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Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

sergioschuler.com

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Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#71

Post by sergioschuler »

Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #46

A business person trying to start a tech startup.... It's like a business person looking for musicians to start a band. This is beyond ridiculous. Either bring some skill to the table or go create a "business startup" and stop polluting the industry with yet another failed idea and even worse a "post mortem" of why it failed. PS: This includes Marketing, Managers as well as the Business peanut gallery.

I replied the same thing above: tech business are usually not about tech, they are empowered by tech. A company that uses phones to sell their products is not about "phones", they are about the product and the phone is just a tool. For me, the web was just a tool.

A lot of non-tech co-founders exist and they succeed, so certainly not absurd.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#72

Post by sergioschuler »

Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #69
cblanc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if that's a good analogy for your point. The success of a band often requires more than people that can play music well together The Beatles had Brian Epstein for example (aka The Fifth Beatle)

Yes, but the first members are driven with higher goals then just "Starting a business". A business person is driven with the intention of making money. If it were otherwise, they'd learn a trade/skill.

My vision was to get rid of lame managers. Certainly a useful vision.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#73

Post by Elizer0x0309 »

bloat wrote: post #57
Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #46

A business person trying to start a tech startup.... It's like a business person looking for musicians to start a band. This is beyond ridiculous. Either bring some skill to the table or go create a "business startup" and stop polluting the industry with yet another failed idea and even worse a "post mortem" of why it failed. PS: This includes Marketing, Managers as well as the Business peanut gallery.

I love the Monkees.

I love The Beatles.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#74

Post by steinnes »

davedx wrote: post #43
mmcnickle wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I would disagree. I think you're underestimating the time and effort required for a complete beginner to produce version 1 of any non-trivial product. As a developer what I'd be looking for before coming onboard is a) a clear idea of what is being built b) that there is the money in place to pay me.

I would also disagree. I've almost finished v1 (literally, a bare bones MVP) of my SaaS idea, and my God, it took so much more time than I expected. And I'm a veteran developer who's shipped tens of projects. The thing is, there's a lot more that goes into a viable product than just the core features.

>> The thing is, there's a lot more that goes into a viable product than just the core features.

This! I agree wholeheartedly, a useful tool/hack must travel a long road before it can become a product. Even if it's essentially solving the same problem.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#75

Post by Elizer0x0309 »

sergioschuler wrote: post #71
Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #46

A business person trying to start a tech startup.... It's like a business person looking for musicians to start a band. This is beyond ridiculous. Either bring some skill to the table or go create a "business startup" and stop polluting the industry with yet another failed idea and even worse a "post mortem" of why it failed. PS: This includes Marketing, Managers as well as the Business peanut gallery.

I replied the same thing above: tech business are usually not about tech, they are empowered by tech. A company that uses phones to sell their products is not about "phones", they are about the product and the phone is just a tool. For me, the web was just a tool. A lot of non-tech co-founders exist and they succeed, so certainly not absurd.

Exhibit A. Everything wrong about this perspective. Disassociation and genericness down to a "T". How's that formula working for you?!

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#76

Post by r0h1n »

patio11 wrote: post #5

This is a fantastic writeup (and like nearly all worthwhile writing on the subject, I don't necessarily agree with all of it). Two elaborations: 1) General advice to non-technical founders, not specific to this post: If sales is one of your primary skill sets, and you cannot sell one developer on working for you, you may want to have a brief heart-to-heart with yourself on whether you are sufficiently skilled at sell…

I'm a non-technical founder (I have an engineering degree on paper, but have never been a practicing developer) who's starting out on his own. I disagree (or maybe, have an alternate viewpoint) with your first observation.

I don't think sales skills are completely fungible across domains. A great business seller may not actually be a great motivational/aspirational seller, and vice versa. So it's wrong, IMHO, to assume that just because you may be incapable of convincing a developer to join you, you will also be incapable of convincing a customer to buy your product.

That said, I'm facing somewhat the same issue myself - so they way I'm solving it is by (a) rolling up my sleeves and trying to build a bare-bones MVP/mockups using relatively accessible tech like Bootstrap, HTML, JS etc. (b) overcompensating for my tech shortfall by giving 2x of what I can in areas like marketing, customer interviews, alpha partnerships, fundraising etc., and (c) using (precious) capital to outsource the first version of my app instead of waiting for tech co-founders.

As I see it, it's Carpe Diem. There's no way I can earn serious developer cred in weeks or even months, so I might as well look for alternative approaches instead of moping around, wishing I'd followed the software developer road 15 years ago instead of the MBA one :)

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#77

Post by sergioschuler »

danso wrote: post #63
sergioschuler wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any alternatives?

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Will try, thanks!

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#78

Post by al2o3cr »

"Instead of surfing the wave and adapting my idea to what a real prospect client was telling me they wanted"

FFS don't do this. There are far too many startups beached on the shores of "well, this one SRS BZNS client wanted us to change what we were doing so we did. Where'd all the rest of our clients go?"

I'm not saying "don't pivot", but "just making what they wanted" (where N(they) = 1) turns you into a poorly-paid contract developer who's also paying to host the result, not an entrepreneur.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#79

Post by Elizer0x0309 »

sergioschuler wrote: post #72
Elizer0x0309 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the first members are driven with higher goals then just "Starting a business". A business person is driven with the intention of making money. If it were otherwise, they'd learn a trade/skill.

My vision was to get rid of lame managers. Certainly a useful vision.

A cube created to make money is different from a cube created for bettering cubes or advancing cube making. Do you get my point? Your motivations are not high enough. What you claim is your intention is not what your actions say.

Re: Lessons learned from my failed startup after 2 years, 300 users and 0 revenue

#80

Post by devhinton »

marveller wrote: post #59
enraged_camel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I am not a developer, but I believe having an idea -> finding a developer is the wrong flow. It should be like this: 1. Have the idea. 2. Get customers who give you real money to build this idea. 3. Get a developer by telling "I already have paying customers". Actually, I disagree. Even if you're not a developer, you should still strive to learn enough development such that you can push out the first version of the…

If the founder is a developer, yes, I totally agree. But for business person, no, I don't. Just like OOP programming, I think a team needs to be comprised of unique committed talented professionals that can do their own job very good: marketing, sales, social networking, programming, designing, business managing, legal, etc. (skills might overlap). Even if you are Jack of all trades, you won't have the time to execut…

It is true a team ideally is made up of experts in different areas.

It is true having technical skills can make it easier to hire developers, get customers (only one way to make this easier), and appreciate the technical side.

If a 'developer looks down on you' why does this not make them an 'ideal candidate'?

And what is the value of an ideal candidate? Is finding one even possible? Isn't 'the ideal' hard to reach in anything? My ideal life is to make millions while making the word a better place, have a six pack, lots of interesting friends, write rap, write a novel, have an uberman sleep cycle and not go crazy, and have many beautiful and intelligent woman.

Isn't 'ideal' more of a standard then an actual possibility? If so, isn't not the end of the world if this developer is not ideal? Don't you only need a talented developer who will do the work that is asked of him?

And what is 'business or talent ' not 'convincing enough' for? (hiring the developer, creating a business etc..)

It'd be great to fully understand your point of view.

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