6 ms·

Startup failure post-mortems

122 points by asanwal 13y ago

asanwal 13y ago
For those interested in trends & hard data on startup failure, this may be of interest - http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trends/startup-death-data http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trends/startup-death-data
- nrao123 13y ago
  Anand, What will be great to do if at all possible is to identity common patterns across key sectors. Here are some patterns I have seen: Lack of marketing/growth -Everpix, Sonar... Lack of domain expertise - Vitoto... No coders/programmers in founding teams- standout jobs Product management / too many product features - intellibank... No customer validation/didn't get out of the building / product/market fit - groupspaces, hello parking... Perhaps these patterns could be broken into consumer Internet / SAAS. Of course some of these patterns are inter-related & drive each other (e.g. No Domain expertise >> lack of customer validation >> Poor product management/wrong features >> No growth)
jpatokal 13y ago
Nice. If the list was editable, I'd add mine: http://gyrovague.com/2012/12/18/wikitravel-press-seven-lessons-from-a-startup-that-failed/ http://gyrovague.com/2012/12/18/wikitravel-press-seven-lesso... Interesting how many others have also found "7 lessons" in their failures!
- asanwal 13y ago
  Thx. We will add yours. If folks know of other post mortems we missed, leave them in comments and we will add them.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - MehdiEG 13y ago
    You mentioned EventVue's excellent post-mortem already. But for anyone thinking of building a startup in that space, Josh Fraser (EventVue's co-founder)'s follow-up post is also a mandatory read: http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/10/26/a-few-words-about-eventvue/ http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/10/26/a-few-words-about-eve... - since he posted that follow-up on his own blog, it would be worth linking both in the article. And if anyone is thinking of building something in the event space, read both of these posts. And then read them again. Josh is 100% spot-on. Absolutely nothing has changed in this industry since he wrote this (the events industry moves at a glacial pace).
  - jkestner 13y ago
    Most of Marc Barros' blog is a post-mortem of Contour: http://marcbarros.com http://marcbarros.com
  - JacobAldridge 13y ago
    We pulled the pin much earlier than most of your list, but if it helps add to the knowledge base: http://everydaydreamholiday.com/2013/03/25/dont-dream-its-over/ http://everydaydreamholiday.com/2013/03/25/dont-dream-its-ov...
benjaminwootton 13y ago
Amazing resource - thanks for collating this.
baldajan 13y ago
A really nice read and great snippets of each article/blog post. I have read some in the past, and even though I may not always agree on their reason for failure, I can definitely relate to others. At the end of the day, building a startup is hard, and if you're not willing to "pivot" either incrementally or sometimes completely, you will fail. I truly commend these founders for writing about their failures. It's hard to admit you failed, rather alone letting the world know you dropped the ball. In return, we can learn from them, as to not repeat the mistakes they did, but to make our own mistakes (a bit cliche but true) At the end of the day: 1) build something people want 2) features != product; features = bloat 3) keep learning, keep moving The number of times I was about to give up only to realize, "wait a second, I completely missed x" and fixed it, has paid me dividends in the past. Reflect, correct, and kick ass ;)
paul9290 13y ago
None of them got lucky...
d0m 13y ago
It always seems so obvious in retrospect but it's hard to think clearly when you're in the gist of doing it and you have a mountain on your shoulders. Something - how so stupid, I'll admit - that I realized is that even if smart people tell you something, you often need to fail it first to really get it. Pick the right co-founders? It's one of the most basic rules.. but how many entrepreneurs do you know didn't listen to that.. you? Focus on product-market fit and only a handful of few features that customers really love..
- qvikr 13y ago
  I guess the reason for that is because even the smartest of people, at best, have only tried to do things in x ways... So if your thoughts don't align with the "tried and tested" methodologies in x, at least according to this smart person, you will probably fail.
- pandler 13y ago
  > even if smart people tell you something, you often need to fail it first to really get it. That was really emphasized for me after my first startup failed. After we pulled the plug, all the advice I had procured in the previous months suddenly made sense. I think that when you hear advice, it might make sense but you don't really understand it. It is analogous to reading a textbook and thinking you've got it covered until you actually reproduce what you learned. That's when the real learning happens. You just need to buck up and get your hands dirty.
pbiggar 13y ago
Startups are hard, and failure is really hard, no matter how much you try or how strong you try to be. I wrote one of the articles on this list. If your startup is going badly, feel free to reach out: paul [at] circleci.com.
AJ72 13y ago
Another interesting read for anyone looking for a VCs view on this topic: http://pollenizer.com/learn/startup-focus http://pollenizer.com/learn/startup-focus. A good, easy to read book based on their experiences.
GoldiKam 13y ago
Startups are never supposed to be easy, otherwise everyone would have chose the Start up path, regardless of any passions.
codex 13y ago
I doubt these post-mortems are accurate. If you can't create a successful company, what makes you think you know why a company was unsuccessful? It's just more mental masturbation. Even if the failure mode is identified, it doesn't help you with the next startup, as most of the time humans work by trial and error. A failure doesn't teach most how to succeed, just how not to fail in that exact way.
- simonjester 13y ago
  Still an outside view is usually quite objective and can pinpoint issues that weren't easily apparent at all to someone inside the project.
- bryan_rasmussen 13y ago
  this is the obverse of the idea that just because you succeed does not necessarily know why you succeeded. You do not have the full view in either case.
simonjester 13y ago
So useful, thanks! Plus another item on the list of ideas I should have had. ;)
philbeene 13y ago
Totally agree - very valuable resource, and in general not nearly enough people out there actively sharing research about startup failure. Thx for sharing.
billnguyen 13y ago
really great insight here. thanks for gathering it.

