Failure is a lesson learned. Now you know a few things that don't work so next time you'll know to be cautious about 'em. All the best!
30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
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Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#12I wouldn't say it was a total failure. You learned something, and you can always reuse code (such as the 700 lines for credit card payments) for other projects.
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#13I'd argue the main reason it failed was it was a bad idea. Their was no market for your product no matter how well you made it. Try not to take away execution lessons when the idea was poor. The execution was fine and if you'd have used a good idea you'd be doing reasonably well now. As an aside, does anyone have links to other startup postmortems?
Could be right there :) Inference from either failure or success is tricky.
That said, I think "not knowing my customer" is still a sound lesson. If you know your customer, you'll know whether there is or isn't a market.
Re post-mortems, should keep you going:
http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/startup-failure-post-mortem/
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-best-startup-fail-stor...
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#14Failed or not, this will still be very valuable on your resumé, when or if you apply to other companies.
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#15from the tech point of view you have an open platform to share and annotate scanned docs. Sort of "web 2.0 Sharepoint".
The niche that I see for such a service is legal. Lawyers can receive, annotate and remark on clients drafts for proposals, contracts etc.
So it's something like Scribd+ or Docstoc+, for closed network of service provider & his/her clients, where a lot of paperwork is required. Legal services seems like the case.
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#16Hi Tim,
I would argue that the majority of your target demographic doesn't have the inclination to put disposable income into this.
Most of the time, when I needed help, I'd find someone who could help me for free.
Maybe it's different in the UK and other non-US places, but here, IME, there is no large-scale culture of hiring tutors. People typically hire tutors when they are out of their depth.
Just my thoughts and experiences. I wish you the best next time!
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#17good to see some honesty in the often over-hyped world of startups
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#18It's sad no one ever paid for the service, but if not don't talk to customers or potential customers (people who pay, not "users" i.e. in the sense of people that do not pay), you'll never know what they want. Generally, it's only when people part with cash that you know you are providing value.
However, major kudos for releasing the code and design docs so others can try some tangent, along with the post-mortem so others can avoid similar pitfalls. That's seriously cool and not something I often see people do for projects they invested so much in. Thanks.
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#19How do you create a poll ad on Facebook? I thought you had to get a sales rep and drop $25k to do that...
Not sure why, but they removed the feature a while back - http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/04/facebook-quietly-pulls-poll... . It was really slick when I used it, though it did get small samples (100 max I believe) and perhaps people just clicked randomly to get rid of it.
People answer polls on FB (which publishes your answer with your name) with whatever the person they want their friends to think they are would say. No-one wants to appear a cheapskate. That's why everyone said they would pay, regardless of what they really thought. An anonymous poll might have gotten more accurate results.
Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why, but they removed the feature a while back - http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/04/facebook-quietly-pulls-poll... . It was really slick when I used it, though it did get small samples (100 max I believe) and perhaps people just clicked randomly to get rid of it.
I think you can do polls again. Go to your wall and click to post an update. The last option after "video" is "question".
That doesn't allow you to target the demographic (undergrad students).