4 ms·

Someone should start a blog interviewing failed startup founders and letting them tell their stories and share their lessons, really in-depth. Maybe even bring

Someone should start a blog interviewing failed startup founders and letting them tell their stories and share their lessons, really in-depth. Maybe even bring in other people for multiple perspectives.

mdparker89 12y ago
The problem is these lessons are, for the most part, already out there. Unfortunately, some things you just have to go through to really learn. All of the mistakes I made were ones I read about. It just took me a while to recognize that my mistakes were the same as the ones I read about. That said, if somebody did start that blog I would definitely read it.
- nostrademons 12y ago
  Yeah, this was the biggest surprise for me in founding my own startup. I had worked for two previous startups to learn what to do and what not to do, and went into my own startup with a whole laundry list of pitfalls to avoid. It turns out that I ended up committing almost every one of them (except the ones that were management-related, and those only because we never got big enough to employ people. I think that when I ended up becoming a team lead at my job later, I ended up committing a bunch of them too, or nearly committing them and catching myself right before). The nice thing about having knowledge and experience is that oftentimes it shortens the time required to realize you're making a mistake. Folks who haven't done this before and haven't read about other peoples' experience can sometimes waste years doing something that clearly isn't going to work. If you've read about it before you might catch yourself after a few months, and if you've personally experienced it from the other side it might take you a couple weeks. But it really does require committing the mistake, learning (painfully) from it, and then doing it the right way a couple times before you'll start getting it right automatically
  - raminassemi 12y ago
    > The nice thing about having knowledge and experience is that oftentimes it shortens the time required to realize you're making a mistake. Great point. Btw. seems the site you're linking to in your profile isn't working :)
jbkkd 12y ago
I'm up for this. Founders, if you're willing to share your experience on a blog, hit me up. My email is on my profile. Anonymity guaranteed. I'm not sure about what the format will be yet, but I'm thinking of interviews which will be transcribed, with the audio as an option. I'm open to other suggestions.
- yuhong 12y ago
  >Anonymity guaranteed. I'd say "Anonymity is an option if you need it.", especially these days.
jotm 12y ago
You mean http://mixergy.com/ http://mixergy.com/ ? :-)
- raminassemi 12y ago
  :) Love Mixergy, but I think pretty much all of these are "How I started, struggled/failed, and then succeeded. Here are the action steps I can share with you". This would be more like Founders At Work... Failed Founders Out Of Work ;)

mdparker89 12y ago

The problem is these lessons are, for the most part, already out there. Unfortunately, some things you just have to go through to really learn. All of the mistakes I made were ones I read about. It just took me a while to recognize that my mistakes were the same as the ones I read about. That said, if somebody did start that blog I would definitely read it.

nostrademons 12y ago
Yeah, this was the biggest surprise for me in founding my own startup. I had worked for two previous startups to learn what to do and what not to do, and went into my own startup with a whole laundry list of pitfalls to avoid. It turns out that I ended up committing almost every one of them (except the ones that were management-related, and those only because we never got big enough to employ people. I think that when I ended up becoming a team lead at my job later, I ended up committing a bunch of them too, or nearly committing them and catching myself right before). The nice thing about having knowledge and experience is that oftentimes it shortens the time required to realize you're making a mistake. Folks who haven't done this before and haven't read about other peoples' experience can sometimes waste years doing something that clearly isn't going to work. If you've read about it before you might catch yourself after a few months, and if you've personally experienced it from the other side it might take you a couple weeks. But it really does require committing the mistake, learning (painfully) from it, and then doing it the right way a couple times before you'll start getting it right automatically
- raminassemi 12y ago
  > The nice thing about having knowledge and experience is that oftentimes it shortens the time required to realize you're making a mistake. Great point. Btw. seems the site you're linking to in your profile isn't working :)

jbkkd 12y ago

I'm up for this. Founders, if you're willing to share your experience on a blog, hit me up. My email is on my profile. Anonymity guaranteed. I'm not sure about what the format will be yet, but I'm thinking of interviews which will be transcribed, with the audio as an option. I'm open to other suggestions.

yuhong 12y ago
>Anonymity guaranteed. I'd say "Anonymity is an option if you need it.", especially these days.

jotm 12y ago

You mean http://mixergy.com/ http://mixergy.com/ ? :-)

raminassemi 12y ago
:) Love Mixergy, but I think pretty much all of these are "How I started, struggled/failed, and then succeeded. Here are the action steps I can share with you". This would be more like Founders At Work... Failed Founders Out Of Work ;)