122 points by asanwal 13y ago

For those interested in trends & hard data on startup failure, this may be of interest - http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trends/startup-death-data http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trends/startup-death-data

nrao123 13y ago
Anand, What will be great to do if at all possible is to identity common patterns across key sectors. Here are some patterns I have seen: Lack of marketing/growth -Everpix, Sonar... Lack of domain expertise - Vitoto... No coders/programmers in founding teams- standout jobs Product management / too many product features - intellibank... No customer validation/didn't get out of the building / product/market fit - groupspaces, hello parking... Perhaps these patterns could be broken into consumer Internet / SAAS. Of course some of these patterns are inter-related & drive each other (e.g. No Domain expertise >> lack of customer validation >> Poor product management/wrong features >> No growth)

jpatokal 13y ago

Nice. If the list was editable, I'd add mine: http://gyrovague.com/2012/12/18/wikitravel-press-seven-lessons-from-a-startup-that-failed/ http://gyrovague.com/2012/12/18/wikitravel-press-seven-lesso... Interesting how many others have also found "7 lessons" in their failures!

asanwal 13y ago
Thx. We will add yours. If folks know of other post mortems we missed, leave them in comments and we will add them.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- MehdiEG 13y ago
  You mentioned EventVue's excellent post-mortem already. But for anyone thinking of building a startup in that space, Josh Fraser (EventVue's co-founder)'s follow-up post is also a mandatory read: http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/10/26/a-few-words-about-eventvue/ http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/10/26/a-few-words-about-eve... - since he posted that follow-up on his own blog, it would be worth linking both in the article. And if anyone is thinking of building something in the event space, read both of these posts. And then read them again. Josh is 100% spot-on. Absolutely nothing has changed in this industry since he wrote this (the events industry moves at a glacial pace).
- jkestner 13y ago
  Most of Marc Barros' blog is a post-mortem of Contour: http://marcbarros.com http://marcbarros.com
- JacobAldridge 13y ago
  We pulled the pin much earlier than most of your list, but if it helps add to the knowledge base: http://everydaydreamholiday.com/2013/03/25/dont-dream-its-over/ http://everydaydreamholiday.com/2013/03/25/dont-dream-its-ov...

benjaminwootton 13y ago

Amazing resource - thanks for collating this.

baldajan 13y ago

A really nice read and great snippets of each article/blog post. I have read some in the past, and even though I may not always agree on their reason for failure, I can definitely relate to others. At the end of the day, building a startup is hard, and if you're not willing to "pivot" either incrementally or sometimes completely, you will fail. I truly commend these founders for writing about their failures. It's hard to admit you failed, rather alone letting the world know you dropped the ball. In return, we can learn from them, as to not repeat the mistakes they did, but to make our own mistakes (a bit cliche but true) At the end of the day: 1) build something people want 2) features != product; features = bloat 3) keep learning, keep moving The number of times I was about to give up only to realize, "wait a second, I completely missed x" and fixed it, has paid me dividends in the past. Reflect, correct, and kick ass ;)

paul9290 13y ago

None of them got lucky...

d0m 13y ago

It always seems so obvious in retrospect but it's hard to think clearly when you're in the gist of doing it and you have a mountain on your shoulders. Something - how so stupid, I'll admit - that I realized is that even if smart people tell you something, you often need to fail it first to really get it. Pick the right co-founders? It's one of the most basic rules.. but how many entrepreneurs do you know didn't listen to that.. you? Focus on product-market fit and only a handful of few features that customers really love..

qvikr 13y ago
I guess the reason for that is because even the smartest of people, at best, have only tried to do things in x ways... So if your thoughts don't align with the "tried and tested" methodologies in x, at least according to this smart person, you will probably fail.
pandler 13y ago
> even if smart people tell you something, you often need to fail it first to really get it. That was really emphasized for me after my first startup failed. After we pulled the plug, all the advice I had procured in the previous months suddenly made sense. I think that when you hear advice, it might make sense but you don't really understand it. It is analogous to reading a textbook and thinking you've got it covered until you actually reproduce what you learned. That's when the real learning happens. You just need to buck up and get your hands dirty.

pbiggar 13y ago

Startups are hard, and failure is really hard, no matter how much you try or how strong you try to be. I wrote one of the articles on this list. If your startup is going badly, feel free to reach out: paul [at] circleci.com.

AJ72 13y ago

Another interesting read for anyone looking for a VCs view on this topic: http://pollenizer.com/learn/startup-focus http://pollenizer.com/learn/startup-focus. A good, easy to read book based on their experiences.

GoldiKam 13y ago

Startups are never supposed to be easy, otherwise everyone would have chose the Start up path, regardless of any passions.

codex 13y ago

I doubt these post-mortems are accurate. If you can't create a successful company, what makes you think you know why a company was unsuccessful? It's just more mental masturbation. Even if the failure mode is identified, it doesn't help you with the next startup, as most of the time humans work by trial and error. A failure doesn't teach most how to succeed, just how not to fail in that exact way.

simonjester 13y ago
Still an outside view is usually quite objective and can pinpoint issues that weren't easily apparent at all to someone inside the project.
bryan_rasmussen 13y ago
this is the obverse of the idea that just because you succeed does not necessarily know why you succeeded. You do not have the full view in either case.

simonjester 13y ago

So useful, thanks! Plus another item on the list of ideas I should have had. ;)

philbeene 13y ago

Totally agree - very valuable resource, and in general not nearly enough people out there actively sharing research about startup failure. Thx for sharing.

billnguyen 13y ago

really great insight here. thanks for gathering it.