"Excel is about as sexy as a pig wearing a miniskirt" - loved that.<p>Great post - remembering that a better definition for how successful X is could be how much money you will make instead of how many users you have is worth repeating..<p>after all, if you believe in price elasticity - a free product should have infinite users even if it is crap.<p>I think just about every project I start is done with a back-of-the-envelope type calculation on return, return on time, return on money, etc. I forget not everyone does this.