The archive
Issue #022
Client Horror Stories 6 min read· 27 Sept 2026The Forever Project
An enthusiastic client with huge numbers. A small payment for a prototype. A SaaS idea that was always 'almost there.' I handed him to a friend. A year later, my friend fired him. 20 years later, he's still building it. Still almost there.
CTO takeaway
The lesson, minus the scar tissue.
- Some clients don't want a finished product. They want a perpetual project. Learn to spot them early.
- If the goal post keeps moving, it's not a project. It's a hobby. And hobbies don't pay bills.
- The words 'almost there' are a red flag. A finished product has a launch date, not a moving target.
- You can't save a client from themselves. Sometimes the best thing you can do is hand them off and move on.
- 20 years is a long time. But some people will spend their whole lives 'almost there' and never arrive.
Never miss an issue
Get the next Chronicle in your inbox.
A comic, a story and a takeaway every other week. Written for founders who inherited a codebase they didn't choose.
