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Has Your Startup Hit A Dead End? (markpeterdavis.com)
15 points by markpeterdavis on March 13, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments


tl;dr version:

Sometimes entrepreneurs get it wrong, and their product/idea isn't viable. In that case, keep at it for a while, then give up and move onto something else.

There, saved you a couple of minutes.


This article is just stating a truism. Of course not all startups are destined to succeed. In fact most are obviously destined to fail.

It sort of seems like the OA is trying to rebut Graham's assertion that the reason startups fail is because people stop working, and the subtle implication that no startup has to fail. However if that's the case, more exploration is needed to tease apart the case of the bad idea and the case of bad entrepreneur. Just saying "maybe your idea sucks" is not helpful. Maybe it's a problem for some entrepreneurs that they are willing to tweak everything except the core idea, but that's certainly not the case with the entrepreneurs I know.


This is a great point. I feel like soldiering on, especially if costs are low, can be the easy way out.

I mean, its not easy to go month after month with little or no positive feedback, but it doesn't require facing up to the hard choices figuring something like this out exposes. Hopefully there is an opportunity in this dead end - perhaps not the millions you were hoping for, but perhaps a way out, a way to end things with honor, maybe for a smaller payout, maybe rethinking your approach will reveal a smaller market opportunity, but something attainable, or get you to focus on winding it up rather than pressing onwards until you run out of steam.


hmmmm My startup did not really hit a dead end... but I am afraid of that it's me who hitted a dead end.




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