What do people usually do after they run a failed startup?

http://www.victusspiritus.com/2011/01/27/what-do-people-usually-do-after-they-run-a-failed-startup/

by messel • 15 years ago

20 20 15 years ago

victusspiritus.com

chopsueyar• 15 years ago

Get an MBA?

cletus• 15 years ago

The MBA normally precedes the failed startup...

htsh• 15 years ago

Disheartened with technology during the lull after the first dot com bubble burst, I went to law school.

After finishing up and working at a law firm for a year, I realized that I'd rather fail at startups than do that for a living.

phlux• 15 years ago

Did you study IP law?

That may help you succeed at failing to fail.

JoeAltmaier3• 15 years ago

Start another one!

bartonfink2• 15 years ago

Whatever the hell they want to? Sheesh - it's a failed startup, not the loss of a child. People fail at all sorts of things all the time, and the best way to guarantee an eventual success is to keep stepping up to the plate.

JoeAltmaier3• 15 years ago

Easy to say. But a "failed startup" is often coincidental with a failed relationship, failed self-image, drained savings, eroded health.

Starting another one right away can be a 'rebound' decision. It can be helpful to wait a little while, maybe work at some mundane job until you get your perspective back.

But yes, keep positive, assume you will soon be back in the game.

bartonfink2• 15 years ago

Sure - I understand all of those consequences, but none of them are showstoppers that should preclude you from doing something else. It may not be ideal, but in life you play the hand you're dealt, and getting up from the table (metaphorically speaking) is RARELY a sound decision. Like I said, they can do whatever the hell they want to. The worst possible choice out of "whatever the hell they want to", though, is nothing.

law• 15 years ago

> But yes, keep positive, assume you will soon be back in the game.

You never left the game. Failed start-ups are as much a part of it as anything else; as long as you're doing the right things, you will always be +EV as time progresses.

yesimahuman2• 15 years ago

Wasn't anything more to me than a failed startup and a great experience. How you could have a failed self image after being your own boss, managing people, making products people want, and pushing yourself to grow personally is beyond me. Letting it ruin your relationship is not the fault of the startup but your behavior towards those you love or their lack of respect for your work and passion.

what-to-do• 15 years ago

Try to understand what went wrong, take a break, and scout for the next opportunity, patiently.

zrgiu• 15 years ago

they start their next startup. Until they stop failing.

jacquesm• 15 years ago

Do it again, but better. Typically with a higher chance of success and re-using all the connections they've made during the running of the previous one. There is no stigma attached to failing at starting up because the rest of the business world knows how hard it is and those that are successful likely have had a few failures themselves to look back to.

bowmande• 15 years ago

It is interesting because we put a lot of ourselves in the code we write and the ideas pursued. So when something fails, It can be a process to get over it. Although trying and failing is better than never taking a risk.

dlevine• 15 years ago

After my startup failed (and all of the pivots we could think of didn't work), I tried a few other ideas with different partners. None of those worked, and I ended up doing consulting work (mostly for other startups) for a while. It paid ok, but I realized that I wasn't really doing my own thing, and I could do significantly better by working for someone else. I also kind of realized that I just wasn't ready to go out and start something else for various reasons.

A pretty interesting startup made me a pretty good offer, and after consulting for them for a month, I figured that I might as well take the stock options if I was working for someone else. Worked there for a while, and then they got acquired by a big company. Got to see an acquisition first-hand, which was definitely interesting. Now I'm working at a big company, which I never thought would happen again, but I guess that I see it in a different way.

I'm not really sure how I got from point A to point B, but it has been an interesting ride. And I think that pretty soon I'll be ready to start something else.

biot• 15 years ago

This had me thinking about that interview question:

"In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?"

Replace girl with "failed startup" and boy with "successful startup" and the answer must be the same... the overall success rate of all startups must be 50%, assuming that people always try for a successful one after they fail.

Of course, that means there will be those who succeed on their first try and you might be the one that experiences twenty failures in a row...

buckwild• 15 years ago

You only really fail when you stop trying.

What do people usually do after they run a failed startup?

Related Stories