
• Most users didn’t even try the core feature

That hit harder than I expected.

Now I’m trying to understand:

• Was the waitlist fake interest?
• Did I build something “cool” but not painful enough?
• Is my onboarding bad?
• Is the positioning wrong?
• Or did I just launch to the wrong audience?

What’s confusing is that during the build phase people seemed genuinely interested. But once it was live i got silence.

If you’ve experienced this:

• How did you diagnose the real issue?
• Did you pivot positioning or the product?
• How do you tell the difference between bad marketing vs. bad problem?

I’m not giving up — but I definitely learned that “interest” is not the same as “activation”.

I still have a lot of work in distribution but this silence from people that DM me are making me doubt my product.

Would love brutal honesty.