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

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

#161

Post by analognoise »

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'm a consequentialist so the intention doesn't change anything for me.'

It also doesn't provide any useful predictive results, noe is it a complete and sustainable philosophical system. If you think sitting on the sidelines and taking pot-shots at people who try and fail is good because the successful ideas were 'obvious', you underestimate the degree to which luck and timing influences success - the saying is 'hindsight is 20/20' - it's very easy to see something fail and say, "well obviously!". It's the same trap for cynics - if you take the easy path to being 'right' because 'everyone knows', it becomes a lazy and self defeating intellectual exercise.

It isn't superior, it's a shell covering an inferiority complex whereby you 'win' by not playing. It's harmful to yourself and others. I suggest some exercise, a yoga class, maybe make a few friends irl. I'll be your friend if you need one. People aren't that bad; but we're all close to sanity's edge, and we all actually need each other.

Please reconsider, friend.

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

#162

Post by nautilus12 »

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…

Arent you advising them to take a vacation during the most critical juncture of the business? Isnt this just promoting more of the perceived or real iresponsibility that led the business to where it is now? Seems like if they are serious about the business they wouldnt be able to take their mind off the issue. Id only take a vacation if Id decided definetely that i was shutting it down to decompress and think about my next thing

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

#163

Post by dtech »

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'm a consequentialist so the intention doesn't change anything for me.

What does that even mean? If you buy a lottery ticket and you win then it was a good idea, if you lose it was a bad idea? That is absurd, sometimes an idea pans out, sometimes it doesn't. There's no way to tell beforehand.

You're also making it sound like investors losing 200K on a failed startup is some kind of crime against humanity. It's not, it's the risk that investors take.

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

#164

Post by anovikov »

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.

BS; if the project is visibly non-useless and doable, it was done many times over before and has no prospects of succeeding.

nearly every startup which has succeeded MUST sound like an utter crap invented by a wannabe, scamster, or lunatic.

Take Google for example: who the fuck needs YET another search engine, even as there are about 50 other ones and none of them makes any money (Yahoo does make money, but search contributes just 7% of its traffic, it is irrelevant)?

Take Apple: ok so you are gonna make a computer an ordinary person could buy. What for? Why do you even need a computer at home, unless you are a computer fan? Remember the Internet has 20 years to become available to non-military outside largest universities, there are even no BBSes, and totally no usable software which would make any sense for an average person.

Facebook? A social app for college students - a very narrow group of people, who have no money to monetize it upon?

If i was an average person trying to tell if any of the multibillion startup success stories were 'useless' or not, i'd say almost every one of them to GTFO.

My vision of what constitutes a good case of a project to fund is exactly that: great people (simply by their coding skills - people with great github accounts) who pitch a visibly BS idea. Because they must be onto something.

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

#165

Post by SirYandi »

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.

You are so obviously trolling. The attitude you want people to think you have is laughably absurd.

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

#166

Post by montrose »

Whether you should quit or not depends on (a) whether your idea has any potential and (b) whether you're suited to starting a startup. It's hard to tell either of those from your question.

The question I'd ask is, why did you start working on this idea? Was it something you yourselves needed? Or was it a made-up idea, meaning something you assumed other people wanted (but that perhaps they don't actually)?

If the answer is the former, focus on the problem you know exists from your own experience, and find the people who desperately need it. If you did, there must be others.

If the answer is the latter – that you're making something you hoped and predicted other people would want – then you're basically casting about at random. And though I resist ever advising people to quit, if there's a time to, that's it.

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

#167

Post by Retric »

nautilus12 wrote: post #162
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…

Arent you advising them to take a vacation during the most critical juncture of the business? Isnt this just promoting more of the perceived or real iresponsibility that led the business to where it is now? Seems like if they are serious about the business they wouldnt be able to take their mind off the issue. Id only take a vacation if Id decided definetely that i was shutting it down to decompress and think about m…

Without product market fit there is nothing time sensitive about the business other than burn rate. Taking two weeks off would be a hail mary pass that might work but would probably fail.

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

#168

Post by eaenki »

mlevental wrote: post #11
totoglazer wrote: post #7

Do you think the new cofounder will substantially change your ability to have 5 successful pilots in the next 3 months? Are you excited about the space? Do you think you are uniquely able to contribute? Do you still think the market is there? If your answer are no to all or most of the above, it sounds like maybe you should close up shop. I think returning VC money is dumb. Returning friends & family might be worthwh…

>Do you think the new cofounder will substantially change your ability to have 5 successful pilots in the next 3 months? substantially? hard to tell. he is hungry, and smart enough (from what i can tell), but he's no magician (who is anyway?). >Are you excited about the space? no. we are not building tesla-spacex-oculus. it would be very hard to be excited about b2b tradeshows. i am excited about potentially building…

>Are you excited about the space? no. we are not building tesla-spacex-oculus. it would be very hard to be excited about b2b tradeshows. i am excited about potentially building a successful business.

There you go. Quit. I'd wage my life you wont make it. The only way to do something amazing is to love what you're doing.

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

#169

Post by erikb »

Looks to me like you are 1/3 into the project. Why give up now?

Lesson 1) If a person didn't do almost exactly what you are doing (and most didn't) their advise is bullshit. And as you already see quite a few people even give you advise in both directions. People always think they know what they are talking about. In 95% they don't tho.

Lesson 2) Everything is 5-10 times harder than you think. If you already have 5 failing customer projects, that's awesome. Most ppl don't get there. Even some of them are paying. This is btw how getting product/market fit, or how did you think it happens? Magical numbers appearing in a nice little dashboard? Nope. Product/Market fit is more and more people slowly starting to pay you.

PS: High touch with first customers is nothing. Very normal. Not worth even mentioning.

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

#170

Post by dominicr »

mlevental wrote: post #11
totoglazer wrote: post #7

Do you think the new cofounder will substantially change your ability to have 5 successful pilots in the next 3 months? Are you excited about the space? Do you think you are uniquely able to contribute? Do you still think the market is there? If your answer are no to all or most of the above, it sounds like maybe you should close up shop. I think returning VC money is dumb. Returning friends & family might be worthwh…

>Do you think the new cofounder will substantially change your ability to have 5 successful pilots in the next 3 months? substantially? hard to tell. he is hungry, and smart enough (from what i can tell), but he's no magician (who is anyway?). >Are you excited about the space? no. we are not building tesla-spacex-oculus. it would be very hard to be excited about b2b tradeshows. i am excited about potentially building…

> it would be very hard to be excited about b2b tradeshows.

I worked in the technology side of large B2B events for about 10 years and there are certainly people who get really excited about B2B events!

You don't have to LOVE your product or industry but you've got to be interested in the industry and believe in your product. Being disinterested in the industry is a big disadvantage. Most people coming up with ideas or solutions are deeply involved in their industry and interested enough to spend a lot of time thinking about it.

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