3 ms·

The elevator pitch of failure (how and why I simplify when asked why we failed)

9 points by robfitz 15y ago

gravling 15y ago
Having just pulled the plug on one of the startups I have invested in, I deeply sympathise with your situtation. Please go read _Fooled By Randomness_ and then _The Black Swan_ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I guarantee it will make you feel better, if you haven't read it. One of the great problems we have as people, especially smart people who did well in school, is that we expect success to be the result of cleverness. We put faith in _a crafty plan that is bound to work_. This is not wise. And, since the people you meet in elevators believe the same thing, they will be asking you for _the stupid thing that made it fail_. But I know, and by the time you finish reading these books you will as well, that the thing you did wrong may have been nothing. This is not what one generally tells people that fail. And, goodness knows, many more things fail because people did something wrong than 'you were just unfortunate'. So in general, analysing your failures in an extremely self-critical way, in order to learn from your mistakes is a beneficial activity. What you aren't told, alas, is that sometimes the answer is _nothing_. And beating yourself over the head for not being able to find out what you did wrong is not helpful if there is nothing there to find. I am in no way competing in your area, and have a bit of a problem understanding what "social advertising ecosystem trending toward openness" actually means, but for my money if you want to shut people up about your failure, there is nothing surer than saying we needed XXX amount of revenue by quarter Y, we only had YYY, and we couldn't get another round of financing because the market continued to be uncertain. Techies, who generally want a technical fix, tend to shut up at this point. Of course if your problem is that it is the financial people who want to rip open your wounds and comment on what is inside, then your pitch may be the cat's meow. :-) Whatever works. And you have to get up again, and start the whole damn thing over. Which you may have to force yourself to these days, but I promise you is worth it. But, after reading these books, and learning all about hindsight bias -- there is one question I would leave you with. Did you, in charting the business direction of your company, leave enough room for different possibilities for success, or were you stuck with a 'make-it-or-break-it' fragile plan that either had to work or you were all dead? Because your post did not make it clear. Make-it-or-Break-its are often a good strategy, because if you are going to fail, you want to do so quickly so you can get up and do something else as soon as it is clear that this is not it. But it's not the strategy for something you put your heart and soul into. And something in your writing made it clear to me that you are hurting right now. Been there. Done that. Deeply sympathise and wish things were different, and that we could all succeed with the things we love.
- robfitz 15y ago
  Thanks for the thoughtful response. Regarding our situation: the company ran for about 4 years. We raised a couple rounds and had customers like MTV and Sony, so it wasn't a total flop or anything. I'm not actively hurting -- I've had two companies since then, which both quickly failed without funding or the drama of extensive hiring & firing. But I do talk to lots of early-stage founders, so I often reflect on that first failure when I see it happening in others. I also see the stories in the PR circuit which don't quite ring true, but which are still some of the only guidance new founders receive. Like yours, my experiences suggest that reality is a lot messier and more ambiguous than that.
  - gravling 15y ago
    Partial Flops are worse than total ones. And PR circuits, well, they are PR. Shaded reality at best. And if you have had 2 companies fail without the drama, quickly, then you have learned the lesson I most wanted to make sure you knew before you ended up to your ears in unnecesary guilt. You have managed to get up and get it going again. I wish you all the best in your coming endeavours. And if there is a HN way to send a poster your email address, non-publicly, then let me know and I will send you mine. I am quite sure you have learned many things I would be interested in learning, and I'd love to swap adventures in money-making land. best, Grävling (which means Badger in Swedish)
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
herdrick 15y ago
This was really great. Thanks.

9 points by robfitz 15y ago

Having just pulled the plug on one of the startups I have invested in, I deeply sympathise with your situtation. Please go read _Fooled By Randomness_ and then _The Black Swan_ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I guarantee it will make you feel better, if you haven't read it. One of the great problems we have as people, especially smart people who did well in school, is that we expect success to be the result of cleverness. We put faith in _a crafty plan that is bound to work_. This is not wise. And, since the people you meet in elevators believe the same thing, they will be asking you for _the stupid thing that made it fail_. But I know, and by the time you finish reading these books you will as well, that the thing you did wrong may have been nothing. This is not what one generally tells people that fail. And, goodness knows, many more things fail because people did something wrong than 'you were just unfortunate'. So in general, analysing your failures in an extremely self-critical way, in order to learn from your mistakes is a beneficial activity. What you aren't told, alas, is that sometimes the answer is _nothing_. And beating yourself over the head for not being able to find out what you did wrong is not helpful if there is nothing there to find. I am in no way competing in your area, and have a bit of a problem understanding what "social advertising ecosystem trending toward openness" actually means, but for my money if you want to shut people up about your failure, there is nothing surer than saying we needed XXX amount of revenue by quarter Y, we only had YYY, and we couldn't get another round of financing because the market continued to be uncertain. Techies, who generally want a technical fix, tend to shut up at this point. Of course if your problem is that it is the financial people who want to rip open your wounds and comment on what is inside, then your pitch may be the cat's meow. :-) Whatever works. And you have to get up again, and start the whole damn thing over. Which you may have to force yourself to these days, but I promise you is worth it. But, after reading these books, and learning all about hindsight bias -- there is one question I would leave you with. Did you, in charting the business direction of your company, leave enough room for different possibilities for success, or were you stuck with a 'make-it-or-break-it' fragile plan that either had to work or you were all dead? Because your post did not make it clear. Make-it-or-Break-its are often a good strategy, because if you are going to fail, you want to do so quickly so you can get up and do something else as soon as it is clear that this is not it. But it's not the strategy for something you put your heart and soul into. And something in your writing made it clear to me that you are hurting right now. Been there. Done that. Deeply sympathise and wish things were different, and that we could all succeed with the things we love.

robfitz 15y ago
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Regarding our situation: the company ran for about 4 years. We raised a couple rounds and had customers like MTV and Sony, so it wasn't a total flop or anything. I'm not actively hurting -- I've had two companies since then, which both quickly failed without funding or the drama of extensive hiring & firing. But I do talk to lots of early-stage founders, so I often reflect on that first failure when I see it happening in others. I also see the stories in the PR circuit which don't quite ring true, but which are still some of the only guidance new founders receive. Like yours, my experiences suggest that reality is a lot messier and more ambiguous than that.
- gravling 15y ago
  Partial Flops are worse than total ones. And PR circuits, well, they are PR. Shaded reality at best. And if you have had 2 companies fail without the drama, quickly, then you have learned the lesson I most wanted to make sure you knew before you ended up to your ears in unnecesary guilt. You have managed to get up and get it going again. I wish you all the best in your coming endeavours. And if there is a HN way to send a poster your email address, non-publicly, then let me know and I will send you mine. I am quite sure you have learned many things I would be interested in learning, and I'd love to swap adventures in money-making land. best, Grävling (which means Badger in Swedish)
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

herdrick 15y ago

This was really great. Thanks.