> where someone spent 15 hrs/week for 5 years, built something really cool, but never got any funding or traction.

I just created an "Ask HN" to try to gather any anecdata about projects that ended that way: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27838479

I'm really curious to see what people say.

(I just started my own 15+ hours/week project last month.)