Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#121

Post by Swizec » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 1:39 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #113

In the early 2000s with a few friends together I founded and ran a web development startup in Germany. Because I had been consulting for advertising agencies since high school, building a service company for agencies seemed like the natural thing to do. Afterall, it was the kind of customers I understood well, and my cofounders were enthusiastic about the concept, too. Despite doing every single conceivable thing wro…

> after the startup there is a bleakness to a "normal" lifestyle I could never quite shake off

"Running a company would make you perfect for any conceivable job were it not for the fact you'll never want one again."

Not sure where I read that, but it sounds true. I am being gently pushed into job life by circumstance after 5 or 6 years of independent life (startup ~2 years, school ~1 year, freelancing ~2 years) and getting hired, even just talking about the possibility of a job job, feels like losing.

But alas, freelancers do not get visas so I will just have to suck it up.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#122

Post by molsongolden » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:09 PM UTC

clamprecht wrote: post #57

n_coats wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is patagonia? Heard the wifi isn't so abundant there.. Congrats, I hope to make it there one day!

Internet is generally slower, there is no 4G yet. Wifi is actually pretty common it seems, but I'm in a fairly popular part of Patagonia right now (San Martin de Los Andes and Bariloche). Tomorrow I'm driving South towards a town called El Chaltén, where there is apparently NO cell coverage, because the people who live there don't want it. I'll have to depend on Wifi 100% there. Aside from Internet coverage, Patagoni…

Are you climbing?? You're right in the thick of it.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#123

Post by jkent » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:14 PM UTC

In the late 90s, I started a cloud-type hosting provider, with an angel round $100k+, dropping out of university. The dotcom crash happened and raising more money became near impossible. I was inexperienced and tried to do everything myself, and hired the wrong people.

I morphed it in to a web development business that did OK, then worked out it was easier working for someone else (got my life-work balance better) - in a VC-backed startup that ultimately got acquired.

I left to finish my degree. Got confused for a year and did a bit of sales. Then another startup that I couldn't get off the ground (services marketplace) - perhaps insanely ambitious.

Then I trained as a teacher (forgot that), teaching inner city kids how to add up.

I now work at Google in partnerships, where I am largely happy, married, get to travel a lot - and occasionally still 'get the itch' ...

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#124

Post by jfb » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:26 PM UTC

rayleoni wrote: post #76

jfb wrote: post #19

I ran out of gas and left my cofounder; divorced; worked a succession of small startup jobs, some better than others; ended up back at Apple. I have ideas that I cannot express at Apple and so may end up taking another whack at the piñata, now that a) I am not in the throes of a crumbling personal relationship and b) I've gone round the carousel once, so I have some idea how the world works. I regret the way I left m…

Can you give a few quick takeaways from your experiences concerning 'how the world works?'

The raise and the kabuki around it is at the very best a necessary evil -- bring your own capital on board if at all possible.

Having raised, you are under no obligation to do what your angels want you to do -- at the size we were, we spent a totally disproportionate amount of time sucking up to the Angels rather than just getting on with it.

Don't pivot to something that nobody wants to work on, simply because the investors want you to.

If you're in business with a friend, make sure you both have comparable skin in the game -- I could float off because I hadn't relocated my family from a different continent. And I lost a friend because of the way I behaved -- much, much worse than losing investor cash.

Don't be pie in the sky flakes about which color your M5 is going to be.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#125

Post by _wp3r » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:28 PM UTC

LogicX wrote: post #61

Had a startup in Boston that went through TechStars 2010 (third startup) - got funded, fizzled on customer growth. Now in Myrtle Beach, SC building a startup community with Startup.SC ( http://Startup.SC ) and promoting an alternative place to do tech through http://WhyNotTheBeach.com . Also working remotely hacking websites (InfoSec). Looking forward to doing another startup once I build up support network, angel in…

WhyNotTheBeach could get some good buy in from the other towns like MB. Daytona, Wilmington, Panama City, Pensacola, Destin, numerous others. Pool resources from the Chambers of Commerce and what not for decent advertising and recruiting. Anyways, great concept.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#126

Post by agotterer » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

My co-founder and I started an ecommerce analytics company. We self funded (minus a small accelerator investment towards the end). The tech was hard and took us much longer to bulild then expected. We felt we were finally heading in the right direction towards the end but we're running low on money and gas.

We spent 6 weeks shopping the software around in attempts to get acquihired. We ended up with two interested companies after talking to about 15. One made a small offer for the tech and generous offers for us to join the company, the other made just generous offers and wasn't interested in the tech. My partner and I didn't see eye to eye on the offers and were able to convince both companies to take us separately.

