From UberEats to emojis: People candidly reveal the apps and ideas they thought were 'STUPID' - until they changed the world

There's nothing worse than being haunted by the ghost of ideas past - and some people have shared their greatest moments of regret after turning their backs on start up successes.

In a post to Threads, user Amber Adrian posted an apology to an app developer she dated in 2009 who came up with the idea for emojis - which she laughed at.

'One day, he showed me something he made: a way to text people tiny pictures,' she wrote on the Thread.

'He scrolled through a series of mini graphics on his phone, saying, "Look, you can send someone a fried egg." I thought to myself, "Why on earth would I want to send someone a fried egg?"'

There's nothing worse than being haunted by the ghost of ideas past - and some people have shared their greatest moments of regret after turning their backs on start up successes (stock image) 

In a post to threads, user Amber Adrian posted an apology to an app developer she dated in 2009 who came up with the idea for emojis - which she laughed at

'Ten years later, I realized this dude basically invented emojis, which now delight me to my very core,' she admitted. 'I'm sorry for doubting your fried eggs.'

The Thread resulted in dozens of other people then sharing their own brushes with app or company success.

'I went on exactly one date with a guy in 1994/95 who said, "I work on something called the World Wide Web. You'll be hearing a lot about it soon,"' one user laughed.

'Reminds me of when I used my 2002/2003 Christmas bonus to buy the very first iPod and the guy I was with at the time told me I was "stupid" and it was just a "fad" lol,' another chimed in.

'Don't worry it ended shortly after that,' they added.

'I still cry every time I look at my prototype for InstaCart and never following through with it in 2004 simply because I let a few nos lead me astray,' another complained.

Some people were on the precipice of helping someone else achieve app greatness.

'I dated a guy developing an app (I thought was dumb) in like 2012 and I said "Why don't you hit up Uber and convince them that they should use their logistics to have drivers deliver food between fares?"' they explained.

The Thread resulted in dozens of other people then sharing their own brushes with app or company success 

'He laughed at me. His app never went anywhere. UberEats exists. Who's laughing now?' they joked.

'That reminds me of a time I was working in a AR/VR lab in around 2000 and was looking for small cameras for a project and I kept finding these great samples of what were very small cameras at the time. 

'I asked the rep why so many options were available and he said "we're going to put them in every cellphone" and I was like "that's never gonna happen!" '

Others comforted those still languishing over passing on some now successful endeavor. 

'No worries, there's a Fox Executive who signed over merchandise rights to George Lucas because he didn't think that "little space movie" would make back it's budget. It happens,' they wrote.