ZOMBIE

AI conversation-practice app survived 7 yr · ZOMBIE

Zoe Miller, 43 · 7 yr

“Honest review: Respect to every shop owner out there”

The company is alive. So why am I still doing this?

The company is alive. Growth has stopped. Revenue barely keeps up with costs, and there is no next step in sight. Cash $17,109, debt $0, 0 employees, 15 customers. You go to the office every day, but you are not sure why. The reason you cannot close and the reason you keep going feel like the same thing.

How it went

1. 2026 · preparing to openZoe Miller, 37. You have decided to try starting a company in Chicago. No idea, no product yet. Savings $52,767, employed ($4,950 a month).
2. 2/2026: what now?Start a business: «Radiology assistant AI» — You are going with «Radiology assistant AI». Still no company, no product. Now find out whether the idea is real.
3. 2026 · year 1 beginsUS Rates Rose Again
4. 3/2026: what now?Interview 20 people — 5 of 20 said they would pay. 6 only said it would be "nice to have".
5. 3/9 · Down sickA sore throat and a fever. You got through the day in a mask.
6. 3/18 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.41%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
7. 4/2026: what now?Decide to build it — You decided to build. Validation ends here.
8. 5/2026: what now?Build it with no-code tools — You picked a template. By lunch there was a login screen.
9. 5/21 · A competitor movedA competitor shipped the feature you were preparing, first. Their price is lower.
10. 6/2026: what now?Keep building — Another month the same way. Progress crept up.
11. 6/17 · FamilyYou talked with your family for a long time. Someone said, “You come before the money.”
12. 7/2026: what now?Keep building — What you built today, you fixed tomorrow. Progress still went up.
13. 8/2026: what now?Keep building — You crossed three lines off the list. Two new ones appeared.
14. 8/17 · Your mentorLunch with an old mentor. “Forget the numbers. Are you sleeping?”
15. 9/2026: what now?Keep building — Another month the same way. Progress crept up.
16. 9/10 · Down sickA sore throat and a fever. You got through the day in a mask.
17. 9/23 · HeatwaveA heat warning. The air conditioning ran all day. The electricity bill is on your mind.
18. 10/2026: what now?Keep building — What you built today, you fixed tomorrow. Progress still went up.
19. 11/2026: what now?Keep building — You crossed three lines off the list. Two new ones appeared.
20. 12/2026: what now?Keep building — Another month the same way. Progress crept up.
21. 12/5 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.41%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
22. 1/2027: what now?Quit your job — You quit. The next morning, not having to go to work felt strange.
23. 2/2027: what now?Launch — You pressed launch. 1 sign-ups on day one. You refreshed ten times.
24. US Rates Rose AgainSignals of Fed tightening strengthened the dollar, and this country's funding rates followed. When the USD rate jumped, costing got complicated again for anyone buying imported ingredients or parts.
25. Year 1 closeRevenue $0, loss $15,730. Your salary put in $17,089; cash $53,660.
26. 2027 · year 2 beginsA Quiet Year
27. 2/7 · FamilyYour family packed you lunch. The note said, “Eat properly.”
28. 2/13 · A competitor movedA company solving the same problem announced a funding round. Nobody in the comments mentioned you.
29. 3/2027: what now?Spread the word through communities and content — No new customers this month. The channel has to change.
30. 3/30 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
31. 4/2027: what now?Keep going — Spread the word through communities and content — 1 new customers this month. Few enough to know each one by name.
32. 4/3 · Service outageAn alert at 3 a.m.: the disk was full. Fixed before morning; nobody noticed.
33. Graduation season filled the inboxDefer for free — You spent nothing and will reconsider at another opportunity.
34. 5/13 · Patent warning letterA cease-and-desist letter arrived claiming possible patent infringement. A lawyer needs to review it.
35. 6/2027: what now?Keep going — Spread the word through communities and content — 1 new customers this month. Few enough to know each one by name.
36. 6/12 · Down sickYou came down with something. You took medicine and pushed through, but could not concentrate.
37. 6/17 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
38. 7/2027: what now?Keep going — Spread the word through communities and content — No new customers this month. The channel has to change.
39. Time to hire?Not this time — You never posted the job ad.
40. 8/7 · A competitor movedA big company bolted a similar feature onto its product, free. More customers now ask, “How are you different?”
41. 8/21 · Server bill spikeA test server you forgot to switch off had been running all month.
42. 9/2027: what now?Keep going — Spread the word through communities and content — 1 new customers this month. Few enough to know each one by name.
43. 10/25 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
44. You are short of moneyHold on — Instead of the bank you called suppliers and asked for a month’s grace. Two said yes, one said no.
45. 11/19 · FamilyYou talked with your family for a long time. Someone said, “You come before the money.”
46. 12/18 · Your mentorAn old mentor called. “What scares you most right now?” they asked.
47. The runway is running outTake a job and keep the company on the side — An interviewer asked what you had been doing all this time. The salary started again, and the product became something that happens after 11 p.m.
48. 1/21 · Down sickA sore throat and a fever. You got through the day in a mask.
49. AI redrew the marketAdopt fully — You learned the new tools. The same work took half the time, and the quote got smaller. It cost a few nights of learning.
