David Bain

David Bain would like to invite you to

Floptober2026

The rules: the objective is simple... desensitize you to rejection, public embarrassment, and half-baked launches.

“You win by learning, and losers launch (which is still good).”

One month. Four test runs. Zero dignity required.

Cartoon hillside piled with broken laptops, tangled cables and dead gadgets, with a wide-eyed potato creature peeking out
The Scrapheap, currently accepting donations.

Who is this for?

If you see yourself in this list, you are legally required to participate.

  • The Perfectionist Producer

    Your hard drive is a scrapheap of 8-bar loops. You're convinced you can't drop a track until a pro mixes it.

  • The Stealth-Mode Dev

    You've been building in secret for six months, endlessly refactoring schemas instead of shipping an ugly MVP to actual users.

  • The Lurker Substacker

    You're hoarding 40 drafts in your Notes app, paralyzed by the fear that publishing a raw, opinionated essay will get zero reads.

  • The Boutique Solo Pro

    You're terrified of cold outreach or posting your high-ticket pricing publicly because you dread being left on 'read'.

  • The Open-Source Tinkerer

    You've built a niche CLI tool or a tiny web framework that solves a real problem, but you're terrified to post it on Hacker News because the comments might tear it apart.

  • The Course Creator

    Trapped in slide-deck and syllabus design purgatory instead of pre-selling a rough, live 3-person pilot.

  • The Raw Comic

    You polish material in a notebook forever, dodging open mics to protect your ego-shield of being 'the funny friend'.

  • The Indie Brand

    You're shelving physical inventory because the logo, custom packaging, or unboxing experience isn't luxury-tier yet.

  • The Perfectionist Podcaster

    You obsess over mic gain and studio lighting instead of posting a raw, one-take phone video.

Core Principles

  • Doodle of a duct-taped toy rocket puffing smoke

    Effort Over Polish

    Half-baking something in public beats over-baking it in secret.

  • Doodle of two wonky dice mid-tumble

    No Safe Bets

    If you already know it works or feels comfortable, it does not count as a flop attempt.

  • Doodle of a leaning gravestone with a cable trailing out of the dirt

    The Scrapheap

    Every dead project, ignored cold email, or zero-engagement post gets cataloged.

Weekly Exposure Test Runs

Four weeks, escalating from mild cringe to a full public burial.

  1. 01

    Week One · Cringe & Visibility

    The Public Flop

    Break identity attachment by publishing raw, unedited takes or demos publicly. Hard rule: zero apologies, caveats, or disclaimers allowed.

  2. 02

    Week Two · Execution Speed

    The Janky Prototype

    Ship a half-baked product, landing page, or service package capped at a strict 48 hours. Requires a working buy/signup link, even if the backend is just a manual Google Sheet.

  3. 03

    Week Three · Direct Outreach

    The Rejection Gauntlet

    Collect 10 explicit, synchronous "No"s while trying to sell or pitch your Week 2 prototype. Face-to-face, voice, or live DMs only—asynchronous cold email takes too long.

  4. 04

    Week Four · Integration

    The Eulogy & Re-Up

    Deconstruct the wreckage and award the worst failure. Then, execute the 24-Hour Iteration Rule: take your worst flop, make one adjustment based on real feedback, and push it live again.

Scoring Matrix

Points are awarded strictly for initiating contact with reality.

Floptober scoring matrix
PointsWhat earns them
+1Shipping a messy first draft without apologizing for it.
+3Receiving an explicit, direct rejection (email, call, or pitch).
+5Launching a live experiment that generates absolute silence.
+10A public crash-and-burn (broken link, onstage stumble, or software crash).
-10Letting an idea sit in your drafts folder because "it wasn't ready yet."