Welcome to the DeadPool: Startup Failures

Welcome to the DeadPool: Startup Failures
Written by Samuel in Online Business

Graveyard

TechCrunch is easily the best source for news about online companies and startups. One of the more instructive sections over there is their "DeadPool," a collection of companies that have ceased operations for one reason or another. Although it's always a little sad to see a company and its employees close shop, I also find it helpful to see in what ways a company can fail. The DeadPool list also keeps me and my ideas grounded in reality, realizing that failure is often a large part of success. That said, here are three startups that have ceased to be in the last few months.

ProtectMyPhotos
ProtectMyPhotos was basically an online file storage system that allowed syncing to your local files or Flickr. They launched in October 2007, spending 280K over the last year trying to gain traction for the service. Unfortunately, revenue didn't match spending, and when that happens, it's hard to stay afloat. Why did they fail? Well, despite creating a solid and easy to use service, online file storage is a highly competitive market, and others won out.

Possible Lesson: If you're going to chase a popular idea that has a lot of competition, you had better be the best (and work harder than the rest).

MingleNow
Begun in September 2006, MingleNow was a social network that tied its users to actual venues and events -- a sort of mySpace for your nightlife. But despite its great look, solid user base, and cooperation with many venues, it seems that Yahoo (who bought their parent company) has chosen to let MingleNow die. Perhaps the social network space is just too crowded. Or maybe people really don't want to link online and offline life. Either way, another startup gone...

Possible Lesson: The world can only support so many sites in a sector (social networking), no matter how hot that sector is.

Yappd
Lasting a total of two months before the founders moved on (probably hired elsewhere), Yappd was an unabashed Twitter clone -- but with pictures. Personally, I've always wondered why the world needs one Twitter, let alone two :) Still, Yappd didn't last, but it did look like the creators did okay.

Possible Lesson: Sometimes even clones can lead to opportunities -- as long as you get it "out there."

There's one other lesson to take away from these examples. Although these particular sites failed, the companies and founders behind them have also had their share of successes. Such is the nature of entrepreneurship...

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Community Comments

Brett
12/14/2007 9:05:49 AM

The best advice is to "get it out there."

I have always liked the idea that if you generate something you personally would use and have a huge interest in, you will work harder to achieve greater success. 9 times out of 10 our ideas are already implemented, but that shouldn't stop us from pursuing them.

There are always things you can do to make a project better than the next, and you really don't know if it will succeed or fail. Your audience will let you know that.

Don't let someone else's pitfalls discourage you from busting out that new idea, in the long run even the projects that fail have a huge return to their founders. Whether by other opportunities, or gaining experience there's always something to take away from them.

Robin
12/14/2007 9:29:26 AM

Cloning already successful ideas, unless you have a unique spin on it or a great deal of personal passion for the project, is always going to be a tough one to sell. As is starting a business "for the money", unless you already have a lot of money to push it (and even then far from a guarantee).

Far better I think to try and develop things that genuinely interest you into businesses that grow virally, and have it be something you're doing for life quality reasons as much as to make your next million. I blog and I freelance because I enjoy doing so, and sure it'd be great to see them develop into genuinely lucrative businesses, but frankly I'm doing it for the personal enjoyment and everything else is a bonus.

The internet is certainly getting plagued with various clones of pretty much the same service. As noted above with Yappd, sometimes it's clones of services that seem generally irrelevant anyway, and certainly not a market that's open to wider competition.

Soni
12/14/2007 1:03:36 PM

I respect anyone who's willing to at least try to make their idea successful because far too many people sit and ponder an idea but never actually do it. But its definitely a good idea to look at other's mistakes before (or during) the leap.

Landon Beaver
12/16/2007 7:44:49 PM

I like your online / offline separation suggestion as a possible reason why MingleNow failed. This may be partly true, but I believe it's because most online people are already content with an online social network and they don't see the need to join another. Perhaps myspace or facebook is their Coca Cola, so why should they settle for RC cola. If this is the case, other social networks need to figure out a better marketing strategy.

Enjoy all of your posts. Thanks Sam.

Steven Anderson
3/30/2008 4:06:24 PM

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