Back in March, Chad took the time to write up a history of his developing interest in this space, and I find that history gives a lot of context to what must be a tough decision now:
The baseball metaphor actually struck me as a little odd, why a foul out not a fly out?
And, given you haven't had a recorded out but instead just failed to find the success needed to get on base, perhaps you just kept fouling the ball off until you got tired and decided to retire :)
Same here - I like both actually. If you foul out in basketball it indicates that you were playing a hard, scrappy game, so again, not too far from the world of startups. The baseball interpretation has the added implication that instead of "hitting a home run" or even a "single" or a "double", you got things off the ground but didn't get past that.
Kudos for having the gumption to write this all down. Best of luck at Twilio. They're lucky to have landed you.
If you understand the games it's about. I have no idea what the rules of baseball are, how you win, how you lose, etc. (I'm French) and found the whole baseball paragraph hard to understand.
In the end it seems to mean that you can lose trying, or lose not even trying -- but if one's not trying why are they even in the field?
IMHO such posts should be more informative: what was the original plan to make money, what was tried, what failed and why; who were supposed to be the paying customers: users, carriers, phone makers, app developers or...?
And what were the operating costs? Wouldn't it have been possible to keep it running "on the side"?
As such it's a sad story that makes us sad; but we'd like to learn more.
It would be really interesting if you could share more of your experiences as a startup founder and some feedback to upcoming founders regarding how your startup ended up this way.
We are embarking on this adventure ourselves, and right now our biggest disadvantage is experience in the startup arena. We work hard, we are passionate and we have great ideas... just like you. But I believe that is not enough.
In the next few months, if you can muster up the energy (and desire) I think the community would love to hear a post-mortem and/or some thoughts about how you could have pivoted into a successful business model.
Keep your head up, the experienced gained is invaluable!
It is often said that failing with your startup can also be a good thing because it shows at least that you have been willing to try and learned a lot. Frankly speaking, I always felt this mantra a little bit "too good to be true" and that if your venture does not work out, you are screwed.
But after following Chad (and also Paul) with their ventures (even though I don't know them personally) and I just feel like this is one example where it is true: Yes, it didn't work out, yes, a lot of money was invested and not earned back.But ultimately a lot was learned and Chad has shown his development skills and ability to ship something. The business model was not perfect, maybe the market was non-existant. But the way they have run this project and the way they are handling it now gives them more credibility than trying to hide a stagnant startup.
We were going to make that news public, but then we were advised against it. So we didn't. I still have the post in my drafts folder. I will post it someday as it does contain some important lessons.
Yes, I did. I'm debating whether or not to write much detail about this in a separate post... but the gist is that the big companies were not interested in acquiring a one-person team, literally destroying any chance of a talent acquisition. Another strike against single-founders.
That may be a strike against being a single founder, but it seems like a strike in favour of single-founder startups: Because they don't have "talent acquisition" as an exit option, they're more likely to avoid dying.
More likely to run to $0 and shut down entirely, vs. a talent acquisition (which always looks better than a shut down, and has a chance of returning a tiny bit of capital to angels who invested early)?
Sounds like another point in favor of multi-founder startups. I wouldn't consider even a talent acquisition to be "dying" if the founders end up happy about it.
There were certainly many factors that I don't know about at play here, but it makes me wonder if there's more truth to all that talk about single founder startups than I thought.
Whatever the exact reasons for this unfortunate event are, maybe a second founder could have helped averting this.
Oh, damn. I honestly thought that Notifo would hit it big. FWIW and if it's of any consolation, Chad, you are not the only one who spent a lot of time on something that did not work out in the end. Been through that and killing a project as hard and unpleasant as it is, it made me feel liberated at some point shortly after. And as they say - what doesn't break you makes you stronger. So there is an upside.
The idea (of a central event feed) still stands, but as with any general idea there is a considerable amount of luck involved with acquiring the critical mass that leads to the exponent.
I, for one, never understood what Notifo did. I tried hard, but I promise I have no idea what it did. I knew it notified people, but not how to make use of it.
That being said, I am a bit sad (really, I am) to see someone quit his startup to join an upstart. I would rather see him go through YC again and surprise us with his next idea. I am sure this Jazzy Chad has a couple of more ideas, but maybe he is a bit burned and wants to take a break.
