Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#1

Post by red_flags_q » Mon, May 27, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#2

Post by rosencrantz » Mon, May 27, 2019, 4:59 PM UTC

Because 60 % of the people were managers?

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#3

Post by sent00001 » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

No product market fit. Poor cashflow management which caused us to run out of money before finding PMF.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#4

Post by zuckburger » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:03 PM UTC

We couldn't raise money on time and our CEO was not the best at sales and hiring.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#5

Post by netborn » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

rosencrantz wrote: post #2

Because 60 % of the people were managers?

Whereas this may be a common reason for failure, we failed because we were all engineers. Nobody with management/sales experience on the team!

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#6

Post by citrablue » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

We built a huge dataset that we thought could be usedfor supply chain management, but the only successful p/m fit was by putting it on the web and putting ads on it. Even when we got to 5 figures/mo in ad revenue, we insisted on a different model.

So we ignored the thing that was working in favor of our "vision".

Ended up in an acquihire for garbage money.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#7

Post by perfect_loop » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

citrablue wrote: post #6

We built a huge dataset that we thought could be usedfor supply chain management, but the only successful p/m fit was by putting it on the web and putting ads on it. Even when we got to 5 figures/mo in ad revenue, we insisted on a different model. So we ignored the thing that was working in favor of our "vision". Ended up in an acquihire for garbage money.

I don't blame you. It's super hard to balance vision and market pull.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#8

Post by mtmail » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

Apple store changed their terms of service. We were lucky pre-launch and haven't invested too much time. Another startup with 6 people (future competitor?) closed their shop shortly after.

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#9

Post by red_flags_q » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:27 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #8

Apple store changed their terms of service. We were lucky pre-launch and haven't invested too much time. Another startup with 6 people (future competitor?) closed their shop shortly after.

Sorry to hear that. This happened to a friend's startup too :(

Re: Ask HN: Why did your startup fail?

#10

Post by serbiruss » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

Welp, we raised too much money and didn't live up to expectations. When I say didn't "live up" I mean we realllllyyyy didn't hit those numbers. It was a downwards spiral from there...