Sidenote

Sidenote built a Chrome extension automating meeting follow-ups, accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2023, but the company went inactive within months. Early signals looked promising: users installed the extension and initial beta testers reported time savings. The founders measured interest through extension downloads and email signups, which grew steadily. However, they conflated installation with genuine adoption. The critical warning sign they missed was that users weren't returning. While people downloaded Sidenote, they rarely opened meetings in the extension or used generated outputs repeatedly. The founders had validated stated interest—people said they wanted automated follow-ups—but not revealed preference. Real demand would have shown consistent usage, feature requests tied to specific workflows, or customers paying before launch. Instead, Sidenote had vanity metrics masking low engagement. They'd optimized for acquisition rather than measuring whether users actually integrated the tool into their meeting routines, discovering too late that the problem wasn't urgent enough to change established habits.