Take your break, Mr Jazzy, but be sure to return and push something out again.
Well, as an example - every time someone reply's to a comment I made on Hacker News I get a notification on my Phone thanks to Notifo.
Same with mentions on IRC.
So yeah, I'm a bit disappointed that it's going away - I liked the app, and was always surprised I didn't know more people using it. I wish Chad all the best for the future, and thanks for your hard work.
Another example, letting the office PBX send a notification for missed calls through notifo. I always figured it was a niche product, but it should have been big enough to succeed.
It was a notification system. An event happens somewhere (like someone mentions you on Twitter, or replies on HN), and you get a near-instant notification on your phone, tablet and/or desktop. Felt somehow better that old good email.
Thank you for your post as it gives us a much needed dose of realism when everyone dreams of hitting it big. It's not to disuade people from following their dream, but to realize the extent of challenges they will face.
I look forward to your post-mortem article. I wish more startups who do not "make it" come out and write about their experience so that we don't hear only about the successful ones. I certainly admire people who are successful, but I truly respect those who fail and are not afraid to admit it and learn from what went wrong.
This is so hard to say that as a founder. You've went through all the YC programs, see lots of friends/startups succeed, you keep hearing things like "Never give up".. but there's come a point where "You see things from a new perspective" and at this moment you need to decide either to continue, stop or pivot.
I always liked the concept behind notifo.. but also was wondering how it'd make money. But then, you can think of hundreds of startups and think the same way "How would they make money!?" and still, they're there for years and years. (Twitter someone?)
If it weren't for the generous free tier, you'd never say that. File storage is something people pay good money for, even when it doesn't have magic sync and sharing
Yes that's very true - I have a Dropbox Pro account (and CloudApp Pro and Google Paid Storage and Evernote Premium - yes, I do see the overlap in all this cloud storage) myself, but then it does feel like Dropbox have vastly more free users than paid - while this is of course brilliant for momentum, it feels as though Dropbox isn't taken as seriously as it could be as a paid storage service, given their generous free quota leaving most users without a real need to upgrade and those with greater storage needs eschewing Dropbox for other, older, more established alternatives (who also often provide more storage space). It seems that those of us who really cherish Dropbox's unique features are the ones left going after Dropbox Pro accounts...
Also, for that matter, Dropbox did initially put out their current set of paid storage plans as an 'interim' measure, until they could settle on a wider range of rates more suited to the general public (there is a fair amount of opinion suggesting that their prices are rather steep, even given the awesome extra features they provide...)
Yeah.. I felt like Dropbox was easy to figure out how to make money (I.e. pay for storage). However, what seemed impossible was, "There's already x,y,z competitors in the field with years in advance..." And now, look at them :)
When I read posts like this, the full acceptance of failure by US entrepreneurs, startups & business, I lament this positive trait isn't acknowledged in my country.
Same here. He's rightfully going to be treated as an experienced individual, whereas in my country you'd have an "I'm a failure" sign tattooed on your forehead by now, with nobody willing to do business with you again. This is what makes SV great.
Had a really interesting discussion group yesterday with the CEO (several billion a year revenue company) about the difference in attitude to planning and fear of failure in the English-speaking world versus Germany.
In English, if I want to get two things done, I aim for 5, hit three, and happily fail humiliatingly on my other two goals. In Germany, 'a plan is a promise', and anything you publically disclose absolutely must be completed.
Sounds like you came a long, long way. As a former little league baseball and musician myself, who has started my fair share of bands, and other ventures, I can totally relate to the feeling of putting so much in, and having to hang 'em up when things just aren't working out for one reason or another. For whatever it's worth, consider this: even the most talented, hardworking ballplayers never even make it to the show. Unlike those guys, there's not really an age limit in your field, and instead of needing a few hundred pros (or thousand, if you count the minors too) as a software engineer you'll have lots of time and opportunity to get back up to the plate (too many sports metaphors -- is there such a thing?)
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[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 121 ms ] threadhttp://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/03/14/twitter-and-me.html
And, given you haven't had a recorded out but instead just failed to find the success needed to get on base, perhaps you just kept fouling the ball off until you got tired and decided to retire :)
Kudos for having the gumption to write this all down. Best of luck at Twilio. They're lucky to have landed you.
