I've launched six failed startups. FlowNet (early 90s), a high-speed (500 Mb/s) local area network designed to compete with FDDI, Fast Ethernet, and mainly ATM

I've launched six failed startups. FlowNet (early 90s), a high-speed (500 Mb/s) local area network designed to compete with FDDI, Fast Ethernet, and mainly ATM which was supposed to be the Next Big Thing. Offered QoS guarantees back when that was a big deal. Died because gigabit ethernet happened instead. IndieBuyer (2003-2006) - a marketplace for independent movies on DVD. The angle was that we would provide recommendations, and anything you bought from the recommended list would come with a money-back guarantee. Recommendations would be provided by an algorithm that matched people with similar tastes in films as measured by the ones they returned. Died because streaming. Evryx (2006-2008) - reverse image search. We held the patent. Died because the tech founder went non-linear and vetoed a funding round in 2008 right before the crash. iCab (2008) - a competitor to Uber, launched at the same time as Uber and for much the same reason. But Uber thought of using black cars and I didn't so they won and I lost. Virgin Charter (2008-2009) - Originally called Smart Charter, it was on-line marketplace for charter jets, acquired pre-launch by Richard Branson. Failed because Virgin didn't understand how the business model was supposed to work and tried to remake the company in its own image as a popular consumer-facing brand. Interesting aside: our bizdev guy was Jody Sherman [1]. Founders Forge (2009-2013) - Like Angel List but with financial services that were intended to be a wedge to launch a digital currency. (This was before BitCoin was a thing.) Failed because I couldn't find a bank that would work with me. Spark Innovations (2014) - Launched with a product that slurped up large Excel spreadsheets and let people manipulate them like databases using an intuitive web interface. Failed when all three of our launch customers rejected the MVP without telling us why. Tried pivoting with a crypto product (a small cheap HSM), but turns out that's a very hard market to penetrate. Bonus failure: In 2007 I decided to diversify my risk by investing in real estate. Got into a New Zealand condo development in Queenstown and learned the hard way that you can lose all your money in real estate if you are leveraged and a historic market crash happens right as you are ready to break ground. Despite all this, I have a great life. I've met some great people, learned a lot, built some cool shit, and generally had a good time despite learning the hard way that I'm not a particularly good entrepreneur. Main lesson learned: don't let failure get you down. You never know when the odds are going to tilt your way. The only ting that guarantees failure is not trying. --- [1] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/jody-sherman-ecomom-2013-4 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/jody-sherman-ecomom-2013-...