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My Startup Failed. Fuck.

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Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#41

Post by nobodysfool »

r00fus wrote: post #25
mikecane wrote: post #13

"Dynamic pricing" -- does anyone really like that? I've seen reports of online booksellers (no, not Amazon) giving people different prices based on the account they use. No one really likes to feel like a sucker. EDIT to add: Some people might bring up airline tickets or hotel rooms. Limited analog inventory, not infinite digital inventory.

It's also called value-based pricing [1]. You're correct in your edit, hotels/airline tickets where you're auctioning off a limited value is one thing, selling a inexhaustible commodity at different rates without any reasonable factor like location (water in a desert = more valuable) just feels dishonest. Amazon and Travelocity rightfully caught a lot of flack when they were caught trying this (perhaps pricing A/B te…

Yes, perhaps it would feel dishonest, but think about it for a bit, you are a musician, and you want your music heard. So you give out your music for free. Later, people want to support you, so you start selling at $1. Now you are getting play on the radio, whatever - you are hot now. Bump that price up automatically to $5 or whatever and get paid because your value increases.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#42

Post by dopamean »

delluminatus wrote: post #5
minimaxir wrote: post #2

So we talked to a few artists who said they thought it was a cool idea. BOOM! Our idea had been validated! Why was that sufficient data to justify spending months and months of your life bringing this startup to fruition? EDIT: I did not intend to make a sly insult toward the author. I've seen people do startups with similar justifications and I am confused.

The post was clearly meant to be firmly tongue-in-cheek. That part in particular was simply self-deprecating sarcasm.

Exactly. Sometimes when you think your idea is good all you need is one or two other people to tell you they think its good and that's it: it's a good idea. How did Instagram come to the conclusion that their idea was a good idea? Or any other startup for that matter. If Zillionears turned out to be a success no one would have thought that having a few people say "good idea" in the beginning was insufficient to get started.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#44

Post by anigbrowl »

Ouch. One thing that leaped out at me was your mention that the first beta was a disaster because it didn't comply with Amazon's payment-processor requirements, so you burned a lot of capital making good on your promises. This sort of thing is why I keep saying more startups need a legal person on board early on - and with a surplus of underemployed JDs around, now is a great time to work that into your team plan.

Lawyers are not just there to object to things and make life difficult for dreamers, they're there to spot major potential pitfalls like this and steer around them. Far too many entrepreneurially-minded people see contractual and statutory constraints as some sort of obstacle course designed solely to prevent competition or enterprise, and react to said constraints by simply wishing them away. I was impressed that your reaction to this problem was to pay everyone as promised and retool your application to be compliant with Amazon's requirements, rather than simply blaming them for your problems. A hard lesson to learn, but one which will put you ahead of the pack in future.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#45

Post by thisisrobv »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #38
danenania wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the difficulty of knowing when (or when not) to quit is that opportunity lurks even inside failure. My first startup attempt was a coaching marketplace and community for poker players. My co-founder and I were both successful professional poker players and coaches at the time, but we were young (20ish) and all but clueless about technology. I still think the market opportunity was there, but we hired…

Startups often live on the cusp of 'other people think we should quit but we're not going to!' I appreciated these sorts of posts because they are illustrative. The only thing to be bothered by is if you don't find anything to learn from the experience.

I feel like this is a point that is often lost. It's why being an entrepreneur is such a huge risk.

You have to be stubborn enough to succeed in a world where the majority of people will tell you you're going to fail, you have to ignore all that.

Often times however, you do fail.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#46

Post by avenger123 »

3am wrote: post #40
cup wrote: post #3

Reading about failures can be more illuminating and educational than reading about success. It's interesting to see how you reached a number of gateways where you could have terminated but instead continued to pursue your goals/dreams (despite going against what many would consider the logical conclusion to close). I wonder how many other business have adopted that strategy (of ignoring initial reduced interest in yo…

So, I guess I'll be the wet blanket here. It's pretty clear to me reading this that this person and their partner were nowhere near ready to found a startup. It highlighted the potential benefits for some people of getting a corporate(ish) job, learning about the business world, and learning the trade a little more before trying to starting a company. It's like the demotivator for "Mistakes", this is probably best as…

You know, I respectfully really disagree with you.

Based on the blog, I get the sense that the founders are in their early twenties. At that age, no one is "ready" for a startup.

I doubt that Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, etc. were ready to start their company.

At that age, you just do it, since the risks are low.

Unless your parents are wealthy or you have access to a lot of money, at that age its unlikely that a lot of money is on the line. Sure, they "wasted" time on this startup but this is valuable for the next company they will build.

Also, if there was a lot of money involved (and it wasn't their's) its likely that the business would not have gone as far as stakeholders would have wanted validation.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#47

Post by seivan »

anigbrowl wrote: post #44

Ouch. One thing that leaped out at me was your mention that the first beta was a disaster because it didn't comply with Amazon's payment-processor requirements, so you burned a lot of capital making good on your promises. This sort of thing is why I keep saying more startups need a legal person on board early on - and with a surplus of underemployed JDs around, now is a great time to work that into your team plan. La…

Would they work for equity? Sorry I couldn't help myself :) /developer.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#48

Post by dave_sullivan »

3am wrote: post #40
cup wrote: post #3

Reading about failures can be more illuminating and educational than reading about success. It's interesting to see how you reached a number of gateways where you could have terminated but instead continued to pursue your goals/dreams (despite going against what many would consider the logical conclusion to close). I wonder how many other business have adopted that strategy (of ignoring initial reduced interest in yo…

So, I guess I'll be the wet blanket here. It's pretty clear to me reading this that this person and their partner were nowhere near ready to found a startup. It highlighted the potential benefits for some people of getting a corporate(ish) job, learning about the business world, and learning the trade a little more before trying to starting a company. It's like the demotivator for "Mistakes", this is probably best as…

Hmmm, not sure about that.

I mean, it's clear to me that their startup failed. But "nowhere near ready to found a startup"? What does that even mean? Where do I get my secret decoder badge of startup readiness exactly?

Reading through it, I saw and empathized with their mistakes--they decided they'd found validation before they really had. They kept it going too long. They ignored the writing on the wall for too long. But aren't those always the tough questions? When should a founder give up versus persevere? It's not a straightforward answer and as a business owner I find it frustrating when I see people (particularly other business owners) suggest it is.

Bottom line though--everyone needs to decide for themselves if they want to go into business for themselves. But are they "ready"? Who the hell knows? There isn't a list of required skills and credentials for this position.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#49

Post by andrewcooke »

More importantly though, people really didn’t really LIKE anything about our product. No one that used the service thought it was that cool. In fact, some people that participated in the sale didn’t even like our “dynamic pricing” system. They were trying to support the artist, so saving a few dollars didn’t excite them. They could easily have just gotten his music for free elsewhere.

i am one of those people. why do so many bands have such a minimal online presence that i cannot even buy a t-shirt? surely these days it should be trivial for any band to create a store with some basic items generated from a few uploaded images. there are people out here looking for something cool to buy to give back money for what we just heard... even stickers are nice.

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