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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

#261

Post by nikkidurkin »

Dartanion7 wrote: post #211
creature wrote: post #37

Post-mortems like this are always really enlightening. I'd really like to know more about some areas the author glossed over, though. What were the grey/black tactics they used to get past the initial chicken-and-egg problem? And what change did they introduce that caused a near-revolt of their userbase?

My guess as to the grey / blackhat tactics they used to gain initial traction were: 1) Fake "sell-side" accounts to provide marketplace liquidity 2) Manipulating app store chart ranking through bot downloads or download services to acquire "buy-side" accounts It sounds like the service basically stopped growing once they had to abandon the black hat techniques they were using (possibly because they grew large enough…

No, that's not it. I actually ended up talking about it my mixergy interview

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

#262

Post by dools »

AndrewWarner wrote: post #254
dools wrote: post #209

This 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://mixer…

Here's one more. Hiten Shah used to run a web hosting company. http://mixergy.com/interviews/kissmetrics-hiten-shah-intervi...

Sweet! Hadn't seen that one yet!

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

#263

Post by jonny_eh »

nl wrote: post #228
fizzle83 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK also has favourable visa arrangements for Australians - certainly more so than the US, which seems hell bent on rejecting any desirable immigration.

That's not the case. It's not very easy for an Australian to get a UK Working Visa in their own field (as opposed to "working holiday" arrangements). OTOH, the E3 US Visa is quite simple - it's generally considered to be the easiest US skilled worker visa to get.

As a Canadian working in the US I would love to have access to an E3. It's way better than our TN visa.

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

#264

Post by onan_barbarian »

barce wrote: post #247
jakejake wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Well, if you Google around, you get Peter Delahunty. It looks like he's gone from being a CTO at a few places (including 99dresses) to just working under a CTO. It looks like his strategy didn't pay off.

Confused that he doesn't list Posse on his LinkedIn page, if he's the guy you're talking about.

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

#265

Post by thomaspun »

Thank you for sharing your story.

My YC startup failed two years ago and it still has an impact on me. I learned a lot and wish I knew what I know now back then. My cofounders parted ways within one year of YC and I became a self made single founder. One of the biggest mistakes was not taking breaks. I thought I had to work twice as hard to compensate. It just went into this vicious cycle: depressed & tired -> not productive -> worked every waking moments -> depressed & tired.

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

#266

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

mindcrime wrote: post #243
ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're putting a lot of energy because you're learning on the job. Nothing else. If you knew what you were doing, it'd be much easier, of course.

That's a fair point. All I'm getting at though, is that there's a lot to be said for taking a swing or two when you're younger and have more time for "second chances" if you fail. At my age, if I fail, I don't see starting all over again as being in the cards.

I think one of the biggest things people should learn from their first startup dying is that it's better to say here ran a coward than here died a lion though.

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

#267

Post by rwhitman »

I've worked with a weirdly large number of female-run and female-focused startups and clients over the years. I could write a long, blunt tirade about this.

Basically the cards are stacked against these businesses from the day they are funded.

Male tech folks make a lot of false assumptions about female focused businesses. For investors it can mean leaving a complicated business model under-funded. For developers it means blindly taking a “cofounder” title in exchange for an equity-heavy compensation deal without thinking through what it means to work on a business you aren’t passionate about, for years, at reduced pay.

In both cases, if there isn't an early slam-dunk hockey stick marker of success, guys don’t have the stamina to tolerate a female-focused business for very long. They bail. The company never gets its next round of funding. The engineering talent runs for the hills. Its not cool to work on a company for girls, especially a struggling company for girls. So male talent will just split as soon as the going gets rough.

Each time the company has a setback, the guys all start to bail. So the company needs to find new talent and appease many people at every little bump in the road. This is hugely costly and results in a lot of unnecessary crisis moments, doubts, and subsequent pivots.

The sad part is that a lot of female founders leave startups for good after one failure. I have a linkedin network filled with former female founder superstars who work in humdrum non-tech management roles. Women take the loss on a much more personal level than men do. So every time a female founder is stunted, and then abandoned by her male support network, she may be gone for good.

What’s the solution? I’m not sure, but I think it has a lot to do with adding more female investors and developers to the world. That and encouraging more former female founders to come back, mentor and try again

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

#268

Post by jonnathanson »

logicallee wrote: post #235
madaxe_again wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup - nail on head. Not bootstrapping any more, we did that bit years ago, but I didn't still want to be here, doing this, eight years down the line - hence this is a failure. A moving, growing, functioning, successful failure. We don't want investors, actually - we don't need 'em. We do, however, want to sell this thing one day, as you can only stare at the sun for so long before going blind. Until then, however, it…

(EDIT: I'm not a journalist). If you have an email I would love to talk to you [EDIT:] as a fellow founder. There is a much wider ecosystem in private equity than just HN-style startup investors. The 100 VC's you'll hear about here represent a tiny sliver of a fraction of private equity. I don't know much about the whole market, but I'll tell you what I do know about it and exchange thoughts. - [EDIT:] I wrote this c…

I may have come on a little abruptly, and if so, I'm very sorry for that. To clarify my request: I'm not a fairweather journalist who just registered an account, looking for a scoop or a "gotcha" piece on this thread. And to whatever extent my post came across that way, I apologize. I'm a founder and reasonably longtime HN member (1330 days, evidently. I wish I could have written this comment 7 days from now!) who got involved in journalism through working with a YC company early last year.

When I say I am "inclined to be sympathetic," I mean it. I have a very simple agenda here: I think the media, overall, give too much attention to certain tropes of "success" and "failure" stories w/r/t startups. In this person's story, I am intrigued to see that he's built an economically successful business at which he feels trapped. You don't see that kind of story every day, but I suspect it's not entirely uncommon. At the very least, it's worth exploring. Maybe a story comes out of that chat, and maybe it doesn't. My goal would be to have a friendly chat, and to see where that takes us.

If he'd need to talk to me under condition of anonymity, that's totally fine. If he's willing to go on the record, also fine. And if he decides he doesn't want to talk to me at all, hey, totally cool. I would respect any of those choices out of ethical integrity, professional code of conduct, and sympathy for his predicament.

As for me: I use my real name on this account. That means both that my journalistic output is easily searchable, and that I'm holding myself openly accountable to anyone I engage with on HN.

No pressure intended, either way.

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