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Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

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Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#61

Post by mahesh_rm »

angersock wrote: post #3

My own startup about five years ago (I've worked at several others, all different types of failures): Running out of money. We were bootstrapped, and the style of work we were doing had some decent capital costs. We failed for a "bargain" (less than 7K), but we had cut to the bone and deeper while trying that. Side jobs to make rent just increased stress and distracted from the business. Why did we run out of money?…

"Probably most importantly, I learned that the glorification of the startup lifestyle is a lie perpetuated by people seeking to make money from it at all levels."

This I would say is my main learning point. My first startup failed because of inexperience and team implosion following incapability of generating revenue fast enough on one side, and attract favorable investment on the other. Failure could have been lighter on both me and the other members of the team, was it not for a self-immolation mindset probably driven by glorification of "startup lifestyle". Things fail. Most of the time. Assume failure. Optimize for resiliency. Never expect success as the natural outcome, but rather consider it will come collaterally to continuous reaction to ugly realities, and damn slowly. You can stumble upon a rocket ship, but it is not how businesses usually get to come to life.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#62

Post by sahil-kang »

ellius wrote: post #43
tomasien wrote: post #18

I've had two startups "fail" for unusually clear reasons: Startup #1: too hard to believe it could be big. Widely loved consumer website we tried to fund with angel/VC money, and it was too implausible it could ever be a $1b+ company. We needed a non-VC strategy to fund that business but didn't realize that - ran out of gas. Startup #2: found PMF, business-model fit, high-growth, and had an amazing team. Blown up by…

Could you elaborate on this in some detail? I'm in the position of believing I have "1 thing right." I worked in an industry (banking) with a serious software problem and one particular vertical that I'm confident I could build a good product for. I was in a position to evaluate all of the major vendors that would be my competitors, and I'm confident that I could get one particular thing very right. Ths problem is th…

Have you considered an accelerator: https://www.ycombinator.com

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#63

Post by arkades »

Our uninsured CEO/cofounder developed a chronic illness and embezzled cash from us to pay his massive medical bills.

Killed our runway, which we only found out after we hired an accountant to look into our books and find wenhad an empty gas tank. Since this was still at the f&f funding stage, none of us had the heart to go after him for it.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#64

Post by liquidise »

AznHisoka wrote: post #22
liquidise wrote: post #5

I was an early engineer at a startup that failed for a somewhat unique reason with an important overarching learning. We built a software platform that intended to automate the job of market researchers. Those researchers we hoped to replace ended up finding the tool itself useful. Since the platform didn't replace the employees, our pricing model fell short. In the end, we found success by hiring our own market rese…

What was the name of the product/service if you don't mind me asking?

Originally Qualvu, they rebranded sometime after i left to 24tru, i believe.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#65

Post by tomasien »

ellius wrote: post #43
tomasien wrote: post #18

I've had two startups "fail" for unusually clear reasons: Startup #1: too hard to believe it could be big. Widely loved consumer website we tried to fund with angel/VC money, and it was too implausible it could ever be a $1b+ company. We needed a non-VC strategy to fund that business but didn't realize that - ran out of gas. Startup #2: found PMF, business-model fit, high-growth, and had an amazing team. Blown up by…

Could you elaborate on this in some detail? I'm in the position of believing I have "1 thing right." I worked in an industry (banking) with a serious software problem and one particular vertical that I'm confident I could build a good product for. I was in a position to evaluate all of the major vendors that would be my competitors, and I'm confident that I could get one particular thing very right. Ths problem is th…

I’m the CEO of alloy.co and know banking software about as well as anyone, I’d be happy to help assuming youre not trying to solve identity verification for the industry. tommy @ domain

The main thing is you have to start, get a team to follow you somehow, and get a reference client live and on the record using your software to solve a huge problem. Consider YC or techstars for your first $$$ investors. Some may tell you the negative of working w them but they’re deeply wrong

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#66

Post by rb808 »

I wrote a great software library for specific web development problems back in the dotcom boom.

I learned a few things, much of you hear already but is worth repeating :

* The MVP thing is real. I had a competitor that regularly released simple things that barely worked - while I continued to polished my project. By the time I'd finished the competitors stuff was all over the internet few a year or two and no one was really interested in my product. Plus by then the dotcom boom was pretty much starting to bust - I was way too late.

* Developing software is the easy part. I figured when I was done people would be lining up which is of course naive. Selling and support is harder and takes more time and effort than writing code.

* Writing software for developers sucks. No one wants to pay for anything as there is usually a cheaper way of doing it. The exceptions being big firms that really don't like small independents. Its better to write software to solve real problems - not software problems.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#67

Post by everybodyknows »

ellius wrote: post #43
tomasien wrote: post #18

I've had two startups "fail" for unusually clear reasons: Startup #1: too hard to believe it could be big. Widely loved consumer website we tried to fund with angel/VC money, and it was too implausible it could ever be a $1b+ company. We needed a non-VC strategy to fund that business but didn't realize that - ran out of gas. Startup #2: found PMF, business-model fit, high-growth, and had an amazing team. Blown up by…

Could you elaborate on this in some detail? I'm in the position of believing I have "1 thing right." I worked in an industry (banking) with a serious software problem and one particular vertical that I'm confident I could build a good product for. I was in a position to evaluate all of the major vendors that would be my competitors, and I'm confident that I could get one particular thing very right. Ths problem is th…

Take care that your current employer has no claim on your idea -- avoid any business formation steps that could be dated as prior to your exit.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#68

Post by JamesCoyne »

thanatos_dem wrote: post #60

CEO would disappear for months at a time, with the promise of returning with capital. We never really knew where he went, and he wouldn’t let anyone else talk to investors (including me, who was CTO). Eventually he stopped paying us, but promised that the money was just tied up in the parent company set up in the caymans. After 2 months of not paying myself or any other employees, the COO and I drainked the remainder…

Why shouldn't a startup fuck with the cartels?

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#69

Post by ben509 »

We launched our startup right at the end of the dotcom boom. We were trying to do meta-searches against Alta Vista (mostly) and a few other, doing what was a very primitive network search similar to what FB does, only specialized to things like scientific papers. The first product was trying to help academics and scientists find conferences to attend based on their common interests.

But before we got very far, the dotcom bust hit and investor cash dried up. My partner went back to his day job, and I went back and finished my degree.

Lessons learned: market fluctuations can and will kill you. Have an exit strategy. Don't rely on a single coder (me, in this case) especially one who is young and immature. But definitely do it, you won't regret it.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail and what did you learn?

#70

Post by tomasien »

everybodyknows wrote: post #67
ellius wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on this in some detail? I'm in the position of believing I have "1 thing right." I worked in an industry (banking) with a serious software problem and one particular vertical that I'm confident I could build a good product for. I was in a position to evaluate all of the major vendors that would be my competitors, and I'm confident that I could get one particular thing very right. Ths problem is th…

Take care that your current employer has no claim on your idea -- avoid any business formation steps that could be dated as prior to your exit.

Fine to do this but unlikely to matter and don’t let not being sure about this stop you for even a second
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