How long did you wait before calling it on a side project?

I shut down a project last month that I’d been working on for about eight months. It had a handful of paying users, a few nice messages, and growth that basically flatlined after the first launch spike. The weird part is I probably knew it wasn’t working around month four. I just kept telling myself one more feature would fix it.

Talking to other makers, I’ve noticed two camps:

1. People who give something 90 days, check the numbers, and move on without much drama.

2. People (like me) who hang on way too long because quitting feels like admitting the idea was bad.

Would love to hear how you think about this:

• What signal finally told you a project wasn’t going to work?

• Do you set a deadline or a target before you start, or just go with your gut?

• Have you ever stuck with something past the point you wanted to quit, and it actually paid off?