Hatching Growth #10: When the Side Project Outgrows the Mission
What Should Founders Do When a Side Project Reaches PMF — While Their Main Product Is Driven by a Strong Mission?
Glasp’s note: This is Hatching Growth, a series of articles about how Glasp organically reached millions of users. In this series, we’ll highlight some that worked and some that didn’t, and the lessons we learned along the way. While we prefer not to use the term “user,” please note that we’ll use it here for convenience 🙇♂️
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Recap: #1–#9 in one glance
#3: How We Rode the AI Wave with Side Projects Before It Exploded
#8: How We Doubled Down on YouTube Summary with Programmatic SEO
#9: Acquisition-First, the AARRR Ladder, and Turning Core Actions into a Growth Engine
Introduction
This story is a personal one.
Earlier this year, we faced a question that many founders quietly wrestle with — but few openly discuss: What should you do when your side project reaches Product–Market Fit before your main product — the one born from your mission and vision — does?
It wasn’t a theoretical question for us. It actually happened.
Our company began with a strong purpose, rooted in personal experience and a clear belief in learning and knowledge sharing. Yet, a small experiment we launched on the side suddenly took off, showing unmistakable signs of PMF.
We didn’t have an easy answer. So, we asked around — founders, growth experts, even . We also took the discussion to Reddit, where it resonated deeply. Dozens of entrepreneurs shared their own stories, lessons, and frameworks for deciding between mission and market pull.
This piece is our reflection — a synthesis of what we experienced, what others taught us, and what we wish every future founder could read before facing the same crossroads.
Why We Started
Glasp was born from a personal turning point.
At 20, one of us experienced a sudden subdural hematoma that left half of his body paralyzed and brought him close to death. In that moment, he wasn’t thinking about success or achievements — only one question echoed: “Have I left behind anything that truly matters?”
That experience led to a realization: while knowledge is one of the most valuable things we accumulate in life, most of it disappears with us.
Our mission became clear:
We’d like to democratize access to other people’s learnings and experiences that they have collected throughout their lives as a utilitarian legacy.
Glasp exists to make knowledge visible, shareable, and cumulative — so that what we learn can continue to serve others long after us.
You can read the full founding story here: Why Are We Building Glasp?
The Side Project That Took Off
We built a small side tool: YouTube Summary with ChatGPT.
The idea was simple — summarize YouTube videos quickly and help people highlight key insights.
Then, something unexpected happened.
When we launched it quietly, we thought of it as a utility — a small experiment to help users capture insights from video content. But within weeks, it started spreading organically through YouTube creators, students, and knowledge workers. Without any paid promotion, downloads and traffic surged day after day.
Before launching YouTube Summary, Glasp had around 30,000 users — mostly from steady, organic growth over time.
But within the year following the launch, the total number of users easily surpassed one million. It completely changed our trajectory as a company.
We shared part of this story in Hatching Growth #4: From ChatGPT’s Launch to YouTube Summary’s Breakout — how YouTube Summary suddenly went viral, how creators began sharing it on X and Reddit, and how it turned into one of our biggest organic growth moments ever. It was the moment we realized the tool had found obvious Product–Market Fit.
The strong market pull opened new doors for expansion:
Product expansion: Shorts (OpusClip), TikTok Summary, Reels Summary
API offering: enabling developers and third-party tools to integrate YouTube summarization into their own products
Article generation: turning summaries into blog posts and programmatic SEO content
Analytics: engagement checker, view-time tracking
Creator tools: trending video discovery, audience insights
It was clear — this product had legs.
The Dilemma
As founders, we were excited — but also uneasy. We had started Glasp to make knowledge visible and shareable, not to build a video summarizer.
So we began asking around.
We talked to other founders, investors, and even — the person who coined the term “growth hacking.” When we shared our story with him, his response perfectly captured the tension we were feeling:
“Chase the vision where you have a passion or double down on customer love in an area you may not have expected? Always a tough choice, but for me PMF trumps everything. I’ve seen lots of founders become very passionate about solving a problem they didn’t initially set out to solve.”
At the same time, the discussion we sparked on Reddit became unexpectedly lively.
Founders, indie hackers, and product managers from all over shared their experiences and opinions:
Some took a pragmatic view:
“If your side project reaches PMF, follow the pull. You can rebuild your mission around it later. PMF is oxygen — without it, you can’t survive long enough to chase your vision.”
Others were philosophical:
“Mission and vision are what keep you grounded when growth metrics start to distort your sense of purpose. If you lose that, you risk building something successful but soulless.”
One comment in particular stood out:
“Your vision and mission drive your business. If a new project doesn’t fit, you have two choices — spin it off or find a way to merge it. Don’t force it, but don’t abandon your ‘why’ either.”
Another founder added a team-centered perspective:
“Even if PMF is there, if your team isn’t motivated by the problem you’re solving, burnout will come fast. Alignment matters as much as traction.”
And then there were the optimists, who saw both paths as compatible:
“PMF shows you where value exists. Mission gives you the reason to keep going once you find it. The trick is to let them inform each other.”
