How many times have you failed in Business?
How did you feel?
Did you start again?
How to you get that "I can do anything" spirit?
Can you describe the experience?
It depends on what you mean by fail. I've had a few bootstrapped business ventures not work out, but I wouldn't consider any of them failures because of the things I learned, the connections I made, and the fun I had. As long as you can pick yourself up again and learn from your mistakes, it is not a failure.
1 complete failure. We lasted a year spending all our savings and had to fold up shop. It sucked quite frankly but turned out to be a great learning experience. It also helped me branch into consulting and the startup that I'm currently at.
The worst part was not pulling the plug soon enough. What kills me is I think the idea is still a good idea (vertical search engine for tv/movie content with alerts for shows you want to watch, close caption searching, recommendations, community site.) I see parts of it being built by others but still not as good as what we had 3 years ago. I would use the app today if it still lived.
The major learning points from the failure are
1) Bootstrap the company. Don't require VC funding to get started. We spent to much time chasing after money and not enough getting users
2) Get customers to pay you money is a lot easier than getting ad revenue. You need a lot of users to make advertising pay off. You only need a few paying customers.
3) Listen to your gut. We followed the bad advice of an adviser that caused us pivot in the wrong direction and kept us working when we should have pulled the plug.
4) Release early, release often. We waited to long to release and start getting users.
So the business itself was a failure but I learned a lot of good things and I'm in a better position 3 years later than I would have been if I didn't do the startup.
2 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 15.6 ms ] threadThe worst part was not pulling the plug soon enough. What kills me is I think the idea is still a good idea (vertical search engine for tv/movie content with alerts for shows you want to watch, close caption searching, recommendations, community site.) I see parts of it being built by others but still not as good as what we had 3 years ago. I would use the app today if it still lived.
The major learning points from the failure are 1) Bootstrap the company. Don't require VC funding to get started. We spent to much time chasing after money and not enough getting users 2) Get customers to pay you money is a lot easier than getting ad revenue. You need a lot of users to make advertising pay off. You only need a few paying customers. 3) Listen to your gut. We followed the bad advice of an adviser that caused us pivot in the wrong direction and kept us working when we should have pulled the plug. 4) Release early, release often. We waited to long to release and start getting users.
So the business itself was a failure but I learned a lot of good things and I'm in a better position 3 years later than I would have been if I didn't do the startup.