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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?

#301

Post by otterley »

theelous3 wrote: post #252
mmsimanga wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A handshake agreement is enforceable.

Attorney here! (Not dispensing legal advice, though.)

Not in the US in many cases. Take the Uniform Commercial Code, for example, which requires a written contract for the sale of goods over $500, or agreements creating a security interest.

See https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/when-is-written-cont... for a decent overview.

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

#302

Post by beh9540 »

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…

>>> 3. Hardware is hard, even when you don't manufacture it -- refurbishing + firmware modifying ip phones, poe equipment, etc ate into our runway

This is a great point, and brings back so many bad memories. Every phone provisions a little bit differently, and so many settings have unintended side effects. I spent so much runway building a dynamic, generic templating system when we should have just gone to market mostly static coded components customized on the fly.

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

#304

Post by beaconstudios »

tim333 wrote: post #223
the_clarence wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean. What could you have told that stupid guy

I find sarcastic positivity often is good eg. "that's a really great idea - you should be president." Let's you take the piss and often they think you're being serious.

or just be professional and divert the topic to something else so you don't have to give an opinion on craziness. The guy was probably just mouthing off anyway and responding literally isn't going to do anyone any favours.

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

#305

Post by irishcoffee »

fortydegrees wrote: post #187
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…

> 1. I should never have given up. If you don't give up you can't fail. I think if you expand the scope of 'failure' to mean your life, as opposed to just the business, then you didn't fail. You were pursuing a strategy that would have led to the failure of your marriage, which is much worse than a failed business. I think you succeeded.

I think the marriage did end.

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

#307

Post by ttoinou »

bsenftner wrote: post #271
ttoinou wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sell it as an After Effects / OpenFX plugin to begin with

It is as big if not larger than After Effects - it's an entire VFX pipeline: servers as render nodes, as compositor nodes, and so on... All extremely high speed, to the tune of 150,000 30 second clips per minute. It is/was a globally scaled on-demand VFX pipeline. Not even the VFX industry has such pipelines.

Oh but why couldn't you make a little plugin to begin with ? And then clients who needs more can use your big pipeline.

You can still adapt your pipeline for new uses -- for example Style Transfer ! Or other stuff I have some ideas

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

#308

Post by tixocloud »

Startup #1: I was trying to build a location analysis tool after seeing some crappy software being used at work and charging us a crap ton of money for it. Roped my friend but also found someone completely random based on skill set. The dynamics of the team didn’t work out and we didn’t fully align on which direction to go. We also didn’t have access to the data we needed and we might have also gone after the wrong customer segment. We had ZERO experience in commercial real estate and we quickly found out that whilst our tool is useful, it’s not something the industry cares too much when it came to making deals (read nice-to-have but not hair on fire problem)

Startup #2: Born out of my own frustration with startup #1, decided to try and scratch my own itch with CRM software. At this point, it’s just me as my partners all went back to their full time jobs. Money was good and they have families. CRM is hell competitive and even more so with HubSpot in it. Everyone I spoke with had so many needs and I wasn’t able to focus on something pressing. Worked with a startup to build out a roadmap but they were not 100% invested in the product and was just trying to help.

Startup #3: Off the back of a trip to Hong Kong, I came across a very useful concept of having a mobile phone in your hotel. Tried to replicate it but met many roadblocks in terms of getting contacts, scalability of the idea within North America.

Going on startup #4 now, this looks to be a lot more promising after incorporating everything I’ve learned from the previous failed items: - Tech is the least important issue. Usually, you can build the tech. It’s figuring out whether people need it that’s key

- Contacts, network and communication can be quite powerful. Having people who know the domain space in helps to become a great sounding board.

- Go deep with knowledge. Being a startup, you need to have some form of credibility for people to trust you and your company. Previously I had high level expertise but nothing deep enough that says I know the problems you’re solving, mr. customer. Of course you can build up that knowledge but that will take time

- Time is the most precious component. Focus on what matters, validate and think about the tech and optimisation after

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

#309

Post by charlesdm »

mmsimanga wrote: post #219

I come from a coal mining region. For over a 100 years there has only been one mine in the area, a big mine. There is plenty of coal in the surrounding areas. This is Africa. An uncle of mine had the idea that we start a mine. He invited about 20 of us, all related. We started putting aside money to register a company, pay a geologist to prospect for the coal and get mining permit to mine the coal. We all contributed…

Did it actually work out though? Is the mine making money?
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