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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?

#291

Post by wiz21c »

gelstudios wrote: post #279
beh9540 wrote: post #272

Right out of school, another person and I had a startup building a managed VoIP solution. We didn't start selling early enough, and underestimated the amount of time closing our first sale would take. That lead to my business partner taking another job to make ends meet, and not able to meet obligations to our company. Since he was managing the relationships and I was doing the tech, I basically was left trying to ma…

I had a similar experience with managed VoIP. The first almost-accidental customers seemed like a good sign that the most minimal viable product could work as a business. But we did not start selling early enough, and it played out almost exactly as you described. Lessons: 1. Sales is hard, especially if you have never done it 2. Commitment -- everyone involved should have skin in the game 3. Hardware is hard, even w…

>>> 2. Commitment -- everyone involved should have skin in the game

For those who don't get it, this means : - don't expect anybody to help you more than what he already helped (i.e. past help doesn't imply future help) - someone not as involved as you can become predatorial (for example, by requesting, after years of super nice cooperation, a share of the profits, of the intelectual property, etc.)

- someone who helps your for nothing may hide some agenda

- someone who helps you may realize that what you do together might hurt some of his othe business (and thus starts to undermine your business, not just leaving it)

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

#292

Post by ajones93200 »

torte wrote: post #99

So far a few: 1) Don't spend money and time on things you don't need or will need earliest in a few months from now. 2) Regardless if you have a brand-new idea for a product or try to improve an existing product/process, you need to validate first that you follow the right path. I think a light-weight solution like the idea behing the Design Sprint ( http://www.gv.com/sprint/ ) is a good option. Don't go off and try…

Exactly! I did not follow these rules while I started. And to make things worse, I kept the idea to myself and worked on it for years before releasing the product. And no one wanted my product although it was supposed to be better than the competitors.

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

#293

Post by punnerud »

andreivasiliev wrote: post #280

My startup failed because I was too secretive. I though I had a great idea and always worried that somebody would copy it. I spent 4 years working on my idea only to find out that nobody was interested in what I was doing. Now my mentality completely changed. I will be flattered if someone even bothers to copy my idea. At least that means I am doing something right.

4 years working on it.. Can we have one line of description?

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

#294

Post by andreivasiliev »

dandare wrote: post #170

My story is rather typical. I have built something visionary that everybody liked but nobody needed. I hated the very idea of selling something that is not finished so I never validated the product with customers. How could I explain to them how revolutionary will the product be? The only way was to show them. Like the first iPhone. In fact, I didn't like the "talking to customers" part at all, so I focused on coding…

Same here. I did not talk to my customers while I was first building my product partly because I worry someone might steal the idea, partly because I felt customers would not understand the benefit until I showed them a finished product. And then when I finally showed people a finished product, just as you said, everybody liked it but nobody needed it (or they just pretended to like it :-( ).

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

#295

Post by boxspam »

ragebol wrote: post #164
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 worked at a small robotics company in the Netherlands, technical university spinoff. We did tests in care homes for elderly and disabled people and we actually had clients that wanted to use our robots and were very positive about them. But we were just too early. The robot didn't even need to be very autonomous, shared autonomy was part of the plan (fake it till you make it and honest about it :-) ). I controlled…

Robovalley right?

Is there still animo for this? I would love to invest in elderly care technology, especially AI for Alzheimers.

Would this still be possible, or is it a big company (Philips?) thing now?

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

#296

Post by andreivasiliev »

andreivasiliev wrote: post #294
dandare wrote: post #170

My story is rather typical. I have built something visionary that everybody liked but nobody needed. I hated the very idea of selling something that is not finished so I never validated the product with customers. How could I explain to them how revolutionary will the product be? The only way was to show them. Like the first iPhone. In fact, I didn't like the "talking to customers" part at all, so I focused on coding…

Same here. I did not talk to my customers while I was first building my product partly because I worry someone might steal the idea, partly because I felt customers would not understand the benefit until I showed them a finished product. And then when I finally showed people a finished product, just as you said, everybody liked it but nobody needed it (or they just pretended to like it :-( ).

Although I learned the lesson, I still think I have not spent enough time talking to customers. I am a shy guy and would rather coding than talking to people.

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

#297

Post by kirubakaran »

tempuser24 wrote: post #262
tonyoconnell wrote: post #127

10 years ago I built an almost amazing business that schools, universities, teachers and students could use to build elearning and web apps. Think Square Space + Moodle + Udemy. Heres a demo if you're interested https://vimeo.com/2221065 The demo doesn't show much of the learning management features but they were also complete. But the app had memory leaks and I didn't have the cash to pay expensive engineers to fix…

When you say the CIA do you mean the Central Intelligence Agency ?

They probably mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culinary_Institute_of_Amer...

I fell for that once. I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought she was a spy for a couple of minutes until I picked up more context. I'm sure I looked super disappointed for the rest of that conversation.

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

#298

Post by ollerac »

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…

IMO you didn’t lose out here.

1. You got to work closely with 2 highly engaged customers. The value of the product development research you did with them is probably worth more than your debt, if you ever decide to build something similar again.

2. You actually built something they wanted and were willing to pay a huge lump sum for. Many startups never get to this point. You now know you have the ability to create something highly valuable. Don’t take the confidence that comes from that for granted. It’s worth more than $50k in the startup world, in my opinion.

I’m curious, knowing you’d created something valuable at the time, did you continue to try to sell it in the years after the 2 original companies left you?

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

#299

Post by make3 »

make3 wrote: post #83
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…

"Also learned not to fuck with the cartels" you seriously had to learn this

I don't get why this comment is so down voted. Do you guys all find the idea that collaborating with the mafia may be a bad idea so hard to figure out?

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

#300

Post by tacostakohashi »

mmsimanga wrote: post #241
mkagenius wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> owing 5% I ownwed 0.00086% of the mine Didn't you sign after reading? I dont know how it works there but generally one has to get all signatures for approval.

So this uncle was elected as the chairperson and given power of attorney to register everything on our behalf. The capital city is a good 800km away and we all had day jobs. As I said in another comment, the true problem was we (I) believed a family member wouldn't screw us like that. So it was literally a handshake agreement.

This reminds me of a takeaway from my failed startup - it's really not realistic to place 100% trust in someone to look after your interests if you are remote.

You need to be there in person to keep an eye on everything, or possibly complain to government relgulators / go to court if need be. If it's all remote and it's not practical to do this stuff in person, you are asking to be taken advantage of.

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