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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?

#431

Post by stretchwithme »

r3vo wrote: post #378
the_clarence wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wou…

I think that's wise. I could have done that. I actually sort of insulted him and that was probably unnecessary.

But if I had expressed an opinion explicitly maybe there'd have been a debate. Probably just should have said "I can't agree with that, but you are entitled to your opinion."

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

#432

Post by haolez »

zeuslawyer wrote: post #178
haolez wrote: post #136

We wanted to create a routing app for bikes, which would take in consideration cliffs, dangerous streets and the likes. With our internal team, we’ve managed to create a killer backend that would do all the hard routing stuff without issues. It was better than Google Maps in most cases! Now, we just needed the app. We used all our money to pay a third party contractor to make the app, and they failed miserably. We ne…

I would love to see the backend open sourced as well, as I think this is something that could be quite unique to each country. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and biking safety is a big deal here - i ride everywhere. The uniqueness of each area would lend itself well to localisation via open source. I'm at zubin.pratap at gmail - do let me know!

I’m trying to squeeze in some time to do that. Will make sure to ping you if it happens.

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

#433

Post by shanghaiaway »

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…

>Why is bottled water a billion dollar business in the U.S. when the U.S. has the safest drinking water in the world? I am very sure it's not the product.

The product of bottled water is availability - being able to purchase anywhere and to bring it with you.

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

#434

Post by ak39 »

mahesh_rm wrote: post #61
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 light…

"Assume failure. Optimize for resiliency."

Printed and stuck on my desk. Thank you very much for this well-said wisdom.

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

#435

Post by ak39 »

RandyRanderson wrote: post #106
woogiewonka wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do we know which ones are irrational or how to find them? :)

I have this theory that ppl throw out crazy ides like the earth being flat or that there are giant apes living in the pacific northwest in order to find irrational consumers. If anything sticks, you've got one! Makes sense, right? If someone, say, actually believes the earth is flat, despite having access to the Internet, etc they must an imbecile. These are exactly the types of ppl that can easily be separated from…

Point well made. I could never put my energies behind something I knew to be false, dangerous, unhelpful or something I myself didn't believe in. Does it mean you have to be somewhat ethically and morally "flexible" to get going in startup land?

I am too scared to conclude anything about this lest I cement my mind into hopeless cynicism.

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

#436

Post by BadDebug »

sahil-kang wrote: post #62
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…

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

What is YCombinator's take for their 100k investment? Also, it seems like YCombinator sells businesses as a product, not product as a business. Like their marketing on the website is all geared to investing in a business, not investing in a product that leads to a business. That seems to be the 21st century trend. Can you explain this dichotomy in today's market? It seems kinda fake.

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

#437

Post by timdavila »

troydavis wrote: post #426

The gist: I wouldn’t try to sell SaaS/software to individuals. My business-oriented startups have been successful. My consumer-oriented one wasn’t (at least as a business), because I thought that people would be willing to pay some amount to save time or get more done. Turns out that even if a user states that an app saves them hours per month, the vast, vast majority won’t spend any amount of their own money for it.…

How do you feel about solo entrepreneur products that are solely for individuals? e.g. Pinboard, Tarsnap

Idea being purposefully stay small - keep costs down, so you don't need as many customers to succeed. My gut feeling is there is a sweet spot (likely below $20/year) where it's more of an "impulse buy" rather than a purchase that needs consideration.

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

#438

Post by lonelyperson777 »

tonyoconnell wrote: post #197
ttty wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what happened to the app, you sold it to somebody or just let it die?

I spent hours and hours, months and months, up all night trying to fix memory problems, that I wasn't qualified to fix. It was one of the darkest times in my life. Everyone I loved wouldn't speak to me because I wouldn't give up. Then one night when I couldn't take the loneliness anymore I deleted the server, local copies and backups and went to bed.

Hello I'm in the same situation. I'm now very lonely and depressed because I've been working on my startup alone for 2 years with no support. I'm also stuck on a problem which is very hard to solve. You said in the parent comment that you wouldn't give up. How do you keep going when you feel so lonely and miserable and you have anxiety attacks because you fear that you will get nowhere in life?

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

#439

Post by manigandham »

dragandj wrote: post #200
thanatos_dem wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily, nothing too exciting happened. We were operating in the financial tech space in Mexico, trying to make lending less comically predatory (a standard small business loan in Mexico can have close to the same interest rate as a payday loan in the US). With that goal in mind, we were targeting areas in Mexico that needed the most help. Cities with a decent small business sector, looking to grow, and having diffic…

Shouldn't that be a common knowledge in the area and work out as their competitive disadvantage? Provided that there are at least some competitors that are better for the customer?

It's not a simple disadvantage when the act of choosing another option invites the same violence against a customer.

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

#440

Post by tonyoconnell »

irishcoffee wrote: post #305
fortydegrees wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yeah, it ended about 6 years after that.
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