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Y Combinator Failed Startups

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181–190 of 197 posts

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#181

"The Trump administration’s trade war with China resulted in a failed funding round led by a Chinese investor..." Is there another president that's so callous about small medium sized businesses?

Trump is trying to save Chinese children from slave labor, and you're here complaining about it.

I can't believe people like you enjoy the enslavement of children. Disgusting.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#182
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok sure but what was the implication you were trying to make?

Is it true that you worked with your brother behind-the-scenes so he could buy your failing startup? For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homejoy#Controversies

A 3rd party called Sherwood was brought on to wind down the company. This is common thing for a company to do when there are lots of assets to sell and loose ends to tie up. Everything from office furniture to domains to etc. They made all the decisions to sell what to who.

If anyone wants a startup idea, it's to make the inverse of Stripe Atlas. Closing down a company properly is a very long and complicated process.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but is the list really true (in an objective sense). I mean why didnt you act on it, or why was it only know afterwards. (Of course the list might contain a lot of unchangable items, but this would mean the startup was impossible)

One of the real bad ones is _more sales wouldn't have helped anyway_.

Yes, I realized some answer might be: we were too slow another company took the cake. But it is difficult to say what other people can learn from it (be swift is probably what everybody knows)

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#184
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true if you have a capital-intensive business, I will ask some of the toughest questions. I do this to figure out where you are in your journey of learning, not to find reasons to not accept you. In fact, we all take super-extra precaution to not over-learn from our own failures. And to be clear, I've invested in plenty of startups with similar models. But I understand your perception of how things went.

> In fact, we all take super-extra precaution to not over-learn from our own failures. I'm curious to hear more. How do you go about this?

I don't like the phrase too much but short answer is intellectual honesty. For example, understanding what went wrong that was probably because of your decisions versus the market, customers, external forces, etc.

There are far too many examples of founders succeeding with an idea after many people before them failed with same idea. I think any good investor is cognizant of this.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#185
post #28

Worth noting that the proximate cause of death is often times largely uninformative as to why the startup actually failed. Most failed startups fit into the following timeline: was burning more money than it was making => failed at raising more money => did a round of layoffs / cost cuts to get economics under control => couldn't right the ship and shut down / did a fire sale or acquihire But, the above timeline does…

> But, the above timeline doesn't teach you much about why the company really failed. I for one would like to see this table with the founders' average email response times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19375483

This reminds me of a comment by a YC partner:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20225078

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#186
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it true that you worked with your brother behind-the-scenes so he could buy your failing startup? For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homejoy#Controversies

A 3rd party called Sherwood was brought on to wind down the company. This is common thing for a company to do when there are lots of assets to sell and loose ends to tie up. Everything from office furniture to domains to etc. They made all the decisions to sell what to who. If anyone wants a startup idea, it's to make the inverse of Stripe Atlas. Closing down a company properly is a very long and complicated process.

This account doesn’t explain why your brother proceeded to misappropriated the startups database, and then terminated the rebranded startup once the wrongdoing was uncovered.

http://www.businessinsider.sg/aaron-cheung-brings-homejoy-cu...

I'm skeptical a neutral 3rd-party would advocate selling credit card data to a person planning an illegal scheme. Especially when that person is your own brother.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#187
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 3rd party called Sherwood was brought on to wind down the company. This is common thing for a company to do when there are lots of assets to sell and loose ends to tie up. Everything from office furniture to domains to etc. They made all the decisions to sell what to who. If anyone wants a startup idea, it's to make the inverse of Stripe Atlas. Closing down a company properly is a very long and complicated process.

This account doesn’t explain why your brother proceeded to misappropriated the startups database, and then terminated the rebranded startup once the wrongdoing was uncovered. http://www.businessinsider.sg/aaron-cheung-brings-homejoy-cu... I'm skeptical a neutral 3rd-party would advocate selling credit card data to a person planning an illegal scheme. Especially when that person is your own brother .

It seems you've made up your mind on what the narrative should be. So I'll just stop here for now.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with gkoberger, you're not considering the impact on individuals for whom a Google search of their name may in the future come up with "Biggest Y Combinator Failed Startups". At least take the founder names out of the section at the end dealing with the random smaller failures.

One of the companies on the list took consumer crowdfunding money from IndieGoGo and failed to deliver, and said IndieGoGo buyers "eventually stopped receiving communication" from the company. But one shouldn't mention the names of the founders because future crowdfunders being able to look them up for the purpose of due diligence and deciding whether to invest their hard-earned dollars in their next venture would be…

This applies to only 1 of the 5 companies named in the "Other Failed YC Startups" section. What about the founders of the other 4 companies there?

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#189
post #17

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.

Regardless of who stole the data, does it have to do fact that they are chinese? Ever wonder if something cultural going on here?

You can't post slurs like that here. I've banned this account.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the companies on the list took consumer crowdfunding money from IndieGoGo and failed to deliver, and said IndieGoGo buyers "eventually stopped receiving communication" from the company. But one shouldn't mention the names of the founders because future crowdfunders being able to look them up for the purpose of due diligence and deciding whether to invest their hard-earned dollars in their next venture would be…

This applies to only 1 of the 5 companies named in the "Other Failed YC Startups" section. What about the founders of the other 4 companies there?

Presumably, since failing in Silicon Valley is widely seen as a good thing, this should be seen as a step on the path to enlightenment.
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