5 ms·

A book suggestion: Founders That Almost Made It

24 points by bengtan 17y ago

An open suggestion to the authors/producers/publishers of Founders At Work (which I'm reading at the moment): What do you think of writing a book 'Founders That Almost Made It'? Using a similar fashion, but talks to startup founders who almost made it big, but didn't quite make it. Perhaps they had to exit via Plan C rather than Plan A, or they just quietly wound down the startup. Following the adage that people learn more from mistakes, perhaps it'd be just as useful to get information on why they think they failed, than to read about those who have succeeded wildly?

alexkearns 17y ago
1. Bill Gates. Bright young technie with a ruthless entrepreneurial streak. After cutting a deal with IBM in the 1980s, his business exploded, becoming the world's leading software company. Gates had the world at his feet. He could have become a legend, creating software that people would love and idolize him for. Instead, he fluffed it. Microsoft became synonymous with buggy software and clunky overweight operating systems, and in 2013 - to the relief of almost the entire web development community - finally went bust. Gates, by then a broken man, spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, where he was rumoured to tell anyone who would listen that "Internet Explorer really is the world's best browser".
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- joel_feather 17y ago
  And I'm sure your web based todo list will have the level of impact as gates company...
- davidw 17y ago
  1. Bill Gates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data Not really a failure, but not much of a success either, compared to that other company he got involved with later. I think there is perhaps where the book or articles might lie - "ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't". Like PG's art gallery venture.
  - davi 17y ago
    "ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't" That's better than the "Founders that almost made it" idea. Knowing that they had it in them to succeed makes their failures more instructive. It also lends some credibility to their analysis of why they failed.
    - bengtan 17y ago
      I agree. Now if someone would take the idea and run with it ...
- babo 17y ago
  How many people would love to be such a failure... :-)
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robryan 17y ago
Would also be interesting to include those that never got close, those that blew large amounts of time and money on bad ideas.
jswinghammer 17y ago
If you read "The Black Swan" this topic is discussed at some length. I believe that the consensus out there is that no one wants to read about failure. It seems extremely interesting to me but apparently no one wants to read about it.
- davidw 17y ago
  This wasn't a bad book, although it wasn't nearly as successful as The Black Swan: http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/2/why-most-things-fail-evolution-extinction-and-economics http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/2/why-most-things-fai...
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  Failure and the reasons for failure (failblog!) can be entertaining, interesting and informative. I think the idea is good but most failures will just be - "we ran out of money", "we decided to do something else", "a key person had a family problem and left", "we had a rubbish idea". Mind you even these mundane things could be good if written well.
jnorthrop 17y ago
To be interesting it would need some drama, however most "failures" just sort of whither or continue on in mediocrity. I'm an excellent example. I've started two companies both of which were in what I call survival mode when I left. I was making enough money to cover the bills and pay a modest salary but there was no break-through for either (and it was apparent it would never happen) so I left them. A pretty boring story.
silverlake 17y ago
You can buy case studies from Harvard's business school, many of which are failures. http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepreneurship.jsp?N=509628 http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepr...

24 points by bengtan 17y ago

alexkearns 17y ago

1. Bill Gates. Bright young technie with a ruthless entrepreneurial streak. After cutting a deal with IBM in the 1980s, his business exploded, becoming the world's leading software company. Gates had the world at his feet. He could have become a legend, creating software that people would love and idolize him for. Instead, he fluffed it. Microsoft became synonymous with buggy software and clunky overweight operating systems, and in 2013 - to the relief of almost the entire web development community - finally went bust. Gates, by then a broken man, spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, where he was rumoured to tell anyone who would listen that "Internet Explorer really is the world's best browser".

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joel_feather 17y ago
And I'm sure your web based todo list will have the level of impact as gates company...
davidw 17y ago
1. Bill Gates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data Not really a failure, but not much of a success either, compared to that other company he got involved with later. I think there is perhaps where the book or articles might lie - "ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't". Like PG's art gallery venture.
- davi 17y ago
  "ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't" That's better than the "Founders that almost made it" idea. Knowing that they had it in them to succeed makes their failures more instructive. It also lends some credibility to their analysis of why they failed.
  - bengtan 17y ago
    I agree. Now if someone would take the idea and run with it ...
babo 17y ago
How many people would love to be such a failure... :-)

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deleted 17y ago
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robryan 17y ago

Would also be interesting to include those that never got close, those that blew large amounts of time and money on bad ideas.

jswinghammer 17y ago

If you read "The Black Swan" this topic is discussed at some length. I believe that the consensus out there is that no one wants to read about failure. It seems extremely interesting to me but apparently no one wants to read about it.

davidw 17y ago
This wasn't a bad book, although it wasn't nearly as successful as The Black Swan: http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/2/why-most-things-fail-evolution-extinction-and-economics http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/2/why-most-things-fai...
pbhjpbhj 17y ago
Failure and the reasons for failure (failblog!) can be entertaining, interesting and informative. I think the idea is good but most failures will just be - "we ran out of money", "we decided to do something else", "a key person had a family problem and left", "we had a rubbish idea". Mind you even these mundane things could be good if written well.

jnorthrop 17y ago

To be interesting it would need some drama, however most "failures" just sort of whither or continue on in mediocrity. I'm an excellent example. I've started two companies both of which were in what I call survival mode when I left. I was making enough money to cover the bills and pay a modest salary but there was no break-through for either (and it was apparent it would never happen) so I left them. A pretty boring story.

silverlake 17y ago

You can buy case studies from Harvard's business school, many of which are failures. http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepreneurship.jsp?N=509628 http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepr...