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My Startup Failed. Fuck.

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Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#71

Post by sskates »

mindcrime wrote: post #10

I'm sure it's painful, but thanks for sharing. I agree with cup, that reading about failures can be more valuable than reading about successes. If anything, your story adds more fuel to the fire for the approach that @sgblank advocates[1][2]. Get out of the building, talk to customers, validate customer needs, etc. We've been doing this, but - to be honest - we haven't done as good a job as we could. Hopefully we wil…

Startups repeatedly make the same mistake of not talking to customers enough and dying as a result.

One of the most helpful guides is to try to make a mistake in the other direction. Try to talk to your customers too much. No early stage startup ever died from talking to their customers too much.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#72

Post by ivix »

tiredofcareer wrote: post #59
dpolaske wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understandable, most Christian musicians where not excited about our slogan.

Well, that's a comment that betrays a lot about you and, potentially, why your startup failed.

Likely they are extremely young and can't conceive of why that is a terrible thing to put on a serious commercial site.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#73

Post by lancer383 »

tiredofcareer wrote: post #59
dpolaske wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understandable, most Christian musicians where not excited about our slogan.

Well, that's a comment that betrays a lot about you and, potentially, why your startup failed.

That and the landing page video — it was both cheesy, and patronizing to both musicians and their fans.

And after watching it I still don't understand the "decrease price by a dollar" pricing scheme.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#75

Post by mikeg8 »

ajross wrote: post #19
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.

This seems unkind. What data would you want? It's easy to jeer in hindsight, but frankly if focused and professional market research could reliably determine the existence of new markets there would be no need for a startup to find them . This very web site wouldn't exist. They played a hunch and lost. The linked post details lots of mistakes, but this particular one doesn't seem like one to me.

A cool idea does not equal a business model. That is why I think soooo many startups fail. They build something awesome, amazing, cool whatever, but they don;t stop to ask people, "Will you pay for this? Is this something you think I could charge for?" That is the data I WANT and need.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#76

Post by TylerE »

ajross wrote: post #19
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.

This seems unkind. What data would you want? It's easy to jeer in hindsight, but frankly if focused and professional market research could reliably determine the existence of new markets there would be no need for a startup to find them . This very web site wouldn't exist. They played a hunch and lost. The linked post details lots of mistakes, but this particular one doesn't seem like one to me.

People begging you to take their money.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#77

Post by astrojams »

It was a very successful failure. You are much more likely to succeed given what you learned from it. I'd say that it is a blessing in disguise and very much appreciate that you shared the experience with us.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#78

Post by mikeg8 »

Thank you for sharing your experience but to me, the whole post is about how you didn't really listen at all and built something that people didn't want, which ended up failing, yet you still learned a ton. I bet you learned something but did this experience really teach you a LOT? You don't mention any other learning experience in this post (you say you'll write more later) but somehow in the end, this failure was super insightful. I just don't see how... Sorry if that sounds negative. I wish all entrepreneurs success but the end of this article just fell flat for me.

Re: My Startup Failed. Fuck.

#79

Post by 3am »

dave_sullivan wrote: post #48
3am wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Regarding being ready to found a startup, I'll fall back on the Justice Stewart's line that, "I know it when I see it".

When I was a young kid, I had an idea that I was going to have a plant store (really. I had just learned about splitting African violets) that would have 'low price days' and 'high price days'. I swear. They idea was that people would be so grateful for the low price days that they would go to the high price days to help keep the place in business. This would have been an idiotic company.

You ask when the authors of the blog post should have given up vs persevere? I would say either when the drew up the business plan or after the beta when the found that people didn't like their product and that they couldn't execute on their idea.

I'm unromantic on this point. To me a startup is to make money (as a profitable business or on the exit), not find creative outlet or have a life experience. I'd rather see 20-somethings blow the ~$5K spent on EC2 hosting apps with fundamentally broken business models instead on (AirBnB) trips through Europe or South America and getting a little bit interesting as people first.

It's up to them, but (to avenger123's point) almost nobody is a Jobs, a Zuckerberg, or a Musk. Most startups fail. Plenty of YC class startups fail, and they're the winners of a highly selective process with access to unbelievable connections.

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