I'll add mine here as I'm having a problem logging into Reddit. Startup 1: a product for online shopping sites to use to help customers make complex purchasing

I'll add mine here as I'm having a problem logging into Reddit. Startup 1: a product for online shopping sites to use to help customers make complex purchasing decisions. It was difficult to use (required user take a questionnaire) and was one more cost for ecommerce sites to consider. I was there only for a short, 70-hour-a-week stint as a contractor. The company and people seemed nice enough, but I've never seen a market for what they made. Startup 2: Took a job as a manager of "professional services" (before I understood what that meant) for a business banking software startup. It had VC cash and was burning through it faster than it was getting customers. They sold, likely very cheaply, to a competitor eventually. I'd have stayed longer, but the "professional services" essentially meant travel, contrary to what I understood in the interview, so I left fairly quickly. The company just tried growing staff and office space faster than their revenues. I don't really know how or if the founders did on the sale, but it wasn't the huge success hoped for. Startup 3: Mine! A rental listing site. Partnered with a "business" guy who couldn't really offer much. Went after a market just dripping with competitors, including rent.com, apartments.com and some guy named Craig. Faced chicken/egg problem in multiple ways. Hard to convince savvy landlords to list if no one else has. Hard to convince savvy landlords to list if no renters visit the site. Hard to convince renters to visit if no properties are on the site. Hard to convince search engines to rank me for much if no listings on my new site. #3 wasn't all bad. I did get people to list and get organic traffic, but just not enough to sustain the project. I worked the longest and learned the most from the rental site. As a professional, coding a web app from CSS to the database, managing customers and system administration stretched me and helped me like nothing I'd done before. And that's why I'm looking to make my future #4 a success. :-)