Three months later we were introd to a company that wanted to buy the tech and didn't need us to come along with the deal. It wasn't the huge exit we had once hoped for, but it brought some closure and the product lives on.

After a promotion 2 months after joining I'm leading a 13 person engineering team and enjoying having some money and time to spend with my wife and friends. I have some more startup left in me but plan to see this one through for a while.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#127

Post by schuman » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:49 PM UTC

serf wrote: post #93

schuman wrote: post #17

2002: Started a small business. 2008: Pivoted to a somewhat more scalable and clearly defined small business. 2011: Started a true startup. 2013: Realized I'd started the wrong startup. Got a job at somebody else's growth stage startup. ~2018: Will start another startup. But this time I'll have a hell of a lot more understanding, expertise, connections, and

>2002: Started a small business. 2008: Pivoted to a somewhat more scalable and clearly defined small business. 2011: Started a true startup. What's the difference? Truly curious. The singular focus?

Scalability.

They're all b2b with high ($500k+) customer lifetime values, but the first business, in the best case, could serve about 30 clients simultaneously. The second could serve (in the best case) a few hundred. The startup could serve thousands.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#128

Post by apa-sl » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 2:49 PM UTC

Few years ago on one day I took al my toys from the equity market (I've got this feeling that I'm not creating any real value and wasn't happy with that) and burned all money in my first startup (http://fashioner.com domain is for rent/sale ;).

1 year later I've inspired my friend to start another startup (service market on national level). Unfortunately VCs in Poland did not wanted to believe that it is such a good opportunity (and it was, currently 2 big competitors sharing this market). But the good thing was that we have inspired another friend to join us and gathered some money.

Now, 2 years later, we've managed to create another startup from all that ;) (http://ElimiApp.com). Just taking off, seed in the bank, fingers crossed!

I think it is just about the way you think and what you want to do in live. I could live very comfortably live from securities transactions (but create nothing, nada) or comfortably while working in some bigger company (no way). Instead I've choose to fight for years for my own thing.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#129

Post by michaelochurch » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 3:04 PM UTC

S4M wrote: post #98

michaelochurch wrote: post #71

I spent 2.5 years at a startup and did some of that time working purely for equity. I'm not sure if I count as a "founder", as it was unclear where the founder/employee distinction was, and I'd say that I was probably Employee #1 or #2 rather than "a founder". The truth? Ugh. The pitch is that, even if you fail, you'll learn a ton and be slotted into a much more senior role in your next job. The reality? Yes, you do…

When you went back on the job market, did you have something to show off for your failed startup? I know that all hiring managers are not completely rational, but IMHO if you can say: "I worked at X, we were building X.com, and I implemented the core mechanisms to do Y, for example, you can create an account and try this feature. Well, do you know how the system know Z? It requires some machine learning that I am gon…

It was... complicated. Even though we were having money problems and losing people, the founders wanted to keep pressing on. I was tired of hearing that good things (e.g. Series A funding) were "just around the corner" and left. So open-sourcing the work wasn't really an option.

I don't think it would have helped. The truth about Silicon Valley/VC-land ageism is that it cuts both ways, if you're not well-connected. (Kids with rich parents can raise VC at 24, average people can't.) Your calendar time sets an upper-bound on where you can be placed, and while an impressive open-source portfolio can make getting the job easier, it doesn't get you a better job.

Re: Ask HN: Founders whose startups have failed, where did life take you afterwards?

#130

Post by eps » Sun, Nov 09, 2014, 3:09 PM UTC

buro9 wrote: post #107

eps wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you at all looked at selling microcosm as a upscale managed forum service? "Build a community" sounds like a far larger and less doable task than "host your forum with us".

Our story is here: https://medium.com/@buro9/the-journey-of-a-london-startup-wh... But in essence, we figured that out quite late... moving from helping to assist building a community to having created an import tool and to push our numbers harder by simply moving existing forums/communities to us. We hit the end of the runway before the impact of that was felt. We didn't manage to raise enough funds to continue. We'…

Having read through your post I think your stagnation was due to the wrong pitch, and, secondly and as odd as it sounds, due to that dorky faces illustration at the top of your landing page. I can't think of a single case where a forum maintainer would say "gosh, I need a better community building tool" rather than "I think I need a better forum". Then, say, he lands on your page and the first thing he sees is a bunch of ugly stylized mugshots, whereby what he's looking for is a single beautiful screenshot of a forum page... I mean it may sound like a minor, subjective thing, but the first impression lasts and I'm willing to bet that it had an extreme negative effect on your bounce rate. You got the "hello" completely wrong.

(I'm writing all this because I really liked what you've been doing and I still think it's a viable idea ... that you just happen to have overdone a bit).