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Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

etacts.com

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Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#51

Post by paraschopra »

angelbob wrote: post #37
paraschopra wrote: post #32

I am amazed how such a small team can use $650k of funding in just 6-7 months. Can anyone comment? Though I would love to see a detailed postmortem post on this.

Partly they're amazing guys. If you talked to them, you'd understand some of how they managed. All that stuff PG talks about -- utter confidence, and projecting "we're going to succeed and change the world," like it was just going to happen with you or without you? They were really good at that.

I think you misunderstood me. I did not ask how they raised $650k. I asked how they used up all this money in 6 months. (Assuming they are shutting down and have no money left)

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#53

Post by Alex3917 »

gnok wrote: post #50
Alex3917 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startups don't fail due to a lack of funding or visibility; that's pretty much the default.

Hmm. That's interesting. I can think of many products that failed essentially because no one heard of them and not because they were too expensive. I guess I didn't think too much before applying this analogy to startups. Could you cite some interesting examples of startup failures worth reading about?

"I can think of many products that failed essentially because no one heard of them and not because they were too expensive."

Products don't fail because no one has heard of them, they fail because no one buys them. It's your job to go out and find customers; waiting for people to hear about you isn't a strategy, it's a 100% guaranteed way to fail.

Real entrepreneurs figure out their customer acquisition strategy before designing and building their product. Those who do it the other way around aren't entrepreneurs, they're just hobbyists. Read Four Steps to the Epiphany, Crossing the Chasm, Bootstrappers Bible, etc.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#54

Post by axod »

joshu wrote: post #48
axod wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I've said it before but: don't invest in companies raising too little. They will fail." I presume that by 'they will fail', you mean that the company will fail to make your required ROI as an investor, being acquired for millions? At first read it seems like you're saying that unless you raise a ton of money you can't build a successful profitable business... IMHO Newslabs failed because it was a terrible idea, no…

I mean that it will go out of business. Venture backed companies raise mone because they have have some significant buildout to complete before they can got market. Raise too little and the chances of reaching that point are too small. Additionally, if a startup cannot attract a certain amount of interest from investors, that is a big hint, too. Note that didn't say how much that minimum is. You are making assumption…

Thanks for clarifying. VC backed startups seem like a whole different world.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#55

Post by gnok »

Alex3917 wrote: post #53
gnok wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. That's interesting. I can think of many products that failed essentially because no one heard of them and not because they were too expensive. I guess I didn't think too much before applying this analogy to startups. Could you cite some interesting examples of startup failures worth reading about?

"I can think of many products that failed essentially because no one heard of them and not because they were too expensive." Products don't fail because no one has heard of them, they fail because no one buys them. It's your job to go out and find customers; waiting for people to hear about you isn't a strategy, it's a 100% guaranteed way to fail. Real entrepreneurs figure out their customer acquisition strategy befo…

Thanks much! For me (a hobbyist looking to be an entrepreneur), your response was spot on.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#56

Post by joshu »

axod wrote: post #54
joshu wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean that it will go out of business. Venture backed companies raise mone because they have have some significant buildout to complete before they can got market. Raise too little and the chances of reaching that point are too small. Additionally, if a startup cannot attract a certain amount of interest from investors, that is a big hint, too. Note that didn't say how much that minimum is. You are making assumption…

Thanks for clarifying. VC backed startups seem like a whole different world.

Well, raising money = venture backed.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#57

Post by vietor »

One of the reasons I'm leery of using products made by startups, in addition to the risk of them failing, sometimes when they succeed you lose just as much as if they'd failed.

We got burned pretty bad with a product a few years ago when our payment provider was acquired and basically just shutdown without providing any means of migrating. It was a subscription based data service and half of our customers canceled because they no longer trusted us with their data after we "lost" their payment information and they had to re-enter it.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#58

Post by haploid »

joshu wrote: post #38
angelbob wrote: post #24

That's deeply unfortunate. I loved you guys on demo day. Based on my choices, apparently I shouldn't try more angel investment. I was an investor in NewsLabs. This would have been another "yeah, let's invest" choice if they were interested (they weren't). I think I may have picked the two first to close up shop.

I didn't realize you were angel investing, Noah. Drop me a line. NewsLabs wasn't raising enough money, so I didn't even consider it. I've said it before but: don't invest in companies raising too little. They will fail.

Interesting perspective on "raising too little". I was previously unaware that all bootstrapped companies fail.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) Shutting Down

#59

Post by yoseph »

mikeknoop wrote: post #46
mikeknoop wrote: post #12

"We will remain fully operational during the transition" Transitioning from operational to shut down...? That's odd word choice.

Aha! http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/salesforce-buys-email-conta...

Did I read that correctly? Ashton Kutcher is an angel investor?
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