| It would help to know why you're failing. - Do your project ideas never get finished? - If not, is it because of technical issues that make it difficult to get your product working? - If not, is it because you lose interest or the people you work with lose interest? - If not, is it because there are non-technical factors outside your control that you cannot successfully deal with (e.g. licensing agreements)? - Do your startups not get traction in the marketplace? - If so, is it because you're trying to unsuccessfully compete with a larger player in the field? - If so, is it because you're not waiting long enough, or your expectations are too high? - If so, is it because you've tried the standard promotional channels and nobody is paying attention? - If so, is it because the market has shifted in the period between inception and release in such a way your product is now redundant or obsolete? - Are your projects torpedoed by issues related to the people you are working with, if any? - Are your projects torpedoed by the fact that you run out of living expense money before they have a chance to catch on? Although all startups face some similar base set of failure modes, the challenges facing (e.g.) a robotics startup can be very different from those facing a consumer web-services startup trying to build the next Instagram. |
If I may, to split your into groups:
Things you don't finish: > - Do your project ideas never get finished? > - If not, is it because of technical issues that make it difficult to get your product working? > - If not, is it because you lose interest or the people you work with lose interest? > - If not, is it because there are non-technical factors outside your control that you cannot successfully deal with (e.g. licensing agreements)?
Ideas that fail because no one else is interested: > - If so, is it because you've tried the standard promotional channels and nobody is paying attention? > - If so, is it because the market has shifted in the period between inception and release in such a way your product is now redundant or obsolete?
Ideas that launch, but fail because of money/scaling issues: > - Do your startups not get traction in the marketplace? > - If so, is it because you're trying to unsuccessfully compete with a larger player in the field? > - If so, is it because you're not waiting long enough, or your expectations are too high? > - Are your projects torpedoed by the fact that you run out of living expense money before they have a chance to catch on?
Reasons that fail primarily due to interpersonal/stress reasons: > - Are your projects torpedoed by issues related to the people you are working with, if any?