I have been working on an idea partially for about 2 years while I’ve been in school. Right now I am deciding if I should just drop it. From what I’ve been seeing in the market, there are a few companies that have been around for many years. So I doubt I could compete with them. The core thing about my product which I really truly believe in and see that the market needs (helping parents find things to sign their kids up for) and no other product really offers, is extremely dependent on getting lots of users at some point. There is one company that is pretty similar to the idea but they failed on the one feature I am doing. If my product is dependent on competing with these other companies in order to get users to power the main service, is it even worth it? Id be able to provide the service for free which no other company can do.
It would hardly take some time for those well settled competitors to replicate your core features. Market without money is difficult to sustain. This can be a side project if it is to be given for free