I Built a Weather App My Wife Called "Pretty Shitty" (That's a Win)

What I Thought I Was Building

My wife is incredible at event planning. She planned our entire wedding in one month - beautiful venue, perfect timing, everything you'd want at a wedding. It was flawless.

Except it stormed that night.

Rain. Thunder. The works. Outdoor ceremony plans went out the window. Everything had to shift indoors last minute. Still pulled it off beautifully, but it was chaos for a few hours.

So when I saw "Event Weather Risk Predictor" pop up on my list of potential builds, my brain immediately went: There's definitely a market here.

Event planners exist. Outdoor events cost money. Weather ruins expensive plans. If you can reduce the risk of having to relocate everything last minute, that's real value. Venues saved. Money saved. Stress saved.

Gap in market + potential solution = let's build it, right?

Before Building: The Business Case

When I pitched this to Claude (my AI co-founder), it immediately hit me with:

"Do you have a real event coming up? Or is this just 'I think there's a market' thinking?"

My honest reaction? Let's just continue with this.

I made the case that SloppyBuilder is about exploring interesting ideas and investigating market gaps. That we should build something that fits the market, not just personal problems.

Fair argument. But also... maybe a red flag.

What I Actually Built

The tool itself was simple:

1. Input: event date and location
2. Fetch: weather forecast for that date
3. Analyze: historical weather data for that location
4. Output: "High risk" or "Low risk" verdict
5. Bonus: Suggest alternatives if high risk

Built it in about an hour. Basic weather API integration. Simple risk scoring based on precipitation chance and historical patterns. A few hardcoded backup suggestions like "consider indoor venues" or "rent covered tents."

Nothing fancy. But it worked.

Weather app? Check.
Risk predictor? Check.
Backup suggestions? Check.

Build Time: 1 hour
Tools Used: Weather API, JavaScript
Cost: $0

Time to validate.

Why It Failed Fast

I showed my wife.

She's the target user, right? Event planner, has dealt with weather ruining plans, perfect person to validate this.

I open it on my laptop. She looks at it.

Her first reaction: "What is this?"

Didn't even know what she was looking at. Thought it was a calendar. The words at the top said "weather" but nothing clicked.

I explained: "It predicts weather risk for events and gives you backup plans based on the forecast."

She processed for a second. Then:

"It's pretty shitty. I have a weather app. Why would I use this?"

Ouch. But also... yeah. Fair.

The Real Opportunity I Missed

She didn't stop there:

"Weather apps already exist. What I actually need is a venue database with backup contacts. Like if it's going to rain, give me 3 indoor venues I can call immediately. Give me contact info. Give me alternatives that actually help me coordinate."

She was 100% right.

The gap isn't "checking weather" - that's solved. The Weather Channel exists. Weather.com exists. Every phone has a weather app.

The real gap is: what do I DO when weather is bad?

That requires:

• Venue databases with actual contacts
• Indoor alternatives for outdoor venues
• Coordination tools
• Real infrastructure

That's not a weather app. That's a completely different product.

What Worked, What Broke

What worked:

• The tool technically worked
• I built it in 1 hour
• I got honest feedback same day

What broke:

• It doesn't solve the actual problem
• Weather apps already exist
• The real gap is coordination, not weather checking

The Perfectionism Trap (Avoided)

What past-me would have done:

Past-me would still be doing research right now.

Figuring out all the features. Exploring revenue models. Analyzing the competition. Convincing myself this could work if I just built it right.

For the feedback? I'd probably try to fix it. Put in some effort. Make it prettier. Add a few features. Then eventually think "what's the point?" and abandon it quietly.

Add it to the pile of 47+ half-baked ideas.

What SloppyBuilder-Me Did Instead

Heard "it's shitty."

Thought: Yeah, fair. It doesn't solve the problem. Let's move on.

No ego. No sunk cost fallacy. No "but I spent an hour on this!"

Just honest validation in 1 hour instead of 1 month.

That's the win.

Time & Money Saved

Time to validate: 1 hour build + 5 minutes to show wife
Total cost: $0
Feedback quality: Brutally honest (the best kind)
Ego damage: Zero (that's growth)

What I learned: I was right that there's a market gap. Event planners DO need weather planning tools.

But I was wrong about what solves it.

The gap isn't "checking weather" - that's already solved everywhere. The gap is "what do I do when weather is bad?" That requires venue databases, contacts, real alternatives, coordination tools.

That's a different product entirely.

Could I build that? Probably.
Should I? Not unless I find an event planner who says "I'd pay $X/month for this" BEFORE I write a single line of code.

Should You Actually Build This?

Not this. That's for sure.

The weather app is dead. The idea might have merit with proper execution, but that's not a SloppyBuilder project - that's a real startup that needs research, proper infrastructure, and actual event planners willing to pay before you build.

I'm moving on. Got 46 more ideas to test.

The SloppyBuilder approach:

1. Spend 1 hour building simplest version
2. Show it to real user same day
3. Hear "it's shitty"
4. Move on to next idea

Cost of learning: $0 and 1 hour.

That's why shipping sloppy wins.

Bottom Line: Fast failure beats slow perfection. Kill it fast, learn fast, move on fast. Most people hide their failures. I'm celebrating mine.