If you understand the games it's about. I have no idea what the rules of baseball are, how you win, how you lose, etc. (I'm French) and found the whole baseball paragraph hard to understand.
In the end it seems to mean that you can lose trying, or lose not even trying -- but if one's not trying why are they even in the field?
IMHO such posts should be more informative: what was the original plan to make money, what was tried, what failed and why; who were supposed to be the paying customers: users, carriers, phone makers, app developers or...?
And what were the operating costs? Wouldn't it have been possible to keep it running "on the side"?
As such it's a sad story that makes us sad; but we'd like to learn more.
It would be really interesting if you could share more of your experiences as a startup founder and some feedback to upcoming founders regarding how your startup ended up this way.
We are embarking on this adventure ourselves, and right now our biggest disadvantage is experience in the startup arena. We work hard, we are passionate and we have great ideas... just like you. But I believe that is not enough.
So anything else you could share would be great.
- http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/05/02/startups-are-hard.html
- http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/08/31/applying-to-yc-as-a-sin...
I have a couple more that are written, but now is not the time to post them.
Whenever you feel is right, share your thoughts. :D
In the next few months, if you can muster up the energy (and desire) I think the community would love to hear a post-mortem and/or some thoughts about how you could have pivoted into a successful business model.
Keep your head up, the experienced gained is invaluable!
But after following Chad (and also Paul) with their ventures (even though I don't know them personally) and I just feel like this is one example where it is true: Yes, it didn't work out, yes, a lot of money was invested and not earned back.But ultimately a lot was learned and Chad has shown his development skills and ability to ship something. The business model was not perfect, maybe the market was non-existant. But the way they have run this project and the way they are handling it now gives them more credibility than trying to hide a stagnant startup.
Also, I had no idea Paul Stamatiou left to join Picplum. How often do YC alums jump from a still running startup to another? Is it common?
Sounds like another point in favor of multi-founder startups. I wouldn't consider even a talent acquisition to be "dying" if the founders end up happy about it.
Edit: I just found a post about your experience on your blog, thanks for writing about it already. For others who are curious about this, see here: http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/08/31/applying-to-yc-as-a-sin...
Whatever the exact reasons for this unfortunate event are, maybe a second founder could have helped averting this.
The idea (of a central event feed) still stands, but as with any general idea there is a considerable amount of luck involved with acquiring the critical mass that leads to the exponent.
That being said, I am a bit sad (really, I am) to see someone quit his startup to join an upstart. I would rather see him go through YC again and surprise us with his next idea. I am sure this Jazzy Chad has a couple of more ideas, but maybe he is a bit burned and wants to take a break.
Take your break, Mr Jazzy, but be sure to return and push something out again.
Same with mentions on IRC.
So yeah, I'm a bit disappointed that it's going away - I liked the app, and was always surprised I didn't know more people using it. I wish Chad all the best for the future, and thanks for your hard work.
I look forward to your post-mortem article. I wish more startups who do not "make it" come out and write about their experience so that we don't hear only about the successful ones. I certainly admire people who are successful, but I truly respect those who fail and are not afraid to admit it and learn from what went wrong.
I always liked the concept behind notifo.. but also was wondering how it'd make money. But then, you can think of hundreds of startups and think the same way "How would they make money!?" and still, they're there for years and years. (Twitter someone?)
Also, for that matter, Dropbox did initially put out their current set of paid storage plans as an 'interim' measure, until they could settle on a wider range of rates more suited to the general public (there is a fair amount of opinion suggesting that their prices are rather steep, even given the awesome extra features they provide...)
When I read posts like this, the full acceptance of failure by US entrepreneurs, startups & business, I lament this positive trait isn't acknowledged in my country.
In English, if I want to get two things done, I aim for 5, hit three, and happily fail humiliatingly on my other two goals. In Germany, 'a plan is a promise', and anything you publically disclose absolutely must be completed.
Do you mind sharing any lessons? What's the cost like for running Notifo?
The world has lots of stories on starting up, but way too few on shutting down. If you can bear to, please write about your experiences!
All the best at Twilio :-)