April 4, 2017 @ 2:30 p.m.
Autopsy of a slow train wreck: The life and death of a Django startup
Everyone knows the story: armed with nothing more than a laptop and a dream, a couple of plucky geeks decide to take on the world: disrupting, innovating, and subverting their way to success. In just a few short months, they take a ramshackle collection of software and turn it into a money-printing factory that enables them to drive off into the sunset in gold-plated Lamborghinis.
But it isn't always like that. In fact, it *usually* isn't. Venture Capitalists (VC's) make their investments betting that 15 out of 20 businesses they invest in will outright fail, 4 will maybe get a payoff, and 1 will be a massive success. We always hear about the 1 - the Facebooks, the Instagrams, the WhatsApps. But we very rarely hear about the 15 that don't succeed. And that's only counting the VC-funded companies - there are many other companies that never make it past hobby stage, or live a short, privately funded life on the back of consulting income before being quietly shut down.
This is a case study of one such a failure - TradesCloud. What went right? What went wrong? And what you can learn from TradesCloud's mistakes if you're contemplating starting a business of your own?
But it isn't always like that. In fact, it *usually* isn't. Venture Capitalists (VC's) make their investments betting that 15 out of 20 businesses they invest in will outright fail, 4 will maybe get a payoff, and 1 will be a massive success. We always hear about the 1 - the Facebooks, the Instagrams, the WhatsApps. But we very rarely hear about the 15 that don't succeed. And that's only counting the VC-funded companies - there are many other companies that never make it past hobby stage, or live a short, privately funded life on the back of consulting income before being quietly shut down.
This is a case study of one such a failure - TradesCloud. What went right? What went wrong? And what you can learn from TradesCloud's mistakes if you're contemplating starting a business of your own?