You, as a person, have not failed! There is no shame in what has happened. This kind of startup is very high risk, as it has numerous "problems", such as chick

You, as a person, have not failed! There is no shame in what has happened. This kind of startup is very high risk, as it has numerous "problems", such as chicken-and-egg, being dependent on the app store rankings, saturation in the app store, saturation in the social space, etc. Also, as you said "we didn't have any programming or design experience", no funding, no accelerator program. In other words, your chances were very slim to begin with. If you have good friends [+], they probably said something along those lines to keep your expectations close to the ground. So, your idea was most likely to fail and that's what happened. On the other hand, you learned a lot! You learned about programming, design, releasing apps, and all the countless real-life issues one encounters when trying to launch a new product. That is invaluable. You're still young, so no worries, you have lots of room left! As others have pointed out, if you want to push on with this idea, just pull the app from the store and relaunch a rebranded version in a smarter way. (Can't you geo-target by calling the app "XYZ for San Francisco" and "XYZ for San Diego"? Once you have enough traction, you can unite the apps, don't worry about it now.) Or you can do something else. If not having an income is an issue, perhaps you can do some consulting work on the side, like 37signals, the company you cited. Or if you had enough for now, take a job and chill for a year, there's no shame in it! Best of luck! [+] A true friend points out your mistakes, even at the risk of losing your friendship.