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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?

#151

Post by Maro »

mlevental wrote: post #27
tom_mellior wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a key assumption necessary in actually delivering value turned out to be pretty much false (basically we saw almost no adoption amongst users). I'm leaning out on a limb here, but if this means what I think it means, you have developed some app that tradeshow visitors are asked to install to reap some benefits that don't interest them. If that's kind of what you are doing, pull the plug now. People don't use that k…

you're very close and >People don't use that kind of thing. is exactly one of the key hypotheses that needed validation/falsification. what we are facing now is whether we really falsified it given poor marketing/education on the part of the organizer.

I'm a comp sci guy, my fiancee runs big (2,000 attendee) tech conferences [1]. Being her partner I have a reasonable amount of visibility into this world. Happy to chat with you.

[1] https://craft-conf.com/

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

#152

Post by kd5bjo »

> we've failed to do anything productive (... learn anything valuable, etc)

Whatever you decide to do going forward, this experience of running a struggling company is valuable. If you continue on, you've learned many things that don't work -- you can focus your efforts on other things. If you start a different business, you've been around this block before -- you'll spend less time figuring out the mundane parts of running a business and more on your revolutionary ideas. And, if you end up as a regular employee somewhere, you'll bring a unique perspective that new grads can't-- your understanding of business goals will help you make better technical decisions.

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

#155

Post by zeth___ »

grosjona wrote: post #132
jack_pp wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The community isn't "thoughtlessly cruel" as evidenced by the immediate downvotes and comments not agreeing with parent. It is unwise to judge a whole community based on a random comment from an anonymous actor with no reputation whatsoever.

I don't understand how I'm the cruel one. This person contributed to wasting 100K... How many lives could have been saved for that money if it had been donated to charity (for example)? I merely wrote a few lines of text on some website.

100k is very little. I have wasted that much several times over. It's not until you get to the double digits in millions that you're dealing with serious money.

My last idea tanked, ate all my savings and now I'm back at a job for the next 2 years or so.

Then off we go again.

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

#156

Post by Hoagy »

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.

Hah! New rule: only non-useless projects to be funded. Uselessness to be determined by investors on application for funds.

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

#158

Post by dbg31415 »

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…

> How did you spend 120k in 9 months!?

More like, "How did you ONLY spend 120k in 9 months?!"

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

#159

Post by arudland1987 »

rajacombinators advice is probably the best on here TBH.

Always remember this: nearly everyone is bullshitting you. What I mean by that is a very small number of people are actually worth listening to. Look at these comments on here. I would disregard 99.99% of the advice you receive. Ben Horowitz has a great story of this, when he finally sold Loudcloud and came to find out everyone he spoke to during the hard times was full of shit and ended up going bankrupt. Be very careful who you listen to.

Now - the truth is 9 months is not enough time, this fail fast approach is complete BS IMHO, you need 5-7 years to make something work. Unfortunately LEAN has completely screwed with what people think is required. Now when I say 5-7 years, I don't mean 5-7 years on the same idea. I mean 5-7 years for the LTD/LLC/Inc to get to cash flow positive. So this could be pivot numero 50 by the point you get there. Fundamentally you have to rationalise your product the following way, are you really ADDING value (people are receiving more than they pay for the product/service) and do your potential customers actually give a shit. Things are much easier when customers really really love your product, I know it's obvious. But it took me years to stop listening to my own BS. As founders we rarely see the 100% truth due to the failing of our biases.

Giving back capital to investors is the last thing you should ever be thinking of doing. I would cut every single cost down to near zero (in the biz) and make sure you're own personal expenses are extremely low ($1k-1.5k/mo). That way you have time to make this work.

NEVER EVER GIVE UP.

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