Failed Start-Ups and what they learned from it

Recently multiple stories have popped up on Hacker News about failed Start-ups. I think this is amazing, because these brave people enable others to learn from their mistakes.

The ones thought would be nice to share are the one of 99 dresses, My startup failed, and this is what it feels like… and the one of Dinnr, Seven lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr.

The articles share a story, but the first is a lot more about the emotional involvement, where the second is more written towards the practical lessons in a at times humorous way.

They are both worth a read and are around ~20 minutes each. So if you have a great idea or about to throw all your time, life and energy into your start-up, you should spare that time ;)

A quote I picked up from the 99dresses article is about how you have to be in the right mind set, indestructible and the person that believes in your idea the most:

As things were looking bleak at 99dresses I started seeking out these stories, desperately hoping for someone — anyone — to relate to. Failing is lonely and isolating. Every time I’d scroll through my Facebook feed all my startup friends were launching new products on Techcrunch, announcing their new fundraising rounds or acquisition, and posting photos of their happy teams. Ask any founder how they’re doing and you’ll hear something positive. Whether that’s the truth or not, that’s what we’re trained to say.

From Seven lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr I have taken the following quote, because it's really important, but also pretty funny:

However, we committed the big mistake of presenting people with the idea and asking them if they liked it and would buy it. And when people said yes, WE thought they meant “launch it and I will buy”. In reality, they meant “I’m not entirely excluding the possibility that one day, when Ocado trucks run out of gas, supermarket doors get blocked by red-hot lava and restaurant waiters will, due to a mysterious leak of radioactive fumes emanating from commercial kitchen equipment, all be zombified and eat patrons’ brains, yes, in that case I might be tempted to purchase a trial product from you. Once. Then I’ll take a risk with the zombies.”