Turns out “no traction” just meant “not yet”
Sometimes I just don’t eat my own dogfood and get too eager to build.
That’s exactly what happened with the Labor Market Insights platform, Herizon’s big data SaaS tracking skill and job trend shifts in the labor market. It’s one of those projects that remind you how strange and unpredictable product timing can be.
How it started
The idea came from an AI-generated grant application I wrote last November.
I was testing how far I could push AI tools for real grant writing, and one of the ideas that came out of it was this concept: a platform that visualizes up-and-down trends in the labor market using aggregated job postings and skills data.
We didn’t get the grant, but it felt useful not just for Herizon’s own work with employment, but for public sector stakeholders, educators, and policymakers trying to understand where the market is heading.
So, we decided to build it anyway. Or I did, because sometimes I'm the founder in love with their ideas.
By early January, we had a working proof of concept and started pitching it to public sector organizations and universities. The reception was positive at least on the surface. Everyone said it was “very interesting” and “definitely needed.”
But no one actually logged in.
There was no usage, no traction, no revenue. It was only these endless polite conversations that never led anywhere and people who showed up in the pilot group meetings, even though they never logged in.
After a few months of this, we decided to slow down development and just use the platform internally. We started pulling insights for our own community, for example, identifying what skills are increasing in demand so we can guide people toward learning them. It worked well as a community tool, even if it didn’t turn into the external SaaS product we envisioned.
The turnaround
Then, suddenly this fall, something changed.
Out of nowhere, everyone wanted it. The same stakeholders who had ignored it months ago started reaching out. We closed our first paid subscription and now have several hot leads in the pipeline. Inbound is coming almost every week.
The product itself didn’t change that much. The market did.
Maybe it’s timing. Maybe it’s because AI and labor market transitions have become hotter topics in the last few months. Or maybe the public sector finally realized they can’t keep guessing skill trends without data. Whatever it was, it finally started working.
Now we’re fast-tracking the product into a full PLG model to have something that can scale beyond pilots and workshops into a self-serve SaaS that anyone can use.
Learning
If there’s a lesson in all this, it’s that sometimes you don’t need to pivot - you just need to wait for the world to catch up.
The idea wasn’t bad. The execution wasn’t wrong. It was just early. And being early often feels like being wrong. Until it doesn’t.
In hindsight, this project reminded me of a few truths about building:
- Traction is timing-dependent. Even great products fail when the market isn’t ready.
- Internal use can keep a project alive. Using the tool ourselves helped us refine the product and keep it relevant until others caught on.
- “No” doesn’t always mean never. Sometimes it just means “not yet.”
The bigger picture
Herizon’s work has always been about understanding how people can build skills that actually lead to employment. The Labor Market Insights platform was built for that mission to show what skills are becoming more valuable and help people adapt.
Now that it’s finally finding its footing, it feels less like a comeback and more like a full circle. The project was never about selling software; it was about bridging the gap between skills, jobs, and opportunity.
It just took the world a little while to realize they needed that bridge too.
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