Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 229 posts

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#141

Post by tibbetts »

grosjona wrote: post #135
jack_pp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people with useful projects probably didn't have access to the people OP used. You are implying that OP manipulated people to give him money while knowing that he had a bad idea, if this were true why would he want to give money back and why post here? If he were a conman he wouldn't ask for advice on how to proceed. Even if you had a great idea there's countless ways to lose 100k. If you don't hire the right p…

I'm a consequentialist so the intention doesn't change anything for me. All I'm saying is that this is really bad and OP should accept that they will have to suffer through the consequences.

If you have access to an oracle that protects you from making these kind of mistakes, I encourage you to start a venture fund. Or start an international charity. Or ask your oracle what the best thing to do is and then do that. The answer is probably not harshing on people asking for advice.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#142

Post by javajosh »

grosjona wrote: post #135
jack_pp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people with useful projects probably didn't have access to the people OP used. You are implying that OP manipulated people to give him money while knowing that he had a bad idea, if this were true why would he want to give money back and why post here? If he were a conman he wouldn't ask for advice on how to proceed. Even if you had a great idea there's countless ways to lose 100k. If you don't hire the right p…

I'm a consequentialist so the intention doesn't change anything for me. All I'm saying is that this is really bad and OP should accept that they will have to suffer through the consequences.

I am sorry for you that you have this kind of voice in your head, so strong that it actually speaks with your mouth. It's an angry, judgemental voice that demands success and holds contempt for failure. How could you possibly attain any level of success in any endeavor with such a voice running, commenting, hurting you? I (we) are only subject to it in this thread, but you subject yourself to it every day.

Try something new. Try having as much compassion for those that try and fail as you apparently do admiration for those that try and succeed. The difference between these two groups is far less than you think. Your current voice antagonizes both groups, that relatively tiny group, the ones that tried at all.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#143

Post by tibbetts »

kofejnik wrote: post #61
hhw3h wrote: post #21

Jason Lemkin recommends giving it 24 months to start a B2B SaaS. B2B SaaS is a long road despite the big splashes sometimes seen like Slack or Intercom. https://www.saastr.com/if-youre-going-to-do-a-saas-start-up-... Also watch the CEO of Segment talk about their journey to product market fit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6pl5GG8RQ4

if it takes 24 months, how do you convince investors to fund those 24 months of searching, before you can show any meaningful numbers?

You can and should show meaningful numbers while searching. And you should probably do some of your 24 months and numbers before you quit your day job and ask for money.

“We talked to 15 friendly CIOs at mid sized banks, and they all said that pen theft was a top three problem for them in 2018, they plan to budget up to $30k to solve it in 2019. We are pretty sure we can build RFID pen tracking systems for under $100 per pen, but we haven’t figured out how to price it for our market. I do know two bank branch managers who are willing to run beta tests.”

I mean, that’s still a dumb idea, but you can get started putting numbers around something without running down the whole 24 month clock. And usually most of the risk is in the product market fit, not in your tech team’s ability to create pen trackers.

Edit to add: now, if you integrate blockchain into your pen trackers, and have an ICO for pencoin, then this is totally fundable. Mid sized retail banks are definitely looking for a way to spend money on blockchain.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#144

Post by jack_pp »

grosjona wrote: post #139
jack_pp wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

If my comments can help to disincentivize just one future failed wannabe entrepreneur from raising money for their useless project then it was all worth it.

Telling people they shouldn't do obvious bad thing is pointless because those with good ethics wouldn't have done it regardless and the others won't care about your comments.

Your consequentialist view is valid but you can not demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that it's the best and most useful perspective. If you think your way of thinking is so much more superior then start your own startup, be successful, donate to charity and then write a blog post proving us all wrong.

The reason I'm investing time into this discussion is because I believe your way of thinking is toxic and very dangerous because you actually believe you're more virtuous for the beliefs that you hold. The most atrocious events in history have been done in the name of good, please remember that or you risk increasing mind share in toxic and evil ideologies.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#145

Post by tibbetts »

Don’t stress as much about investor capital as about your own time. Investors probably like what you are doing and they probably have (more or less) plenty of capital or they wouldn’t have given to you. They mostly won’t want their money back pro-rated if there is an option for your team to keep trying hard.

You have finite time on this earth. If this startup is no longer the right thing to be spending your time on, if you don’t think this or anything like it will work, then it is reasonable to quit and do something else. But I would second other people’s suggestion that you take a week or two to recover from what seems like burnout and seriously consider what the right next thing to do is and whether this corporate vehicle and these investors are part of the answer.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#146

Post by lucio »

grosjona wrote: post #127
javajosh wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did this community get so thoughtlessly cruel? What value does sadism have for you for them or even for the market? Shame on you.

Cruel? What about the other people with an actual useful project who didn't get a chance to raise money because OP was distracting the same investors with a silly idea. OP used their pitch presentation skills to divert opportunities away from other actual hard working people who might have used the money to do something useful for society.

It's impossible for all projects to succeed, and it's also impossible to know which ones will succeed from the 1000 pitched every week. The winning solution from Capitalism is "let's fund them all", and after a year or two you'll have: 1 wild success, 99 good to barely-profitable companies, and 900 failures.

And no, you can't tell beforehand which one will be the wild success.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#149

Post by rlonn »

rajacombinator wrote: post #59

Read your OP and all follow up posts in the thread. My advice is take 2 weeks vacation (travel somewhere), and do not work during this time. You need to step back and digest what you’ve learned so far. Don’t feel guilty about taking this time, it’s necessary for making an important decision. If you come back after 2 weeks and feel the same way, shut it down and return funds to investors. Your investors and advisors a…

I second the first two comments (i.e. take some time off to think, and be sure to take into account that money is NOT as valuable as time). I founded a startup just before the dotcom crash, failed to find seed money during&after the crash, but kept at it because I felt obligated to produce a return on the FFF money I had already taken. The company pivoted twice, going from product to consulting (in a different area) and then back to product again. Now it's becoming somewhat successful, but it has taken over 15 years!! If I could go back in time I would have shut down the company in 2002 and spent the time after that building new things. I think it would have made me both happier and more wealthy.

Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?

#150

Post by Ceejaymax »

First of all, don't worry too much. It took me 10 years and 2 startup failures before building one that is now > 10M€ in revenue. So failing is part of the process.

Here is what I'd recommend: 1) take a week off and rest. The startup way of life is very demanding and being exhausted can impair your judgment to answer the very importance question that all founders face at some time: Should I quit? Or should I pivot? Or should I persevere. 2) evaluate what I believe is the most important startup metrics: market traction. After so much cash burned, you should have at least an idea if your solution is truly disruptive or if it is just 'nice to have'. If it is 'nice to have' I recommend you quit. 3) if you decide to quit or are not sure, return the money to the investors in order to preserve your credibility for any future venture project.

Remember that being an entrepreneur is not a one-shot journey. It's a way of life. With time and experience you will get better at it.

Post reply on HN