Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

Post by ef4 » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 4:51 PM UTC

kartikkumar wrote: post #37

staunch wrote: post #31

After a previous failure, my co-founder (and co-brother) and I are moving to the bay area this month, from LA. We're keeping our expenses low and plan to drive for Uber part-time as a way of avoiding day jobs. Even though I'm married and have a newborn, we're sharing a place and living like (healthy) college students. We've both turned down huge salaries to work together indefinitely. I love creating products for peo…

Doing a startup with a sibling, that's always intrigued me. I've thought about talking to my brother about it a few times. Just feels like it might be incurring too much risk to the personal relationship. What is your experience of that aspect of doing a startup like? Kudos got knowing what you want and going for it.

Post by Udo » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 6:43 PM UTC

k__ wrote: post #136

Udo wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "web agencies" who build shitty typo3 pages en masse This is what our initial success was built on. We had a two-pronged approach. First, in the homeland of typo3, we got massive mileage out of our own CMS product which could do everything that was oh so painful with the usual products in this space. We became the "can do" guys, and we could do everything so much faster and more elegantly than the competition. Our…

> Everything else we did wrong lol, implying completing "the illusion that everything was done in-house at the agency" wasn't wrong in the first place. Anyway, I still can't imagine why people found agencies. If I want to do consulting, I'd become a freelancer, this pays much better and there is plenty of work. If I don't, I would work at a real software company that builds and sells software products...

Post by yuhong » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 7:10 PM UTC

jbkkd wrote: post #118

raminassemi wrote: post #39

Someone should start a blog interviewing failed startup founders and letting them tell their stories and share their lessons, really in-depth. Maybe even bring in other people for multiple perspectives.

I'm up for this. Founders, if you're willing to share your experience on a blog, hit me up. My email is on my profile. Anonymity guaranteed. I'm not sure about what the format will be yet, but I'm thinking of interviews which will be transcribed, with the audio as an option. I'm open to other suggestions.

Post by aerovistae » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 7:29 PM UTC

kbouw wrote: post #50

Began a startup senior year of college (Thryv). Managed to build a team, get sales, generate revenue and score a large partnership. Long story short, I was a customer of my own product and assumed I knew what other customers wanted. I spent the next 6 months having a product built without validating my initial assumptions before launching. The product was too niche only fitting customers who had my specific workflow…

Post by kbouw » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

aerovistae wrote: post #147

kbouw wrote: post #50

Began a startup senior year of college (Thryv). Managed to build a team, get sales, generate revenue and score a large partnership. Long story short, I was a customer of my own product and assumed I knew what other customers wanted. I spent the next 6 months having a product built without validating my initial assumptions before launching. The product was too niche only fitting customers who had my specific workflow…

For your number 4 bullet under "Services," I'm pretty sure you mean "Voila!" rather than "Viola," which is a musical instrument similar to a violin.