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Here’s a list of 36 failed startups from San Francisco.
Some of them were big, with huge teams and funding rounds.
Others were smaller, ran by the co-founders, and with no funding.
But all of them shut down.
And each for a specific cause of failure.
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Information about the industries, countries, and cities they generally invest in.
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Information about their valuation, HQ's location, founded year, name of founders, funding amount and number of employees.
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List of startup investors in the FinTech industry, along with their Twitter, LinkedIn, and email addresses.
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List of startup investors in the BioTech, Health, and Medicine industries, along with their Twitter, LinkedIn, and email addresses.
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List of 250 startup investors in the AI and Machine Learning industries, along with their Twitter, LinkedIn, and email addresses.
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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.
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.
dotCloud was a PaaS for developers that enabled them to host, assemble and run their applications. They could not sustain operation costs by themselves.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Solomon Hykes
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2008
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
250-500
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
Flowtab was an app that solved the problem of long queues in bars. They tried several business models but never found a profitable one, so they shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Mike Townsend
Country:
United States
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Formspring was an anonymous Q&A forum that grew to 1 million users in 2 months. This brought lots of cyberbullying on the site. They shut down after 4 years.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Ade Olonoh, John Wechsler
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2009
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
Gowalla was a location-based social platform that allowed users to share their location. It tried to do many things at once, and shut down after 5 years.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Josh Williams, Scott Raymond
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2007
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
HiGear was a peer-to-peer online company that listed luxury cars for rent. A criminal gang stole four cars worth $400k. They opted to shut down operations.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Ali Moiz, Murtaza Hussain
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2011
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
Kitchit brought local chefs to your home. They had to compete with other big food providers in the same market, which provoked their failure.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Brendan Marshall, Ian Ferguson
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:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
Leap Transit was a private bus service based in San Francisco. They didn't comply with the SF regulations, which made them halt their operations.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Kyle Kirchhoff
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
Lookery gave statistics showcasing services that empowered organizations. It was based on Facebook platform, and after the redesign, they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
David Cancel, Rex Dixon, Todd Sawicki
Country:
United States
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2007
Closed in:
2009
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
Mailbox made your inbox more manageable and efficient. They didn't find a way to monetize the app. After being acquired by Dropbox, Mailbox shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Gentry Underwood, Scott Cannon
Country:
United States
Industry:
Productivity
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
500-1,000
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Move Loot was an online resale marketplace for furniture. They decided to have a furniture stockroom without thinking about the expenses of running it.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Bill Bobbitt, Jenny Karin Morrill, Ryan Smith, Shruti Shah
Country:
United States
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Munchery allowed users to order gourmet food. However, they couldn't deliver the experience that it promised and build a profitable business model.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Conrad Chu, Tri Tran, Van Tran
Country:
United States
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2019
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Navdy provided a display that projected GPS in the cars' front. They failed due to a saturated market and a device that didn't satisfy customer needs.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Doug Simpson, Karl Guttag
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2018
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Pixate wanted to make prototyping and designing apps more accessible and effortless. It was acquired by Google in 2015, and after a year, it was shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Kevin Lindsey, Paul Colton
Country:
United States
Industry:
Design
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
Rdio, a music streaming platform, failed due to poor marketing and distribution, ultimately folding to competition from Spotify and closing down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Carter Adamson, Janus Friis, Niklas Zennström
Country:
United States
Industry:
Music
Started in:
2008
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
Secret was an app that allowed users to post content anonymously. Active users rapidly declined after 18 months from its launch and cyberbullying emerged.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Chrys Bader-Wechseler, David Byttow
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
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.
Shyp imitated the Uber model with an on-demand shipping service. However, they were unable to figure out a profitable business model and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Jack Smith, Joshua Scott, Kevin Gibbon
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2018
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
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.
Sip was made by ProductHunt. It covered news in the tech industry in a bite-size format. Due to no market need and lack of focus, PH shut it down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Ryan Hoover, Nick Abouzeid, Chad Whitaker
Country:
United States
Industry:
Productivity
Started in:
2018
Closed in:
2019
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
Skully was a helmet targetting motorcycle riders. They had to close shops due to no fundings and couldn't complete the production of the pre-orders.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Marcus Weller, Mitch Weller
Country:
United States
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
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.
Sprig delivered meals to customers who were looking for healthy choices. Sprig found the process time-consuming and expensive, and decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Gagan Biyani, Matt Kent, Morgan Springer, Neeraj Berry
Country:
United States
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2017
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
TeeBeeDee was a social network aimed at people over 40 to share their experiences. They weren’t able to grow their user base fast enough to survive.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
David Markus, Jon Brandt, Robin Wolaner, Todd Basche
Country:
United States
Industry:
Social Media
Started in:
2007
Closed in:
2009
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
Tilt was a social payments startup. The CEO was believed to become the next Zuckerberg. However, lack of focus led to shutting down their operations.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
James Beshara, Karolyn Baxter, Khaled Hussein
Country:
United States
Industry:
Finances
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2017
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Focus
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.
Wesabe is a former Personal Finance Management system that helped clients make better financial decisions. Having better competitors made Wesabe fail.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Jason Knight, Marc Hedlund
Country:
United States
Industry:
Finances
Started in:
2005
Closed in:
2010
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
Sam was one of the co-founders of Ansaro, a SaaS that aimed to revolutionize the recruiting industry through the use of technologies like AI. They raised $2.25M from institutional investors and $750K from friends and family, grew the team to 6 members and earned in total $100k. But with expenses of $70k/month and no product-market fit, they had to shut down 2 years later.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Sam Stone
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$1M-$5M
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
Eloquis was all about bringing personalization to mobile apps. The problem? Early in the market and targeted the wrong customer segment.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Rohit Nallapeta
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2011
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
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.
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Hot Barber was a website that let hair stylists set up profiles and customers browse portfolios, but the founders couldn't find a way to monetize it!
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Julia Enthoven
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
After moving to SF, Andrew joined a startup accelerator that included a co-founder dating phase. There, he met some co-founders with whom he built MotionThink, a startup that built productivity tools for freelancers. Some months and +$100,000 after, the startup was shut down. Learn what went wrong!
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Andrew Chen
Country:
United States
Industry:
Productivity
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2012
Funding Amount:
$100K-$500K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Management
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.
Tandem was a live streaming platform for fitness. Cause of failure? Live fitness isn't that engaging. Influencers were reluctant to adopt a new platform.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Nick Raushenbush
Country:
United States
Industry:
Health
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
Will is a software engineer based in San Francisco, who co-founded Tandem, an app to help people stay on top of their medications. They carried out some research and considered it was a great business idea. But, after launching, they discovered retention was really difficult and decided not to continue.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Will Sun
Country:
United States
Industry:
Health
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2016
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
