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The Truth about a Failing Startup

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Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#41

Post by demione »

orangethirty wrote: post #9

Been there, done that. You know what? Failure is just an event. Its not you. You havent lost your "touch", because there wasnt one to lose from the start. You just got lucky. It didnt work out. Now, understand that being average is OK, and pretty awesome too. So you didnt hit it big, but you had an average run. You did not become Instagram, but you had average sales. You made average money and had average success. Ag…

I do believe this reply has OP's best intentions in mind, but I find it to be a bit fatalistic. OP may very well have "the touch", it just may be that this particular venture wasn't the right opportunity for that to shine through. My point is, noone can tell you how far you will or will not go in life; a single failure is a data point, sure, but only one among many. If OP wants to go on continue being an entrepreneur, he should learn from his mistakes, dust himself off, and go at it again if he can find the opportunity.

Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#43

Post by orangethirty »

demione wrote: post #41
orangethirty wrote: post #9

Been there, done that. You know what? Failure is just an event. Its not you. You havent lost your "touch", because there wasnt one to lose from the start. You just got lucky. It didnt work out. Now, understand that being average is OK, and pretty awesome too. So you didnt hit it big, but you had an average run. You did not become Instagram, but you had average sales. You made average money and had average success. Ag…

I do believe this reply has OP's best intentions in mind, but I find it to be a bit fatalistic. OP may very well have "the touch", it just may be that this particular venture wasn't the right opportunity for that to shine through. My point is, noone can tell you how far you will or will not go in life; a single failure is a data point, sure, but only one among many. If OP wants to go on continue being an entrepreneur…

Thats what I meant, but you put it in a nicer manner. Thanks!

Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#45

Post by davidedicillo »

j45 wrote: post #35
mrchess wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 25 I lost more than $20,000 of my own and FFF money investing in my own project only to have it fail. At the time I was obviously, really upset. Fast forward to today -- looking back it was one of the greatest investments in my life so far as all the stuff I learned both emotionally, psychologically and professionally has really helped with current work and life. I used to think losing money was a big deal…

It sounded like you supported what the original commenter said, not to worry about investors. Having a slack attitude towards money (our own money or others) doesn't build a business or an understanding of value that ultimately ends in a revenue stream. It's nice of you to share you story -- I don't think many folks do. I have similar experiences (good and bad), but I think the one thing that really stands out for me…

> Having a slack attitude towards money (our own money or others) doesn't build a business or an understanding of value that ultimately ends in a revenue stream.

Of course you need to value other people's money, but when they gave you they money they know that there were higher chances to fails than to succeed. If you did 100% of what you could have done, you have done your job. If it was easy everyone would do it.

Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#46

Post by davidbanham »

j45 wrote: post #13
mrchess wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Part of the job of being an investor is to balance your portfolio, and losses are to be expected. Such a world doesn't exist where investments are risk free. There are many entrepreneurs who have raised again from VCs even after they didn't make it from their first raise. As long as you tried your hardest, there isn't much else more you can do. Keep at it.

OOC, Have either of you built and lost others money from investors as well as lost your own?

I got pretty freaked out about playing with other people's money when we first took on investment. On discussing it with one of the lead investors, his response was "If all of this goes wrong, my children will still have shoes on their feet."

Your investors would not be investors if the failure of any one of their investments would create an insufferable financial burden upon them. If that statement is not true about a particular investor, that's their fault and not yours.

Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#47

Post by ux-app »

... having a team of investors believe in you, only to let them down is an incredibly difficult thing to deal with.

don't beat yourself up about this. Any investment is a risk, and any mature investor will be well aware of the high failure rate for start-ups.

Most businesses fail. That doesn't reflect negatively on you, it's simply the nature of business.

Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup

#48

Post by davidbanham »

Try and disassociate your sense of self from the wellbeing of your company. If your company fails, you continue to be a multifaceted human being with many other successes and failures ahead of you.

Try and let your friends and family know what's going on. Give them a chance to support you in your tough times exactly the same way you would want to support them. Also, it will make it much easier to tell them if the company does fail.

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