Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup

[prashantdesale]

I and 2 of my friends developed Onista (http://www.onista.com) a while back and we also invested some money (not a whole lot) for hosting and legal bills (like forming corp, patent investigations and all) We launched it, and somehow we never got to do much on marketing the app so it never picked up (or may be it was a wrong idea to begin with) At this moment all 3 of us lost the interest and want to shut down Onista to pursue other ideas independently because our time commitments are not same anymore.

What are our options? - Try to sell Onista? Not sure if we can even do that since there is not much traffic. Don;t even know if we can do this. - Just shutdown servers, dissolve corp and move on?

Any advice on what is the best way to move on?

Thanks in advance

[robotrout]

First, you need to write up a post for HN, detailing what niche it was that you were trying to fill, some of the obstacles you overcame, and why you think you failed. It will be educational for you to do it, and for us to read it.

Second, I think you just pull the plug. You can put an announcement on your homepage, giving your users notice, and email them, as well, if you have their emails. You could even send them the post detailing your journey and why it is ending, to give them a bit of a feeling of closure, and not feeling just left out in the cold.

Take the code. A lot of that back end stuff that you've written, you'll build off of for your next site.

Good luck in your next venture. 2010 could be your year.

[prashantdesale]

Certainly.. I do plan to write all my experience on what we were trying to do, what went wrong and what I myself will correct when I build next startup.

About pulling the plug, We are thinking around couple of months process. Like putting announcement as you suggested, and informing users and then pulling the plug.

Thanks

[jmathai]

Couldn't agree more. It is a fine line but start ups both require you to stick out the tough times but also know when to walk away. Definitely communicate with your users and don't drag it out. Reflect on what went right and wrong and use that at your next start up.

We wasted a lot of time because we knew our technology was worth something. In hindsight I wish we didn't drag it out. Weigh you options and make the best decision you can and don't look back.

[rms]

I think your site has to be worth something on Sitepoint.

[dualogy]

Most definitely. Looks like there are hundreds of products actively on sale there Right Now.

If you got that far without marketing, finding someone who's got those marketing skills and will but is looking for something pre-built to start from and expand upon will be fairly trivial, those people exist, lots of them in fact.

[dualogy]

Come to think of it, you could pull a minor publicity stunt (and attract more buyers) by simply putting Onista up for sale on... Onista.

[prashantdesale]

Thanks, Talking to Partners and see how we can sell it. We never sold sites in past and coded most of this ourselves, so were not sure if it is worth anything. But yes, Seems like we should at least give it a try. Need to find out how we can transfer domain names as well.

[LaPingvino]

Some questions: - Would you turn the service over to other people? - How many would you ask? - Would the service be easily translatable? - The video about how it works doesn't work. I would like to see some more information about the inner workings of the system. - Is the code easy to pick up and go on, or does it demand a lot of study? - Do you have manuals/documentation about the inner workings?

I have been thinking about creating such a site like this, but in Esperanto (I know, small market BUT a lot of people from a lot of places who know a lot of languages). We do have a great working of a non-auction working marketplace ("Marktplaats") in the Netherlands (now bought by eBay) and as I am good with languages (I speak 9 languages to several extents by now) I would love to have such a service in an international fashion, and eBay just doesn't fit for me (for one instance, it's waaaaay to messy).

I have to warn you however, I'm 20 years old and have more ideas than money, so don't trust I will do everything you will profit from. It's just that I like the idea of the site as I see it now because of personal preferences, and I would love to make it something great if I get the chance :).

[prashantdesale]

Video is also available at http://www.vimeo.com/1594866 Let me what inner workings of the system ud like to know. App is on PHP, MySQL. Most of the JS/CSS is coded by ourselves. Documentation, there is some and there is PRD as well that explains how things are supposed to work. About it being easily translatable, I don't know because we never thought of outside US market while developing it. So seriously I don't know. I assume there will be work.

[LaPingvino]

There are certainly points I see you could improve on, but generally I like the things I see in the video (but the video really is a bit too long, and not best quality; a Getting Started link would have worked much better I think...). I think I can make it translatable, although it will take some time and it won't be worth to quit a job and get it running (more of a side task).

Completely aside of that, I'm based in the Netherlands so just taking it over and running on probably won't do it, it will more be like a great codebase to start with. Talking about that, you could think of making it OpenSource for small community needs; I think many people would be keen to jump on that and improve things a lot.

I have added my LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to my HN profile, so you will be able to contact me personally if you like.

[wensing]

I remember you telling me about Onista at the YC offices back at Startup School '07.

[prashantdesale]

Yep, I remember we discussed Onista and Sormpulse. Hope all is going well at your end.

[wensing]

Thanks for asking. We're still going. We are at a critical point where we need to go from seasonally-popular to popular year round. Have the plan, now just need to execute.

[robotrout]

http://www.onista.com/

[blizkreeg]

I think it would greatly benefit the HN community if you write up a lessons learned and share it.

How long did you guys work on it (post-launch marketing/promotion time) before deciding to pack up?

[snitko]

I think you probably should put a huge message on the site, saying you're shutting down, so that those who still go there occasionally, wouldn't be surprised too much. After all, they are your users, so you've got to respect them till the end. Also make sure you prevent new users from signing up.

[tibbon]

Very true. I've seen too many startups recently do a 'silent' laying off of everyone, closing doors, but leaving the servers up and the community to rot. The users don't even know that no one's driving the boat- but that servers are just still running because the prepaid their bills for the year. Unfortunate really.