Earlier quoted context omitted.
why do you think the market is there?
tradeshows are 500B global market.
I more meant for your offering.
If the market is simply tradeshows, then surely there is many ways to pivot in this market?
Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
91–100 of 229 posts
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#92>to last minute catastrophic product failures You have to have a product that works. People are trusting part of their business to your software. Depending on your software, they also have to spend a lot of time and money with integrations, training and all that. It's a large commitment that isn't easy to reverse. If your software was working perfectly and provided obvious, quantifiable value, do you think you would…
>You have to have a product that works. it was completely outside the scope of my product. we have a mobile webapp that doesn't work in a uiwebview (ios). simple solution: pop out safari from a button. catastrophic failure: conference apps insist on keeping users in app and so those buttons load up the site in a uiwebview. in fact at the last moment (one day before the conference) i figured out a pretty viable soluti…
It’s totally inside the scope of your product to work. You sold someone on your expertise and ability, but hadn’t done enough homework to know that your web app wouldn’t work in one of the most important ways their customers would interact with it?
There’s a lot to learn here, but step one is owning up to your own mistakes and not blaming others.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#93I think it would be useful to give details. If we knew what the product was and what didn't work we might be able to help.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#94I've just read nearly all posts here and I think that HN has done you proud. There is loads of good advice here and very little noise. You have enough loot left for three salaries for one year at $30,000 and some loose change. You might be able to do something else eg: basic "IT" if you have people willing to give it a go an a few technicians on the staff. If money comes in then who cares where it comes from. Basic I…
How did you find clients with a boring company? I love "boring" stuff btw, I feel like I helped more people doing boring stuff (tech support, simple automation) than the "hip" stuff
What a friend did years ago was put up flyers in local office buildings.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#95I'd give the somewhat cliched advice of whether you believe you will fail, or believe you can succeed... you are correct. If you do choose to go forward, the fact that you have failed so far is not relevant. You had pilots. They failed. You know why. Dig deeper into the causes of the failures. Fix them. Get feedback from the customers, and fix the product. Fix the operational issues. And try again. That is no differe…
Most times there are shades of the true answer spread across multiple HN comments. That isn’t true here. This (the comment I’m replying to) is the only realistic way of looking at it. You need raw grit. My brother hit his tendon with a hatchet an 8 hour hike from civilization deep in the Canadian wilderness. He hiked back. Every step hurt. Sometimes you just need to move forward step by painful step. If you don’t you…
If the alternative is to lie down and die, yes, it totally makes sense to grit it out.
If the alternative is to get a cushy job at Google... spending a lot more time failing to run a company is often a bad idea for all involved. I personally spent a decade of my career trying to run a business, and it turns out? I'm just not very good at running a business. Had I worked regular jobs during that time, while living on what I lived on? I'd have enough money to retire at this point.
You need to be mindful of your opportunity cost... sure, if you are management material, you can probably pull some of your experience running the failed company into your next job. If you are looking for an individual contributor job, though? Running a business that only did okay looks to future employers a lot like unemployment.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#96I feel your pain...but a little less so, since I only spent my own money. My advice is simple: if you believe 100% in what you’re doing, keep doing it! If not, quit ASAP.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#97My two cents: building a business is hard and 9 months is not enough time... If you believe in the general concept and think it could succeed, then you need to leverage The experience you already have and continue trying until the funds run out or you reach the end of the runway.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#98I dont mean to sound insensitive but why did you raise money without "product market fit?" I hate the phrase but accept its use. 220k for an idea without a sales or go to market strategy strikes me as terribly tragic. And based on the details you've shared, most of the burn was on people costs. So you had an idea, raised money, hired people...and NONE of them were full time sales? Return the money. Take a vacation. G…
I don't know where you got the idea that we didn't have sales - we did.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
>You have to have a product that works. it was completely outside the scope of my product. we have a mobile webapp that doesn't work in a uiwebview (ios). simple solution: pop out safari from a button. catastrophic failure: conference apps insist on keeping users in app and so those buttons load up the site in a uiwebview. in fact at the last moment (one day before the conference) i figured out a pretty viable soluti…
It’s totally inside the scope of your product to work. You sold someone on your expertise and ability, but hadn’t done enough homework to know that your web app wouldn’t work in one of the most important ways their customers would interact with it? There’s a lot to learn here, but step one is owning up to your own mistakes and not blaming others.
I did know and it was exactly why I warned that customer that a uiwebview wouldn't work and that they needed a button. what I didn't know (because I was not privy to their conversations with their other app provider) was that that button could only open a uiwebview.
Re: Ask HN: My startup has basically failed. What now?
#100One of the most important things I learned while being in a somewhat similar position as you a little while ago, is to stop concentrating on sales at this juncture, and concentrate on the product instead.
As a solo-cofounder, your focus will keep shifting from sales to engineering, and it's very very hard to do both. I recommend stopping all new sales, align your entire company on stabilizing the product, and your existing customers will become your sales team.
As others have said, it would be helpful to take a break with your team, craft a new product-focussed strategy, and make deadlines for delivery.
Lastly, remember that you've actually achieved a lot (getting paid pilots is hard as a startup). Even if you do quit (I recommend giving it some more time though), I think you have learned what NOT to do in your next venture. Good luck!