I know failure success. You just have to deal with it.
Sometimes it's so hard that you have lock yourself in your room cry, and curse the world. That's fine.
That's just something you have to go through on your road to success.
My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
201–210 of 273 posts
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#202Thanks for being so raw and honest about this - even the less glamorous parts. It isn't easy to talk honestly about issues like gendered expectations and approaching VC, black hat marketing, or emotional manipulation for Visa, and a lot of people would have chosen to gloss over those aspects, but it takes a lot of guts to be upfront about the darker sides of running your company. Reading this, it confirmed an importa…
> Reading this, it confirmed an important lesson that I learned in a completely different setting (grad school). It's much, much better to do an impossible project with an excellent mentor and fantastic coworkers, than an easy project full of low hanging fruits with colleagues you can't stand.
This really is a vital lesson, but can be difficult to learn. After the first startup I was in folded I helped found another with some of the same people, because I believed we were a good team that could go somewhere. Quite soon after we pivoted from an interesting problem to 'low-hanging fruit', and the team dynamics began to change rapidly, in a way that prevented progress (suddenly there was a lot of ego). It quickly became clear that things were untenable, so I left. Since leaving everything has pointed to it being the only correct choice. I still made the mistake of trusting them to tie up financials properly. Things can degrade faster than your loyalties account for, but you can pick yourself up and learn from it.
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey Andrew, I actually glossed over that out of respect for the 2 guys. My purpose was not to bitch about them, and many people who will read this post in my network will know who I'm talking about. There were mistakes made on both sides, but in the end I bent over backwards to accomodate them and as soon as YC was over and they could say they were YC founders they bailed. I'm not saying its entirely their fault - I…
I think it's great that you take the high road and don't resort to dragging other people through the mud. You definitely seem to place the responsibility all on yourself, which I imagine is not always the full truth. Not providing any reason at all, actually makes it sound as if the two co-founders just randomly and completely bailed on you. (Which may be exactly the truth) I was trying to imagine a logical scenario,…
Hacking learning institutions 101:
Step 1: Learn about their interview process
Step 2: Interview well and make it in
Step 3: Quit after a fair amount of time due to some plausible reason
Step 4: Carry around the signaling benefits of having attended the learning institution, without any of the pressure of finishing the course
This method has been successfully practised by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and quite possibly, the 99dresses cofounders.
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#204I met Nikki while I lived at a Hacker House in Mountain View for a few weeks in January 2012, having recently moved to the Bay Area. I remember being impressed at the time by her intensity, and by the fact that she actually had a real product with real users that solved a real problem. An audible "oh no" came out of my lips when I clicked this link and realized I was reading about someone I had shared a few dinners w…
> "... but it's important to remember that it's all just a game. What's most important is that we are good too each other, and ourselves." These things are easy to say for a very rich guy.
Your personal health and well being are much more important than your startup that just failed, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time. Nothing will teach you that faster than losing your health or talking with people who have.
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#205I met Nikki while I lived at a Hacker House in Mountain View for a few weeks in January 2012, having recently moved to the Bay Area. I remember being impressed at the time by her intensity, and by the fact that she actually had a real product with real users that solved a real problem. An audible "oh no" came out of my lips when I clicked this link and realized I was reading about someone I had shared a few dinners w…
> "... but it's important to remember that it's all just a game. What's most important is that we are good too each other, and ourselves." These things are easy to say for a very rich guy.
Doesn't make it false though. Perhaps the opinion of someone who's "got there" and looks back counts for something more - in some cases - than that of someone early in their journey.
I'd rather this than "Yep - it's all just about the money" anyway...
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#206Well written. One thing I always find funny about the startup world is the idea that hardship is good. Hardship isn't good. Hardship sucks. Sometimes hardship is something you need to survive to accomplish your goals, but not always. While there are a lot of successful startups that went through a lot of hardship, there are a lot of them that didn't. It seems that based on a lot of factors that were outside of your c…
Hardship in itself is crap. Hardship that leads somewhere might kinda be good in retrospect, maybe. The startup world seems intent on getting people to buy into the idea that all hardship is that sort of hardship.
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#207[deleted]
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#208I met Nikki while I lived at a Hacker House in Mountain View for a few weeks in January 2012, having recently moved to the Bay Area. I remember being impressed at the time by her intensity, and by the fact that she actually had a real product with real users that solved a real problem. An audible "oh no" came out of my lips when I clicked this link and realized I was reading about someone I had shared a few dinners w…
I'm kinda failing to see the failure here. Yes, the business failed, but this reads like a fairy tale. Support from family and friends, investor backing, media coverage - all while failing to make a dime.
Try running a successful and rapidly growing business for 8 years while everyone around you tells you you're a crazy fucking idiot and that you should give up and get a job. No investor interest as we make money, which investors hate. That's failure.
I am a crazy idiot. I keep coming back for more. I will lose my mind before this is over. I am a failure.
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#209This is a "fail story" that stuck with me -- wish I'd been able to suggest it when you were looking for stories similar to your own!
http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/05/02/startups-are-hard.html
Also here are some Mixergy.com interviews that I've enjoyed from failed entrepreneurs:
http://mixergy.com/interviews/adyin-mirzaee-fluidware-interv...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/chris-snook-no-limit-publishin...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/rene-eric-forecast-interview/
http://mixergy.com/interviews/dean-soukeras-computergiants-i...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/mark-bowness-tribewanted-inter...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/james-altucher-failseries-inte...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/eric-ingram-redtagcrazy-interv...
http://mixergy.com/interviews/sebastian-replanski-search-to-...
This is with Chad who's posted I started with:
http://mixergy.com/interviews/etzel-notifo-interview/
And, finally, if I were leaving New York, I'd listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t4i7frhNUs
Hope you're feeling better and looking forward to seeing you sometime 'round Fishburners :)
Re: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like
#210Hey Nikki. Have you thought about learning how to code?
It's really never as hard as it seems to be. If you had a business model and some level of revenues then you might be able to sustain yourself financially, run everything yourself and keep it going maybe!?
Probably too late for that kind of advice though. But I believe a start up dies if you give it up. But you don't have to let it if you don't want to. Sometimes that's the most reasonable thing to do, but you don't always have to.
I'm in the same case as you. I had to let go of all my employees, Couldn't pay them anymore. And I'm now the only one on board doing all the code, design, marketing and everything. I'm just too stubborn to give up and I still believe in what we do 100%. (Damn I still say 'we' I mean 'I'. Just a reflex) I do feel your pain. But my best advice is to try to learn how to code and sketch things yourself. With all the skills that you accumulated you'll be able to create prototype rapidly, be less dependable and bounce back rapidly and next time you'll be fearless. Food for thoughts ;-) I wish you the all the best for your next adventures.