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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?

#371

Post by EpicEng »

pq0ak2nnd wrote: post #369
EpicEng wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>99% of the time... Serious generalization. More like "a bird in hand". id·i·om ˈidēəm/Submit noun a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light ). ------------ "99% of the time" almost never literally means 99% of the time. C'mon, don't be that guy.

Actually, I AM going to be that guy. I have zero tolerance for people who claim to be experts. You had one experience and used an idiom (incorrectly) to sound smart. So tired of smug upstarts like you.

>So tired of smug upstarts like you.

Yes, no one likes smugness... I'm not the GP if you hadn't noticed, but honestly; don't be that guy.

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

#372

Post by everybodyknows »

EpicEng wrote: post #362
everybodyknows wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, but the article doesn't give us much sense of how close the victim and perp were in the church hierarchy, My reading is that they probably did not have the same Mormon bishop, who would have felt some pressure to take action. So, yes, the farther away in the social network, the weaker the social pressure. If the link is mere nominal membership in the same faith, that may be worse than no link at all. Mos…

>This is why, for instance, Mormons seldom defraud other Mormons >If the link is mere nominal membership in the same faith, that may be worse than no link at all So which is it?

Not enough info in the article to form a judgement.

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

#373

Post by Drdrdrq »

notyourday wrote: post #73
subhobroto wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might not work in all cases. I have excellent clients who could not afford to pay for a consultation because they themselves were waiting on the client they were farming out jobs from. They still work with me because they know I understand their cashflow issues.

That's a self-created problem. It is possible to remain in business while self-creating problem. It is, however, not recommended. We once were jerked around by a reasonably well known customer. Their accounting people decided they did not need to perform under the payment terms the customer signed off on. First time they did it, I sent an email to the EVP that signed the order. We got an apology and a payment. The ne…

I admire you for taking a stand, and even more for being able to climb into a position where you could pull this off. Kudos.

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

#374

Post by your-nanny »

aliswe wrote: post #145
Thriptic wrote: post #27

I was a co-founder at a SaaS health startup that ultimately failed because our team imploded. I learned a variety of very useful lessons from our failure. #1 If you do not have strong domain expertise in your target market, your co-founder must. If none of your co-founders have strong domain expertise, you are in for a world of pain. It's possible to succeed without someone from the industry onboard (and we almost di…

6. What do you mean with incorporating?

pProbably organizing the business as a corporation. Among other things, incorporation means individuals no longer personally liable.

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

#376

Post by Thriptic »

aliswe wrote: post #145
Thriptic wrote: post #27

I was a co-founder at a SaaS health startup that ultimately failed because our team imploded. I learned a variety of very useful lessons from our failure. #1 If you do not have strong domain expertise in your target market, your co-founder must. If none of your co-founders have strong domain expertise, you are in for a world of pain. It's possible to succeed without someone from the industry onboard (and we almost di…

6. What do you mean with incorporating?

The act of registering a corporate entity (c Corp, s Corp, LLC etc) in a state.

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

#377

Post by CugelTheClever »

In 2011 we launched Birthday Dollar, a Facebook app that let users send and receive small gifts of money and gift cards through the platform. We watched usage tic up day after day and felt momentum grow.

Then Facebook announced they had acquired Karma, a gifting company, and planned to integrate them into Facebook as Facebook Gifts.

I immediately pulled the plug on Birthday Dollar, processed the last transaction and shut the whole thing down.

What did I learn? I learned that there's no shame in surrendering without a fight.

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

#378

Post by r3vo »

the_clarence wrote: post #162
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…

I mean. What could you have told that stupid guy

It's kind of a question of integrity. Do we have a moral obligation to disagree with something someone says that we feel is wrong? Even if it's not in our interest to do so?

Maybe we do, maybe we don't.

Personally, if someone with a large influence on my income says something I find offensive or outright idiotic, I disagree in a polite way that shows that I respect their opinion even if I don't. If I feel that it would really offend them I'm not above lying and pretending that I do.

Sometimes I feel morally conflicted about this, but it's kept me out of trouble.

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

#379

Post by EnFinlay »

demircancelebi wrote: post #312

I built a SaaS company, offering marketplace infrastructure to people who wanted to start online marketplace businesses. Turns out, although tackling the technical side of building a marketplace is not that easy, it is perfectly doable. The real challenge is getting people to use such marketplaces. It takes a lot of non-technical effort to build a marketplace. There's the obvious chicken-egg problem for most marketpl…

Re: your second point, I experienced that too. It's an interesting thing to deal with.

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

#380

Post by Drdrdrq »

aarongray wrote: post #317

I built an app for kids that created a family currency where kids would pick the chores they wanted to do each day, earn points based upon the difficulty of the chores, and then those points could be redeemed for real-life rewards that they also chose - hosting friends for a sleep-over, a fishing trip with Dad, learn a new card game with Mom, screen time, etc. The problem came with the marketing. When I did my due di…

I don't think you can guess in advance which marketing channel is going to work for you, you need to experiment and see what brings results. There's a book Traction that goes deeper into this, if you haven't given up yet. Good luck, both in business and marriage! :)
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