50. A Quiet YearNothing much happened. You got up at the same time every day and did the same work. That repetition can build something, or wear a person down.
51. Year 2 closeRevenue $48,668, loss $20,181. Cash $15,767.
52. 2028 · year 3 beginsA Big Company Launched It for Free · Investor Meeting
53. AI redrew the marketAI tools changed the industry’s cost and speed. Companies that adopted them move cheap and fast; the rest pay twice for the same customer.
54. 3/15 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
55. 3/6 · A baby arrivedYou and James welcomed a baby. Up three times a night. Living costs went up by $587 a month.
56. The baby is hereHire help — The helper arrived. Four hours of unbroken sleep, finally.
57. 4/24 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
58. The “$20,000 a month or your money back” courseBlock the ad — You block it and another account posts the same ad. The money is still in your account.
59. 5/8 · Server bill spikeTraffic grew, and the server bill came in far above what you expected.
60. 5/20 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
61. 6/3 · FamilyAt dinner nobody brought up work. You understood that was a kindness.
62. 6/10 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.33%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
63. 7/12 · Patent warning letterA cease-and-desist letter arrived claiming possible patent infringement. A lawyer needs to review it.
64. 7/15 · Service outageThe payment processor went down for two hours. Not your fault, but you wrote the apology.
65. Do you pivot?Full pivot — Half the existing customers left. The new customers have not arrived. The only thing left in the meeting room was the question of whether this was right.
66. 8/18 · Global growth forecasts fellWith the IMF and World Bank forecasts diverging, global growth came down to 2.2%. Replies to overseas inquiries got slower.
67. 9/22 · Your mentorAn old mentor called. “What scares you most right now?” they asked.
68. 10/4 · A competitor movedA competitor shipped the feature you were preparing, first. Their price is lower.
69. The competitor made it freeFocus on differentiated features — You built a feature the large company would struggle to copy. Customers stayed for that one feature.
70. 11/7 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
71. 12/26 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
72. 12/27 · FamilyAt dinner nobody brought up work. You understood that was a kindness.
73. 1/14 · Service outageAn alert at 3 a.m.: the disk was full. Fixed before morning; nobody noticed.
74. “We just need your name on it”Send them away — They left a card: “Call if you change your mind.” There was no company name on it.
75. A Big Company Launched It for FreeA large company started giving away a similar feature for free. Sales says to cut the price; engineering says your product is better. Customers are listening to neither.
76. Investor MeetingAn investor who said they were interested booked a meeting. The questions were sharp. "Why this market, why now?" You gave the answer you had prepared for 30 minutes, and the investor nodded.
77. Year 3 closeRevenue $38,627, operating profit $19,953. Cash $11,049.
78. 2029 · year 4 beginsPatent Dispute
79. 2/13 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
80. 3/13 · Server bill spikeTraffic grew, and the server bill came in far above what you expected.
81. 4/6 · Your mentorLunch with an old mentor. “Forget the numbers. Are you sleeping?”
82. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You fixed the small annoyances one by one. Customers did not mention the change, but they came back.
83. 6/6 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
84. 6/11 · Patent warning letterA cease-and-desist letter arrived claiming possible patent infringement. A lawyer needs to review it.
85. 7/26 · Service outageAn alert at 3 a.m.: the disk was full. Fixed before morning; nobody noticed.
86. 8/13 · A competitor movedA big company bolted a similar feature onto its product, free. More customers now ask, “How are you different?”
87. 9/28 · Down sickYou came down with something. You took medicine and pushed through, but could not concentrate.
88. 10/7 · Server bill spikeThe free cloud credits ran out. From this month the bill is the real number.
89. 10/14 · FamilyYou talked with your family for a long time. Someone said, “You come before the money.”
90. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You rewrote the notices around the questions people ask most. The same questions dropped off noticeably.
91. 11/22 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
92. 11/29 · Your mentorLunch with an old mentor. “Forget the numbers. Are you sleeping?”
93. Patent DisputeA company you had never heard of claimed patent infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter. The settlement demand is $7,826. Litigation would take two years.
94. Year 4 closeRevenue $20,158, operating profit $5,776. Cash $12,919.
95. 2030 · year 5 beginsChinese Demand Cooled · Rates Rose
96. 2/21 · Service outageRight after the deploy, login broke. Restored in forty minutes, but customer messages flooded in.
97. 3/19 · Down sickYou came down with something. You took medicine and pushed through, but could not concentrate.
98. 4/10 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
99. 4/18 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
100. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You reread the complaint log from the start and fixed the most common one this month.
101. 5/4 · A competitor movedA company solving the same problem announced a funding round. Nobody in the comments mentioned you.
102. 6/5 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.73%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
103. 7/23 · Your mentorAn old mentor called. “What scares you most right now?” they asked.