Reading through those comments, we realized something: there was no universal answer — only trade-offs. Each founder had to decide which pain they were willing to live with: the pain of pivoting away from their mission, or the pain of staying true to it while risking slower growth.
That was the question we were facing.
Our Decision
After months of discussion, reflection, and internal debate, we decided to integrate YouTube Summary into Glasp’s ecosystem.
It wasn’t just a business decision — it was a philosophical one. We asked ourselves the most fundamental question:
“Why does our company exist?”
The answer was the same as the day we started: to democratize access to people’s learnings and experiences as a utilitarian legacy.
At first glance, YouTube Summary didn’t directly serve that purpose. It was a productivity tool — a way to understand and consume information faster. But when we looked closer, we realized it was solving a complementary problem: helping people learn more efficiently so they can focus on what truly matters — understanding, not just watching.
That realization helped us regain clarity.Instead of splitting focus or chasing parallel tracks, we chose to double down on Glasp — to unify the products, expand the ways people can capture and share insights, and continue building toward the same long-term mission.
We believe that by integrating YouTube Summary into Glasp, we can transform it from a viral tool into a core part of the learning ecosystem — one that helps people move from consuming knowledge to curating and sharing it.
There were many thoughtful comments on Reddit — from those suggesting we spin it off to others recommending we chase PMF fully. But ultimately, we chose a third path — to unify.
Why We Didn’t Pivot Fully to YouTube Summary
Even though YouTube Summary showed strong traction and clear PMF, we ultimately decided not to pivot or double down solely on it.
There were several reasons behind that decision.
First, focusing entirely on YouTube Summary would likely push us toward a B2B-oriented business. That path would have required enterprise sales, stakeholder management, and customer-driven feature development — areas that didn’t resonate with what intrinsically motivated us as builders.
If you’ve followed our Hatching Growth series, you’ve probably noticed that our story has always been about experimentation and curiosity — trying ideas that no one has tested before, observing user behavior, and iterating fast. That mindset comes from a 2C founder’s DNA. We get energy from building things that spark excitement and discovery for end users, not from managing complex enterprise processes or customizing features for specific clients.
Second, back in 2023, the term “GPT Wrapper” was everywhere.
Many AI-based tools that wrapped existing models were growing fast — but few looked sustainable. We didn’t believe that YouTube Summary would last long, mainly because we had read so many articles warning that AI wrapper products were temporary and easily replaced.
For a long time, that belief shaped our sense of urgency. We constantly asked ourselves: “When will YouTube Summary disappear? And before that happens, can we build something bigger — something that truly scales?” That anxiety made it difficult to justify focusing entirely on YouTube Summary as a long-term business.
Only recently did this perspective start to shift. In 2025, published “Revenge of the GPT Wrappers: Defensibility in a world of commoditized AI models” — an insightful essay arguing that even AI wrappers can sustain their advantage when they build strong distribution, brand, and user relationships.
In hindsight, YouTube Summary had already started building those elements organically, even before we realized it.
Third, we also considered selling YouTube Summary. With millions of users, even a conservative estimate — say, a $2 CAC per user — would imply several million dollars in user acquisition value alone. Even without selling, having a direct communication channel with millions of engaged users represented a substantial strategic asset on its own.
So, rather than pivot completely or sell, we chose to integrate. To use the momentum, visibility, and audience from YouTube Summary as a foundation to strengthen Glasp’s long-term mission.
We based that decision on three key insights:
Audience overlap: A large portion of YouTube Summary users shared the same intent as Glasp users — to learn and retain knowledge more effectively.
Make the side project the bank: The side project could generate revenue, awareness, and growth fuel for the main mission.
Leverage the momentum: The visibility and cash flow from YouTube Summary could accelerate Glasp’s long-term goal of building a global learning network.
In other words, instead of treating it as two separate products, we saw them as two complementary tools — one that helps people grasp information, and another that helps them share and build upon knowledge.
Looking Forward
Maybe someday we’ll merge them into one. Maybe we’ll find a way for the summary tools, highlights, and social learning to blend seamlessly — a product that’s both useful and meaningful.
As Tony Hsieh (Zappos founder) said, “Chase the vision, not the money. The money will end up following you.”
But maybe the trick is — sometimes, the money shows you where the vision needs to evolve.
Lessons Learned
PMF is powerful — but it’s not the whole story.
It gives you validation and traction, but only mission gives you endurance.A side project can reveal the truth about your users.
Sometimes, it surfaces needs or use cases your original vision missed.Mission and PMF don’t have to compete.
When aligned thoughtfully, PMF can fund and fuel your mission instead of replacing it.Listen widely, but decide deliberately.
Founders, Reddit, and growth experts gave us valuable perspectives — but clarity only came when we asked ourselves why we exist.Integration is harder than creation.
Building something new is exciting. But unifying products, people, and philosophies into one vision — that’s where real leadership begins.
Reflection
For us, the bigger question is not whether to pivot, but:
“Will what we’re building make human society better?”
If the answer remains yes, then the direction — PMF or mission — might just be two paths leading to the same destination.
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