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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?

#61
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?

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

#62
post #48

Brutal truth: You have zero confidence in your own product. So yes, shut this down as gracefully as possible. Taking on the entire world is hard enough even if you do believe in your product.

Good advice, but it's not that OP has 'zero confidence' in the product. He/she says how it failed the most important test. >... in my understanding we've failed at the most important thing: finding product/market fit

How is that not zero confidence?

They built something, sure, but the technical cofounder believes it has very little/no utility. That's telling.

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

#63
post #58

Time is an even scarcer resource than money. You don't have much money. You don't believe in your product. All signs point negative. If you're looking for permission to cut loose, you have it. Work on something you believe in. Don't waste any more time on an unworkable startup.

Agreed. There’s no shame in pulling the plug at this point, in fact it’s the honorable thing to do.

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

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is slightly off topic, but I have noticed that about half the time on HC when someone says contact me that they have no contact details in their profile.

I suspect that's because HN doesn't make it clear that your email isn't publicly visible on your profile.

I can't think of a single website where your email is publicly visible on your profile by default.

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

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good advice, but it's not that OP has 'zero confidence' in the product. He/she says how it failed the most important test. >... in my understanding we've failed at the most important thing: finding product/market fit

How is that not zero confidence? They built something, sure, but the technical cofounder believes it has very little/no utility. That's telling.

Having confidence in something, and finding out that your target audience doesn't want it, or need it are 2 entirely different things.

Per his OP, the technical founder has not explicitly stated whether he believes that the product has zero utility. Rather he's saying that he found out (from data I suppose) that there is no product market fit for it.

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

#66
Tell your investors/angels asap. Sell what's left and return money to them first. Reuse/recycle what you have. Don't just throw the code or the team away. Move on. Remember that failure is the default setting for learning. Learn and try again with something else. Never give up!

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

#69
You might want to seek out some folks at Crowdcompass or other companies in your general category and see if they want to hire your whole team, maybe even pay you to continue doing what you're doing... that's kind of a middle option. If you decide not to move forward I'd be glad to consider you for a job at our company because I respect how you're handling this. Whatever you do I wish you the best of luck. If you'd like to chat I'm at... dave sendsmart.com.

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

#70

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…

>And try to reduce your absurd burn rate.

when we started we had 3 employees. we carried 3 employees for 3 months at which point we went down to 1 employee and myself. it is only as of last month that i'm the sole employee of the company (and obv the burn has gone down proportionately)

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