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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?

#111

Post by oceanman888 »

iandanforth wrote: post #84

I started a consumer robotics company with no more than a software and hobbyist robotics background. The grand plan was to sell furry robot pets and we got as far as the prototype stage and a demo at Maker Faire. After that we hit a huge wall. There is essentially no path from hobbyist, off the shelf components to a real product. After that company died I joined a real robotics startup with some seriously talented fo…

I agree with you that hands-on experience with manufacturing is crucial for getting your fist batch out. However,what stopped you from joining one of those hardware accelerators in shenzhen?

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

#112

Post by karlkatzke »

Aeolun wrote: post #109
karlkatzke wrote: post #105

The basic gist is that I was arrogant and negligent. I started a company to leverage an order taking and customer management system I’d built for a friend’s b2b outside sales company. Before, they were managing everything with excel spreadsheets on a shared drive and it was a mess. After, everything was in a php application that could set up a recurring credit card transaction within a few clicks. It used AJAX (in 20…

They didn’t need any support of the product at all after buying it outright? I can see how you’d be temporarily without money, but not sure how they’d take away all income.

They took development in house. It’s not like PHP (despite some obfuscators being available) can’t be edited by anyone who barely knows the language.

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

#113

Post by stretchwithme »

Well, it didn't completely fail yet. It's still going 13 years after I left, actually. But part of the struggles were brought on by my mistake with a military customer that probably cost us the contract.

This was back at the beginning of the Iraq war. Our main contact told me the US should attack France, as they weren't supporting the invasion. I made the mistake of saying I was glad he was executing policy, not making it.

Oops. They started migrating to another product. Oh well.

Lesson is, if you're going to object to what a customer thinks, do it when its your own company. It's not really fair to make such a choose for everybody at your company. Kind of self indulgent, actually.

And people are entitled to their opinions and my mouthing off didn't change anything. An exercise in futility that only cost us.

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

#115

Post by Nydhal »

karlkatzke wrote: post #105

The basic gist is that I was arrogant and negligent. I started a company to leverage an order taking and customer management system I’d built for a friend’s b2b outside sales company. Before, they were managing everything with excel spreadsheets on a shared drive and it was a mess. After, everything was in a php application that could set up a recurring credit card transaction within a few clicks. It used AJAX (in 20…

> I could have been SalesForce if I hadn't been arrogant.

Did you overcome that and learn from the mistakes? No offence, but to be honest you saying "I could have been SalesForce" makes it seem like you're still working on the arrogance part.

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

#116

Post by solveit »

stretchwithme wrote: post #113

Well, it didn't completely fail yet. It's still going 13 years after I left, actually. But part of the struggles were brought on by my mistake with a military customer that probably cost us the contract. This was back at the beginning of the Iraq war. Our main contact told me the US should attack France, as they weren't supporting the invasion. I made the mistake of saying I was glad he was executing policy, not maki…

Attack? As in invade??

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

#117

Post by keithnz »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #102
iandanforth wrote: post #84

I started a consumer robotics company with no more than a software and hobbyist robotics background. The grand plan was to sell furry robot pets and we got as far as the prototype stage and a demo at Maker Faire. After that we hit a huge wall. There is essentially no path from hobbyist, off the shelf components to a real product. After that company died I joined a real robotics startup with some seriously talented fo…

Just a note on this: Prototypes can be enough to get a company going. Engineers/Makers think that the product is the most important part of starting a company. It's not. Selling your vision to investors and customers is. Once you have a business plan that's funded, you can refine your product by hiring consultants that will help you with production. Once you have a product then you can get customers to refine the pro…

what makes you think the US has the safest drinking water in the world?

Can't see it in any of the top 10 (or 20) via google....

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

#118

Post by adventured »

solveit wrote: post #116
stretchwithme wrote: post #113

Well, it didn't completely fail yet. It's still going 13 years after I left, actually. But part of the struggles were brought on by my mistake with a military customer that probably cost us the contract. This was back at the beginning of the Iraq war. Our main contact told me the US should attack France, as they weren't supporting the invasion. I made the mistake of saying I was glad he was executing policy, not maki…

Attack? As in invade??

You can't take people like that too seriously, the world is filled with plenty of nuts. During the Bush vs Gore chaos right after the election, the people - from another developed nation - I was working with on a start-up told me they hoped the US would collapse into civil war over it (they wanted to see the US suffer a political catastrophe for a change, they said).

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

#119

Post by woogiewonka »

t0mbstone wrote: post #90

Our startup failed because my business partner wanted to just be the "idea guy" who designed the screens, while having me code it and do all the heavy work. Initially, this was going to be a 50/50 split, but after working on it almost full time for about 6 months, I ran out of money. He had a pretty big savings account and came from a well-off family, so he agreed to front me basically just enough to cover my rent wh…

Couldn't you just use the code to do the rest yourself and launch it on your own - write him out of the picture if nothing was solidified legally?
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