Worked with a bunch of ex Google employees who expected to write code and money pour in. This did not happen. A sales guy we hired warned us that at big companies you usually start developing sales materials and approaches years before launch.
Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
41–50 of 60 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#42I used a nosql database (Cosmosdb) when I should have used a relational database. The Azure cost plus the lost time in transitioning to SQL plus the cost involved in the implementation ran into embarrasingly debilitating six figures.
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#43Didn’t sell to a potential acquirer because it was an all stock deal. Acquirer itself got acquired a year later for a lot of money.
It's possible your acquirement could have changed the acquirer from getting bought out though
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#44This is from work over 30 years ago on our garden simulator by my wife and me. Being too ambitious (and perfectionist) at the start with product plans for software. Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) instead which prioritized essential needs would have engaged customers years sooner in our case and provided valuable feedback for deciding on future directions for new features or changes. A couple of people early…
Sorry, off topic but a garden simulator like animal crossing or garden simulator like planning a garden?
Because if it's the second one, please try again. There are ZERO user friendly garden planning software options that account for climate, soil type, partner plants, and rotation schedule.
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#45I once developed an app and a site before i really knew people would actually want to pay for it! rookie mistake! lesson learnt: don't make before you sell
I do the same thing! How do you find people who want your product before you make it? It's hard to get people to know about it without showing them something first. What if I don't have any distribution or social followings? P.S. I'm in the same boat.
1. Spend time with people/problems in $space
2. Recognize a $space shortcoming that users would pay to resolve
3. Start building
Bonus points if it's an area you're passionate about! But don't expect everything you're passionate about to solve a marketable problem.
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#46I can't give details over why I learned these lessons without dox'ing myself, even speaking in broadstrokes is hard and the actors are litigious. - Don't make your product hard to buy. - Don't take investments from a potential customer. Long story short, the key innovation was fiscal (looking to draw revenue from the real meat of the industry and not where it was traditionally placed in the supply chain), the tech wa…
I can definitely relate to this.
I worked at a startup where the founder learned this the hard way. We were trying to sell to government agencies. He insisted on a pricing model that meant we had to go through complex and expensive RFP processes.
We had potential customers come to us and tell us directly that they wanted to buy our product. They explained that with some adjustments to our pricing model, we could avoid the need for an RFP. The founder would not budge and we really struggled.
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#47Didn’t sell to a potential acquirer because it was an all stock deal. Acquirer itself got acquired a year later for a lot of money.
That just feels like applying random chance to your hindsight though. If they'd have bought you that deal might not have happened?
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#48amazon.com it was supposed to be a folksy, communal, whole-earth inspired bookstore that would interact synergistically with actual book stores and the rest of the world. instead, we built a fucking monster that is awesome for consumers and a nightmare for almost everybody else. sorry.
A few things have changed since you left, it has to be said! There is no need to apologize - you weren't involved in the later stuff.
Amazon has been wildly successful in most financial measures, so surely you can claim some bragging rights for that.
As a monster ... ... yes it is. Awesome for consumers? Perhaps. Nightmare for almost everyone else? Again - perhaps.
I'll drop this now, its a glass half full/empty type discussion and way too involved for now. I will suggest you might take pride in being in there at the start and having a hand in creating a unicorn that went full on pegasus.
Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#49amazon.com it was supposed to be a folksy, communal, whole-earth inspired bookstore that would interact synergistically with actual book stores and the rest of the world. instead, we built a fucking monster that is awesome for consumers and a nightmare for almost everybody else. sorry.
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Re: Ask HN: What was your biggest startup fail?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can't find people before you make it, then you won't find them after you make it either. Which makes this an excellent question. Indeed perhaps the most important question to ask before you build anything. Too many programmers subscribe to the school of "if you build it through will come'. (Hint: that's not how it works.) Firstly you don't have to show anything to potential customers, (and even when you have i…
This is actually a really informative answer! This quote really stod out tho: If you can't find people before you make it, Then you won't find them after you make it either. literly every time i just wasted money in business was because i didn't work by this quote!
“The mom test” is an amazing book for this exact problem