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Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
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Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
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All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table
Founder Impostor Syndrome Never Goes Away

7 Big Lessons From Companies That Failed

Founder Society

7 Big Lessons From Companies That Failed

Question: What is one major lesson you learned from a failed company?

The answers below are provided by members of FounderSocietyan invitation-only organization comprised of ambitious startup founders and business owners.

Don’t Stop Innovating

Before there was Yelp, there was CitySearch. It was a similar concept and was the go-to site for finding places around the city. But just as quickly as it rose, it declined. It stopped innovating and updates to the site were slow. From the outside, it seemed as if hubris and failing to innovate killed them. The lesson learned for me is when you stop innovating, your company fades away.

John Arroyo
Arroyo Labs, Inc.

Don’t Rush to Expand Geographically

As the founder of a rapidly growing food startup, I’m constantly tempted to grow into every geographical region possible. But, after studying the failure of Webvan (and the challenges that even more recent startups like GoodEggs are facing as it expands geographically), I’ve decided to concentrate our efforts on going deep into each region as opposed to going wide.

Lisa Curtis
Kuli Kuli

Fear Shouldn’t Be a Driving Force

The inception of an idea may come from feelings of scarcity. Formulations for that idea may be influenced by insecurity. Fear of not having enough in life may lead you to want more for the wrong reasons, and fear may push you to make nearsighted decisions. “Babysitting fear” means you both endorse, soothe and are manipulated by it; which in business, leads to failure.

O. Liam Wright
True Interaction

Be Mindful of Trends

The one that sticks out in my mind is Blockbuster. They were cruising along and were even opening new stores as the world around them was changing rapidly. Then, boom! They were gone seemingly overnight. That really opened my eyes that you need to keep the future in mind and keep tabs on the marketplace. At the time, it was the first one I saw ignore trends like they had blinders on.

Marty McDonald
Bad Rhino Inc

Replace Your Product if Needed

There’s this concept that you must be willing to cannibalize your current business, building the new model that will destroy your current one. Kodak is the poster child for that. They famously had the patent for the digital camera, and they were doing so well in the film business that they let the opportunity to reinvent slip by — and others took it.

Aaron Sloup
Lantern

Compensate Your Suppliers

From Style for Hire, I learned how to compensate the suppliers of my product (personal styling) to retain talent. You need to test out different iterations of how to compensate your sales people in order to make your compensation plan attractive, long-term and scalable. After small tweaks to a compensation plan, we learned that we had to pivot our business model to fully develop a long-term solution.

Lisa Dolan
Savile Row Society

Don’t Let Ego Get in the Way

What caused Western Union Telegraph Company and many others to miss out on millions? Bad marketing? Failure to dream? Poor opt-in pages? Nah, it’s much simpler (and pathetic): egos. The president of the company said there would be no use for the telephone, so he turned down the chance to buy the “electric toys” patent for $100,000. Really, he didn’t want it because he didn’t think of it.

Antonio Calabrese
Boonle

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