104. 8/16 · Service outageRight after the deploy, login broke. Restored in forty minutes, but customer messages flooded in.
105. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You fixed the small annoyances one by one. Customers did not mention the change, but they came back.
106. 11/12 · FamilyYour family packed you lunch. The note said, “Eat properly.”
107. 12/6 · Down sickYou came down with something. You took medicine and pushed through, but could not concentrate.
108. 12/8 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.73%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
109. Chinese Demand CooledA prolonged slump in Chinese domestic demand and real estate lowered Asia's export outlook. Clients who bought raw materials cut orders, and domestic consumption turned cautious as well.
110. Rates RoseMarket rates rose. Variable-rate loans cost more, and so does any new borrowing. More people stood at bank counters tapping calculators.
111. Year 5 closeRevenue $20,117, operating profit $5,491. Cash $22,878.
112. 2031 · year 6 beginsGlobal Energy Prices Surged
113. 2/7 · Your mentorLunch with an old mentor. “Forget the numbers. Are you sleeping?”
114. 2/24 · Service outageAn alert at 3 a.m.: the disk was full. Fixed before morning; nobody noticed.
115. 3/19 · A competitor movedA competitor shipped the feature you were preparing, first. Their price is lower.
116. 4/25 · Global growth forecasts fellWith the IMF and World Bank forecasts diverging, global growth came down to 1.8%. Replies to overseas inquiries got slower.
117. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You rewrote the notices around the questions people ask most. The same questions dropped off noticeably.
118. 5/11 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
119. 6/13 · FamilyYou talked with your family for a long time. Someone said, “You come before the money.”
120. 7/4 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
121. 8/26 · Service outageThe payment processor went down for two hours. Not your fault, but you wrote the apology.
122. 9/9 · A competitor movedA competitor shipped the feature you were preparing, first. Their price is lower.
123. 9/28 · Your mentorAn old mentor called. “What scares you most right now?” they asked.
124. 10/9 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.51%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
125. Priorities for the next three monthsImprove quality — You reread the complaint log from the start and fixed the most common one this month.
126. 11/14 · Global growth forecasts fellWith the IMF and World Bank forecasts diverging, global growth came down to 1.8%. Replies to overseas inquiries got slower.
127. 12/24 · FamilyAt dinner nobody brought up work. You understood that was a kindness.
128. 12/25 · Patent warning letterA cease-and-desist letter arrived claiming possible patent infringement. A lawyer needs to review it.
129. 1/22 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
130. The cloud region went downMove to multi-region — You added a second region. During the next outage, customers never noticed.
131. Global Energy Prices SurgedTension in the Middle East pushed international crude prices up. Ships loaded with oil could not pass, and freight and packaging costs rose with them. A war in the news became a number on next month's cost sheet.
132. Year 6 closeRevenue $19,847, operating profit $4,473. Cash $31,662.
133. 2032 · year 7 beginsFake Investor
134. 2/24 · Service outageRight after the deploy, login broke. Restored in forty minutes, but customer messages flooded in.
135. 3/22 · Down sickA sore throat and a fever. You got through the day in a mask.
136. Keep going like this?Switch industry: AI conversation-practice app — It is practically a new start-up. You know less than you don’t, but at least it is not the same wall again.
137. 5/21 · Churn roseCancellations this week were double the usual. Many customers abandoned the payment page.
138. 5/25 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
139. 6/8 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.99%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
140. 6/9 · Covered in an articleAn industry outlet wrote about the product. Sign-up inquiries rose a little.
141. 7/13 · Global growth forecasts fellWith the IMF and World Bank forecasts diverging, global growth came down to 2.1%. Replies to overseas inquiries got slower.
142. This time you sell the courseWalk away — The agency probably sent the same pitch to another owner the next day. You opened the books again.
143. 8/4 · HeatwaveA heat warning. The air conditioning ran all day. The electricity bill is on your mind.
144. 8/11 · Your mentorYour mentor sent a link to an article. “This sounded like you.”
145. 9/12 · Down sickDay three of a cold that will not lift. No time to see a doctor.
146. 10/6 · A death in the familyYour mother passed away. You set an auto-reply: away for a few days for family reasons.
147. Your mother’s funeralA quiet family funeral — You said goodbye quietly, just the family.
148. BurnoutTake two weeks off — You did not open the laptop for two weeks. When you came back, Slack had 412 unread messages. Three were urgent.
149. 11/27 · Security vulnerabilityAn outside researcher reported a vulnerability. You have to check whether personal data leaked.
150. 12/10 · FamilyAt dinner nobody brought up work. You understood that was a kindness.
151. 1/14 · Funding costs rose againThe US 10-year yield rose to 5.99%. Investors recalculated valuations, and the bank asked for more collateral.
152. 1/25 · Personal data requestA customer asked for disclosure and deletion of their personal data. You checked the procedure again.
153. Year seven: what now?Focus on profitability — You stopped hiring and cut costs. Growth slowed, and the company began to breathe on its own.

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