Those of us who have had failed startups can tell you that pats on the back and community support help. The Hype Machine would have you believe that failure is

Those of us who have had failed startups can tell you that pats on the back and community support help. The Hype Machine would have you believe that failure is opportunity, and that you get a chip on your shoulder when you fail; but failure means failing (grade F in the US) and it hurts. A lot. They mentioned that they will be releasing more post-mortems later. For now, I'm comfortable with supporting them and hearing about their learning later. The RethinkDB team built an amazing product that many people appreciated - as noted by the comments here- and for that they have my praise and admiration. The fact that the product will continue without the business is also noteworthy. Well done all