I'm a student at a school where I'm learning to build websites — and we enter a contest with a simple goal: be the team that creates the most buzz (I hate that word, and I'm going to have to type it a few more times, sorry in advance).
In case you're wondering: no, we didn't win that contest. #NoSuspense
For this contest, we don't really have a strong idea. No idea at all, honestly. The ceremony is in 4 days and we'll have to present our stats in front of the whole lecture hall 
We wonder what could create some buzz (can't wait for the story to move along so I can stop using that word) and we land on the fact that if there's one thing that blew up insanely fast, it's Facesmash.
If you don't know it: it's a site where you vote for your favorite female student in random duels that keep coming. He dead devs it in one night. Result: Harvard's servers crash because the whole campus is using the site. Later, he'll create Facebook 
I'd been super impressed by the impact of the concept despite how simple it is. It's just a "Which do you prefer?" between two choices.
So we go for that idea, but to let people rank tons of lists. Let's Go 
I'm the one who dives into the dev, with one challenge: build it faster than Mark — and, drumroll 
I pull it off. I code the site in thirty minutes 
Now that we have the feature, we need to figure out what to rank. We go with what we're into ourselves, betting we won't be the only ones #Clever
The first lists are favorite rapper, comedian, footballer, and favorite 
actress.
Ahem. Closing that door again.
We push it live. We fire off a few tweets. And a few days later, the numbers land: 15,000 visitors, and retweets — including this one.
Katsuni thanks us (the OGs know). Enough to make my mum proud, but is there also a way to set her up for life with a project like VAINKEURZ?
After the contest, we keep building lists to keep the site alive, and we pick it as our end-of-year project.
But we eventually let it go.
And VAINKEURZ dies for the first time. Don't ask me why, it was way too long ago.
I start a digital agency and I'm joined by Jérémy.
Objective: build the V2
Mission: create the koolest site in the galaxy 
Over 3 years, we made just about every mistake possible. So, no surprise, VAINKEURZ died for the second time.
Hey Guillaume, since you're writing a whole novel, Great idea, dear inner voice. If it can help anyone, might as well spread it on thick.
With hindsight, I'd say the main problem was that we always waited to improve the site before communicating. And since you can always do better and always do more — we had a hyper-developed site, but we were the only ones using it. No user feedback, no motivating vision, no concrete goal. And inevitably, you end up asking who and what and what's the point.
And I give up again, after Jérémy leaves 
It's 2021. Lockdown. I feel like coding something cool, but client projects don't really excite me.
Well, well, well — what if I tried rebuilding the VAINKEURZ code?
But this time, we focus around three pillars.
We do a few conventions, we build game modes for Twitch, we've got users who genuinely love it and we feel like we're onto something big 
At that point, I'm surrounded by my cousin, who handles the algorithm, the convention logistics and day-to-day operations (HR, accounting, suppliers); my best friend Téramir, who to this day is still the most prolific list creator; and Adil, who joins the team to code alongside me.
Other people join us and contribute to the growth of VAINKEURZ — you can discover them in our YouTube Saga 
For five years, we're focused on how to get people to have maximum fun with our TopList concept, and it leads to some wild stuff:
Those are a few numbers that sound nice. But what sounds even better are all the memories as a team — the moments brainstorming ideas so people could have fun with our concepts; the stressful moments before finding out whether they were good ideas, and whether we'd coded them right.
Sadly, I couldn't keep that momentum going. We were spending a lot: on salaries, on prizes, on servers… and the money eventually ran out.
I should have put more energy into growing our revenue.
That, and other mistakes, meant that by January 2026 I find myself all alone, with the project slowed to a crawl.
No more new features.
No more communication.
No more contests.
Almost no more live streams on Twitch.
On the other hand — every single day — list creators keep submitting new content. And MamaPilote keeps validating them.
I think I managed to escape that, but I had to let go of three quarters of the people working with me — some of them for many years — and chase down every saving possible.
By far the worst stretch of my professional life. When everything collapses around you, when all your work and investment trends toward zero, and you find yourself alone to tank it all.
But still…
Okay, I've got no money left.
Okay, I've got no team left.
Okay, it's been ten years trying with VAINKEURZ without finding the right formula.
Okay, poor me.
Well — it's the perfect chance to try a different approach.
That's where I'm at right now.
If I find the right answers to these questions, VAINKEURZ will live.
And maybe become the coolest site in the galaxy. If not, if not, if not, if not.
I'm starting from scratch, but with everything I've learned over the past years — and with the most engaged members of the VAINKEURZ community.
For the rest, I reset. And we start a new game.
I'm going to document everything. You'll be able to follow along and take part. Here's how:
