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37Coins developed a new Bitcoin platform. In 2014, they announced that providing Bitcoin transfer across different regions proved to be impossible.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Johann Barbie, Jonathan Zobro, Songyi Lee
Country:
United States
Industry:
Finances
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
99dresses was a fashion app that offered trades of second-hand designer dresses between users. It operated for a year but had to shut it down in 2014.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Nikki Durkin
Country:
Australia
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Admazely offered retargeting tools for businesses. They shut down in 2013 when they ran short on financing and didn't figure out how to secure more cash.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
David Björklund, Peter Vilsholm Therkildsen, Sylwia Erhardt-Bednarska, Søren Holbech Nielsen
Country:
Denmark
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Anki aimed to intergrate robotics and IoT with kids' toys and games but shut down in April 2019 after failure to raise funding.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Boris Sofman, Hanns Tappeiner, Mark Palatucci
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2019
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
The Argyle Social was a social media marketing tool. The leading social media platforms change their APIs every time, which led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Adam Covati
Country:
United States
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
ArsDigita was a Web Development Company established in 1997. Their decline was ascribed to an inexperienced external CEO and had to shut down in 2001.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Philip Greenspun, Tracy Adams, Ben Adida, Eve Andersson, Olin Shivers, Aurelius Prochazka, Jin Choi
Country:
United States
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
1997
Closed in:
2002
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
Circa had the mission of ‘fixing’ what was wrong with journalism. They suffered a financial breakdown and were copied by giants in the news sector.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Arsenio Santos, Ben Huh, Matt Galligan
Country:
United States
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Dazo was a food-tech startup based in Bangalore which emerged as a “food on demand” company. Fierce competition and lack of funding led to Dazo's failure.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Monica Rastogi, Shashaank Shekhar Singhal
Country:
India
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
Desti was a traveling and mapping iPad app that used AI to help planning a trip. Although users found it useful, they ended up booking on other platforms.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Imri Goldberg, Mosi Shuchman, Nadav Gur
Country:
United States
Industry:
Travel
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Dinner Lab offered a culinary experience with a group of strangers in an unusual place. They faced several problems, including the diner's timing.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Brian Bordainick, Francisco Robert, Zach Kupperman
Country:
United States
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Flud was a social news reader platform. They were unable to raise additional funding for their operations and eventually ran out of cash.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Bobby Ghoshal, Matthew Ausonio
Country:
United States
Industry:
Productivity
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Frankly.me was a Q&A social platform that wasn’t able to raise the necessary round of funding. That is why the CEO of Frankly decided to shut it down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Abhishek Gupta, Nikunj Jain
Country:
India
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of PMF
You can read more about their failure here.
Hubhaus offered an online platform to rent a house and find people willing to live with you. They even achieved PMF, but COVID came and they shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Kerry Jones, Shruti Merchant, Sloane Yu
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2020
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Timing
You can read more about their failure here.
LayerVault helped you store, track, review, and deliver design work. However, they were unable to secure additional capital to sustain their services.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Allan Grinshtein, Kelly Sutton
Country:
United States
Industry:
Design
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Moped was a free social app. It had not enough entertaining and fast-growing content that could attract a broad mass of users. It closed after 16 years.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Schuyler Deerman
Country:
Germany
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
1998
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
Poliana's aim was to bring order to the USA political system. They had low market demand and ran out of funds even after implementing 3 business models.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Grayson Carroll, Patrick Cason, Seth Whiting, Shawn Whiting
Country:
United States
Industry:
Analytics
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
RewardMe was a real-time intelligent CRM Platform for Local Commerce. They wanted to scale up the company prematurely, which lead to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Jun Loayza, Stephen Johnson, Yu-kai Chou
Country:
United States
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
RoomsTonite was a last-minute hotel booking app for people traveling to India. They raised $1.5M in funding but the money didn't arrive and they shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Suresh John
Country:
India
Industry:
Travel
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2017
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Sharinger was a marketplace for musicians to rent their instruments. They focused on a market that was too small and the business model was unsustainable.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Mircea Gabriel Eftemie
Country:
Denmark
Industry:
Music
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Shuddle was the go-to service for parents that needed someone to drive their kids to school. Parents found it disappointing, so they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Nick Allen, Rodrigo Prudencio
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Sidecar was a transportation company. They had top-notch technology but no marketing strategy, and could only become useful in high-density cities.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Jahan Khanna, Sunil Paul
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
SpoonRocket was a food delivery service making healthy meals each day. When their financial situation declined, they failed to fundraise to stay afloat.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Anson Tsui, Steven Hsiao
Country:
United States
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
TakeEatEasy enabled restaurants to provide a reliable delivery service for their customers. Their margins were insufficient and closed doors after 3 years.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Adrien Roose, Chloé Roose, Jean-Christophe Libbrecht, Karim Slaoui
Country:
Belgium
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
Utrip was a travel planning startup that used AI to create personalized itineraries. Keeping the recommendation engine alive was too much for them.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Gilad Berenstein, Yair Berenstein
Country:
United States
Industry:
Travel
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2019
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Verelo was a Canadian startup that offered web monitoring services from multiple locations. Not enough traction made the company shut down in 2012.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
McGrath, Michael Curry
Country:
Canada
Industry:
Analytics
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2012
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Wantful was an e-Commerce founded in 2011. After experiencing exponential growth, it shut down in 2013 due to stiff competition from other companies.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
John Poisson
Country:
United States
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
+10,000
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
WOW Air was the Icelandic answer to RyanAir for low-cost air travel in Europe. The cause of failure was that they wanted to become too big too fast.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Skuli Mogensen
Country:
Iceland
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2019
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Zirtual was a virtual assistant marketplace for busy entrepreneurs. Its management and the high burn rate brought the firm on the verge of bankruptcy.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Collin Vine, Erik Jensen, Maren Kate Donovan
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Autto.in was an on-demand doorstep car service provider, created by Deepak in 2017. Soon after launching, a co-founder joined him and they started marketing the startup, spending a lot of money in customer acquisition. As money burnt, they decided to reach investors, who put them pressure in growing fast. After some months, they decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Deepak Murthy
Country:
India
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
James is a IT professional who decided to start a business on a “IT-manager-for-hire” type model. He built the company with really few resources and tools and started looking for clients. At peak, he was earning £2,500, but after some years, he had to shut down as he realized his business model was completely broken.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
James Cort
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2014
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
The Birdy was a simple app to track spending habits. Corey never figured out how to monetize it which also caused scaling issues.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Corey Maass
Country:
United States
Industry:
Finances
Started in:
2009
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Boston Apartment Hub was an apartment listing site for the Boston area. The idea was probably too ahead of its time.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Jon Sherman
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2006
Closed in:
2007
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
BusyMind was a simple app that guided people through basic breathing and observation exercises. Lack of time destroyed the startup.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Kevin Lamping
Country:
United States
Industry:
Health
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2014
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
Flux was a modular multi messaging client. They raised a small angel round of 70K € and invested another 15K €. A combination of many issues led to their failure.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Jan Johannes
Country:
Germany
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
Tarun co-founded Freshconnect, an online B2B marketplace for fresh agricultural produce like fruits & vegetables. After making mistakes like lack of focus and bad hiring, they couldn't secure a funding round and eventually got acqui-hired by another company.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Tarun Gupta
Country:
India
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2018
Closed in:
2020
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
GawkBox was a platform where viewers of live streams could play mobile games to donate real money to streamers. Chris co-founded this as his first startup and he was able to successfully raise $4.4M in venture funding, which the startup invested in marketing until they achieved 500k users and more than $1M in revenue. However, multiple mistakes and a series of reasons led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Christopher Brownridge
Country:
United States
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2019
Funding Amount:
$1M-$5M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Jeff Orr and two friends in college started Gulp- an app to pay bar cover. Gulp was meant to replace the inconvenience of having to go an ATM to pay for a bar’s cover fee, but with the lack of affiliate marketing knowledge and some bad unit economics, the friends quickly ran out of money.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Jeff Orr
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Michael Hawthorne Jr. was the founder of Atlanta-based consulting agency Hawthorne Strategies LLC. The agency worked with NFL Players to develop their philanthropic foundations and awareness campaigns to address community issues that they cared about. Read on to know how overwhelm, overwork, and failing to scale led the potentially-profitable business to the ground.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Michael Hawthorne
Country:
United States
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2013
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Pierre co-founded Hello Tyro, a platform matching students with internship opportunities in Belgian startups. They raised €250k and reached €4k MRR at their top but didn't find Product-Market Fit. They ran out of cash and filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Pierre Tillement
Country:
Belgium
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2020
Funding Amount:
$100K-$500K
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
HitroNaSplet was a hosting reseller company. They invested a lot of time in SEO and achieved the first page in Google, which let them start making some monthly revenue. However, after some months, they realized it didn't generate enough revenue to be worth the time invested, so they closed their doors.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Ales Krivec
Country:
Slovenia
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2008
Closed in:
2010
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Tobi Ogunwande is a Nigerian filmmaker who tried to build the Netflix for African short films as a result of his frustration to find great African movies. He partnered with a technical co-founder and soon after launching, they were seeing an average of 1,000 views on their films. However, they soon realized the market niche was too small and there wasn’t a clear business model. Eventually, they run out of money and shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Tobi Ogunwande
Country:
Nigeria
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
InoVVorX was an app development company that both worked for clients and built their own projects. The business did it well for some time, having a team of 25 people, making $300k from their services, and raising $100k. However, their plans on working on their own products (too many of them) meant they started burning all the money and eventually had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Maxim Dsouza
Country:
India
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
$100K-$500K
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
In 2011, Gabriel decided to build a Go Server that would launch new features every few weeks. He and his co-founder built and launched it in 2 months and in the following months, they raised $20,000 through a crowdfunding campaign. 1 year into running and they were shut down: product, engineering, and morale were the problems to blame.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Gabriel Benmergui
Country:
Argentina
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2012
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
After a decade of training and coaching, Andrew realized that stress was one of their clients’ main issues. That’s how he thought about creating a stress relief app. He partnered up with a dev company to build his idea while he took care of marketing. In few months, he got a great list of interested people, but COVID-19 changed things… the devs were no longer interested in building the app.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Andrew Laux
Country:
United States
Industry:
Health
Started in:
2019
Closed in:
2020
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
Lockpick Entertainment was a small game studio, that created Dreamlords, a famous MMORTS game. They did it well, making thousands per month. But they began to increase the scope, and after 6 years, they went out of business due to bankruptcy.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Jesper Bylund
Country:
Sweden
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2006
Closed in:
2012
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
Mishra Motors was to be the premier electric sports bike in India. Time and capital were the causes of its collapse.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Naveen Mishra
Country:
India
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Tim is a 32-years-old entrepreneur who in 2014 spent 10 months working on a Kickstarter project that would never launch: the Okami Pack. He quit his job to follow his dream of creating this survival pack, but as the months went over, he started running out of cash and saw himself forced to shut the startup down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Tim Chard
Country:
United States
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Logan was the CEO and CTO of Playdate, an on-demand social networking app. In two years, the startup grew to a team of 7 at its peak and 5,000 monthly active users. However, a collection of causes made the startup uninvestable and they eventually run out of money.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Logan Rado
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2019
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
QuickHaggle was a community in which online users could exchange their skills. However, just like in old age, with the barter system, it became really difficult to find people who were looking for your service, and in exchange, could carry out what you needed. After some months, Bilal decided to shut it down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Bilal Ahmad
Country:
Pakistan
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2011
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Steven was co-founder at Rent Nest, an app that allowed users to collect and share information on houses to rent. They raised some money from friends and were soon accepted on a startup accelerator. Throughout two years, the startup grew to $12k/mo, but they were spending +$40k/mo, which led them to eventually running out of funds and shutting down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Steven Glod
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2014
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Hunt was a software engineer at a Silicon Valley company when he decided to build Singulution, a point of sale & business management solution for multi-location vendors. However, after 10 months of work and $30,000 spent, he couldn’t validate his idea and ran out of money. The company was eventually absorbed by another startup.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Hunt Burdick
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
Will created Sport Draftr, a Daily Fantasy Sports site in the UK, offering leagues in the English Premier League, and UEFA Champions League. The product was loved, looked great, and it worked well, but due to a lack of knowledge in the gambling industry and changes in legislation, they were forced to close the company.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Will Laurenson
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
With 2 partners, Stefan co-founded Swipes, a company that developed productivity tools. The startup went through all stages and experiences, even almost fundraising $1M. However, over the 6 years of running, they weren’t able to really find product-market fit and they eventually ran out of money.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Stefan Vladimirov
Country:
Bulgaria
Industry:
Productivity
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2019
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
Matt created Tali, a timekeeping solution for lawyers powered by voice technology like Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. Like many first start-ups, they encountered many mistakes while trying to build. He created Tali in the effort to help lawyers more effectively keep track of their time instead of using pen and paper. Ultimately, due to a lack of traction and a misfit product market they had to wind things down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Matthew Volm
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2019
Funding Amount:
$500K-$1M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
The Nerd Cave was a new kind of retail model, a truly safe space for gamers of all kinds to go and enjoy their passion and hobby. They were doing it great, earning $16,000 AUD/month. But when they moved to a new location, they saw a big loss of income, which provoked the closure of their doors.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
David Desi
Country:
Australia
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Toygaroo was the Netflix of toys. Funded by a great group of people based in Los Angeles, the company appeared on Shark Tank asking $100k for a 10% stake. They ended up raising $250K in 2 funding rounds, but after some months, they had to shut down the company. Inventory and logistical costs were too high, so capital rapidly disappeared.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Phil Smy
Country:
United States
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2012
Funding Amount:
$100K-$500K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
After realizing no triathlon clothing brand was properly catering to the market from a design point of view, Matthew decided to do it himself and started VO2 Sportwear. Through social media, sponsorships, and SEO, the business made £250k its third year, but then failed to manage their cash flow and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Matthew Tomkin
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
< $100K
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Derric Haynie is an entrepreneur based in Oakland, California who, years ago, launched Vulpine Interactive, a social media and advertising agency. Peaking at 10 clients, $40k/mo and 5 employees, things were expected to keep going well. However, they ended up shutting the business and walked away with $70k in debt. Learn what happened!
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Derric Haynie
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Watu was a temporary staffing app founded by José Pablo Fernández and his business partner. The business was very sticky; once a company started using the app, it was very unlikely for them to leave. So what could have gone wrong!? Read our interview with Pablo below to know more.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Pablo Fernández
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Tauras is a 30-year old entrepreneur from Lithuania. With the objective of digitizing the wedding planning process, he co-founded WedMap. They launched the tool within some months and carried out a vast number of marketing strategies, which led to a monthly revenue of $2k. However, different problems on team, resources, skills, and product meant WedMap’s failure.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Tauras Sinkus
Country:
Switzerland
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
WURA was an on-demand video platform for African and Nollywood movies. Mike hired a few developers to build it and spent $35,000 on Facebook marketing. The business grew fast and he was making $3,861 per month. However, YouTube competition and cash flow killed the startup.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Michael Ojo
Country:
United States
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Jon was one of the Yottio’s co-founders, a mobile-first tool that enabled video participation on broadcast television. The startup went through all experiences, including making $200k in revenue, spending $150k for operations, a co-founder leaving the business and a $20m acquisition offer. However, Yottio eventually ran out of cash and shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Jon Lawrence
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Zapstream was a social live streaming platform, which competed with Meerkat and Periscope. The startup raised $1m from angels and grew from 0 to 100k users. However, a combination of dwindling engagement, mismanagement of money, and the inability to fundraise further, led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Devan Sood
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
$1M-$5M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
