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Y Combinator Failed Startups

failory.com

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Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#11

Post by ghaff »

quartz wrote: post #5

Interesting that two of these (three if you count Unicorn Rides which is a note within Boosted) are hardware companies and both were a result of the recent tariff war with China. I've always known startups are hard but it seems that hardware startups, even when they appear to be on a rocketship trajectory, are nigh impossible.

Hardware is often a lot more capital intensive, harder to get to an MVP, and, these days, often requires software in addition to hardware.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#13

Post by tpurves »

pvorb wrote: post #8

Anyone else thought that the list of failed startups starts with NerdPilots? That ad is a little misplaced.

I didn't realize it wasn't first on yhe list until I read your post! I though to myself, of course, why would YC fund a contract development shop, such a wrong model for VC no wonder they must have failed.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#15

Post by rdw »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #9

"The Trump administration’s trade war with China resulted in a failed funding round led by a Chinese investor, which put the company in dire straits financially. " Trump is a convenient scapegoat here but in no way related to why they failed. Meta was headed to guardianship not long after the Meta2 was released. Overall Meta was just a poor experience with basically zero traction. They changed their hardware approach…

Many startups are on their deathbed before finally succeeding. A famous example is Fred Smith, FedEx founder, gambling the company's last $5k, in order to come up with $24k for a deadline[1]. Had the cards come up differently, or a political wind had made gambling illegal, FedEx would have failed, and someone would have been able to say that logistics was "a hard market to succeed or even just stay alive in", and even be correct! The casino (or lack thereof) would have been a "convenient scapegoat". But it doesn't change the fact that having the chance to have these kinds of lucky turnarounds seem to play a pivotal role in a lot of success stories.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/fedex-saved-from-bankruptcy-...

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#16

Post by cyrux004 »

moron4hire wrote: post #10

That's not why Meta failed. Meta failed because their product was garbage.

I will have to agree. The tarrif war accelerated their demise; but there product was far from ready. Infact the CEO of Meta said at some point said that employees will be required to shift from monitors to using Meta and they werent able to reach that goal because their tech (or AR in general) wasnt there

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#17

Post by knes »

How can you make a list of failed yc companies and not mention homejoy?

$66m raised, bad operations, bas unit economics, lawsuits and an abrupt shutdown.

All of that after being the calley darling for so long.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#20

Post by lnsru »

ghaff wrote: post #11
quartz wrote: post #5

Interesting that two of these (three if you count Unicorn Rides which is a note within Boosted) are hardware companies and both were a result of the recent tariff war with China. I've always known startups are hard but it seems that hardware startups, even when they appear to be on a rocketship trajectory, are nigh impossible.

Hardware is often a lot more capital intensive, harder to get to an MVP, and, these days, often requires software in addition to hardware.

And that’s the reasons why all the capital sources avoid hardware startups as hard as they can. It’s like betting for a 10x slower horse than the rest.
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