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My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

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Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#141

Post by McDoku »

jacquesm wrote: post #82

> I had to fly back to Australia to get a working visa as soon as the funding paperwork was signed, and the next day my two “co-founders” decided to tell me they were leaving the company without even a hint of warning. Hindsight and all that. But still, don't just take on anybody as co-founder, easy come, easy go. Super tough to read all this, I'm really sorry your hard work did not work out but you've done all that…

I have to agree. Co-founders suck. Everyone wants to talk and to have people look up to you. To imagine that one day you will rule the world.

The truth is that creating anything new in this world is a bag of hammers. Glory comes from the stupid, respect from the learned.

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#142

Post by XorNot »

So I remember hearing about 99dresses in the Australian press, and this write up does leave me wondering the same thing I was wondering at the time:

Was the product ever successful in Australia?

Fully 20% of Australia's entire population is concentrated in Sydney alone - what was the expected total market (for a product heavily invested in shipping physical items) that didn't work here that there was a need to, apparently, move so quickly and wholly into the US?

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#143

Post by balls187 »

nostromo wrote: post #137

Sometimes I wonder how non-technical founders can sleep at night with all the stress. It elevates cofounder risk to a single point of failure for the entire company. Seeing through "developer bullshitting" is a dark art that is hard to master without spending a bit of time as a developer.

> Seeing through "developer bullshitting" is a dark art that is hard to master without spending a bit of time as a developer.

Or figure out how to get a technical co-founder you trust.

Developer Bullshit is a people problem, and if you have that problem, no amount of dark-art mastery will help your company survive.

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#145

Post by balls187 »

mindcrime wrote: post #54

One thing Nikki has going for her is that she's young. At 22 and already having the experience she's had, she has a great opportunity to learn from those lessons, tap into the network she's built, and ultimately do something great. I love the aggressiveness and the spunk she clearly has. Looking back on my own life (I'm one of the "older crowd" in HN terms), I wish I'd been that ambitious at that age. Or, maybe ambit…

Flipside, if she started 99dresses at age 32, would it have failed for the same reasons?

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#146

Post by nish1500 »

Your story is mostly about you not getting a VISA, getting back-stabbed by people, spending 2 months fund-raising, media coverage, personal issues, your age, your gender. There is hardly anything about why the startup failed.

But maybe the article isn't about the startup - it's about the emotional ride. Maybe that's why a lot of startups fail - they get so involved with other things, it's not about the startup anymore.

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#147

Post by borplk »

[deleted] wrote: post #144
ridruejo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a lot of courage to write a post like the one she did. It is much easier to criticize her from a throwaway HN account. Why don't you back up your criticism with a real identity?

[deleted]

Green has nothing to do with YC batch. It means it's a new account.

Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like

#149

Post by voltagex_ »

chong7 wrote: post #106
iD3 wrote: post #58

22 is so young. At 21 I was on a plane headed home from another country. I cried in the office. I cried on the plane home. We'd Burned almost half a million dollars, a couple of years of work, let go a team - and had nothing to show for it. With no degree, no more money and no job I moved back in with parents. So I suppose this article resonates, and in the most literal sense - I've been there. I think the hardest th…

22 is young. yeah, when kids in other countries can't even get food , walk 10km for glass of water we are wasting money on these so called , self proclaimed "start up" people and promote such behavior.

Dude, every single post you've made in this thread is negative.

Yes, hardship is relative. Yes, hardship in a first world country is relatively easy (compared to your example)

Some of these startups are targetting the developing world - if it takes a few fashion startups to get there, so be it. You don't know what Nikki's second, third, fourth or fifth venture will be.

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