[andi999]

Well the answer is probably in 95% of the cases 'not enough sales', but it wont tell you anything. Also I believe even in hindsight you dont know what was really the problem (in the sense that you know what could have been done to make it succesful)

[mdorazio]

Not sure I agree with that. Most astute founders can tell you pretty accurately why they didn't achieve enough sales to offset costs, they're just unlikely to do so for strangers because it usually means admitting at least some amount of self-fault. I know I can give a shortlist for my own failed businesses that's a lot more detailed than "not enough sales".

[andi999]

Yes, but is the list really true (in an objective sense). I mean why didnt you act on it, or why was it only know afterwards. (Of course the list might contain a lot of unchangable items, but this would mean the startup was impossible)

[fuzzfactor]

One of the real bad ones is _more sales wouldn't have helped anyway_.

[andi999]

Yes, I realized some answer might be: we were too slow another company took the cake. But it is difficult to say what other people can learn from it (be swift is probably what everybody knows)