It's hard to say goodbye. A compilation of startup failure post-mortems by founders and investors. Show
Of his many failed experiments, Thomas Edison once said: “I have learned fifty thousand ways it cannot be done and therefore I am fifty thousand times nearer the final successful experiment.” This is a more eloquent way of saying that there’s a lot to learn from failure. For tech startups, there are plenty of failure case studies. Startup death is not uncommon — especially in the face of the challenging macro conditions shaping today’s harsh economic environment. Funding, the lifeblood of startups, has dropped dramatically in 2022, leaving private companies strapped for cash and more prone to collapse. Global funding hit $74.5B in Q3’22 — less than half of quarterly funding at the end of 2021. And in Silicon Valley, the cradle of startup innovation, funding fell to its lowest level since Q4’19. DOWNLOAD THE BEST OF our startup failure researchGet all our research on why startups fail, and what you can learn from them. However, failure is multifactorial, with macro trends serving as just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Additional contributing factors can be hard to uncover, but the obituaries written by founders, investors, and journalists offer plenty of clues. Below is a time-staggered compilation of startup post-mortems for some of the most notable failures in the CB Insights database. After reading the 432 goodbye letters and investigative takedowns below, check out our rundown for the top 12 reasons that startups shutter.
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2022 Fourth Update (10/05/22)If you had to pick one word that captures Q3’22, what would it be? Tumultuous, disastrous, stressful, or tense come to mind. Or maybe even some terms we can’t include in this report (don’t worry, we won’t judge). While venture funding dropped in Q1’22 and Q2’22, some believed this was a natural reset from the historic investment highs that characterized 2021. However, as inflation and interest rates ticked up, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict worsened, and public stocks tanked, concern shifted from reversion to recession. This led investors to pull back further and already cash-hungry startups to experience greater strain. In Q3’22, global startup funding only reached $74.5B, marking a 34% decrease quarter-over-quarter and a 9-quarter low. Limited funding availability was evidenced in part by the 71% drop in new unicorn births — late-stage companies simply couldn’t raise the massive funding rounds required to bring their valuation above the $1B threshold for entry. While many startups have endured the chaos so far, dozens shut down in Q3’22 — more than any quarter over the last year. A vast majority of those that folded cited macro-driven fundraising difficulties as a key driver, including Reali (proptech), Bank North (neobank), and Bolt Mobility (e-scooter and bike sharing). Read on for the detailed post-mortems of nearly a dozen startups that have shut their doors from July 2022 to present. Note that this update is not exhaustive of all startup failures that occurred over the analyzed period. CommonBondTitle: Student loan startup CommonBond is quietly winding down operations after the pandemic’s interest and payment pause massively hit its core business Product: CommonBond In September, student loan lender CommonBond announced that it would be shutting down. The company had fared well before the pandemic, raising more than $1.1B as of 2019. But the refinance market took a massive hit over the 2 years that followed, and the pause on student loan payments zapped the demand for solutions like CommonBond’s offering. While the company tried to pivot and expand into loans for folks that wanted to give home solar panels a go, it ultimately wasn’t able to scale and raise new funding quickly enough to make it work. Per Business Insider,
RealiTitle: Reali to close down, reveals job cuts Product: Reali Reali, a real-estate marketplace, stated that it was going to shut down and lay off most of its employees at the start of September. The startup echoed many of its failed compatriots in citing the contributing factors to its demise: disastrous market conditions as well as an unfavorable capital-raising environment. Interestingly, Reali had experienced steady growth up until fairly recently — it raised a $100M funding round just over a year ago. Suffice to say, the onset of failure can happen very fast. As reported by Mortgage Professional America,
Quillion TechTitle: CPU Chip Company Quillion Technology Ceases Operations Product: Quillion Tech Mid-way through Q3’22, Quillion Tech notified its employees that it would be closing shop. Up to that point, it had raised just shy of $180M for its energy-efficient CPU chips. It had also been hiring rapidly, issuing dozens of new offers to support growth. However, a hiring freeze in July was followed by its August announcement that it would be winding down operations. While the company agreed to pay employees their full salary in August, it stated that it would reduce that amount to the Shanghai minimum wage once September hit. For most employees, this amounted to 3%–5% of their original compensation. The reported reason driving Quillion’s closure was a control rights disagreement among partners that crippled its ability to attain financing. Per Pandaily,
Kitty HawkTitle: Flying-Car Startup Kittyhawk to Shut Down Product: Kitty Hawk Flying car startup Kitty Hawk, founded by Sebastian Thrun, folded at the end of September. Thrun, who also co-founded Google’s moonshot factory (X), had launched the startup with backing from Google co-founder Larry Page in 2010. He largely shielded its operations from the public eye until it revealed its vertical take-off-enabled Flyer aircraft in 2015. The company continuously shifted its product focus over the years that followed, shuttering the Flyer project and spinning off its other public project into a joint venture with Boeing. While the company seemed to go all in on the development of its electric, autonomous aircraft (Heaviside), progress was hindered by mounting competition in the space and internal tension between Thrun and Heaviside program lead Damon Vander Lind. The company has not provided details on the forces behind its decision, but reports allude to clouded mission focus as playing a role. Engadget stated,
Bank NorthTitle: Bank North: SME neobank goes bust after failing to raise Series B Product: Bank North Neobank Bank North was forced to close at the beginning of October. The announcement came on the heels of its failure to raise the funding that it needed to obtain a full banking license from the Bank of England. Bank North was not unfamiliar with fundraising challenges, having been faced with a number of obstacles over the course of its 4-year lifespan. In addition to its past challenges, Bank North co-founder Richard Baker also pointed to mounting market uncertainty as factoring into the decision to shut down. Neobanks are no strangers to this running list of startup failures — in our last update, we covered the downfall of Bank North’s Australian counterpart Volt. Fintech Futures reported,
ModsyTitle: Modsy quietly shut down while some customers were still awaiting refunds Product: Modsy In late June, interior design service provider Modsy stopped offering its services without warning. While its website remained active at the time, the company deleted its Facebook and Twitter profiles and privated its Instagram account in the weeks that followed. The shuttering of these channels made it difficult for customers with unfinished projects and unfulfilled orders to contact the fallen startup about refunds. More than 2 weeks after the company closed its doors and laid off its designers, former customers were still scrambling to attain what they were owed. Modsy co-founder and CEO Shanna Tellerman communicated to TechCrunch that capital challenges and market uncertainty fueled its descent,
ShopXTitle: Ecommerce enabler ShopX shuts down operations Product: SHOPX India-based e-commerce enablement startup ShopX closed down operations at the end of August. From its founding in 2016 through 2020, the startup raised nearly $48M to help local kirana store owners build their digital presence through the establishment of e-commerce operations. As it grew, it took out a number of loans from Singapore-based Fung Investment, which ironically ended up leading to its future failure. The company’s faulty business model prevented it from generating the cash flow and funding required to pay off the interest on those loans, forcing it to file for insolvency and bankruptcy. According to Your Story,
Bolt MobilityTitle: Micromobility startup Bolt abruptly shuts down in several cities Product: Bolt Mobility Bolt Mobility — the e-bike and scooter startup co-founded by Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt — closed up and disappeared at the end of July. It stopped operating in a number of the cities that it served, leaving public officials to deal with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inoperable equipment that had been left behind. A number of its clients unsuccessfully reached out to the company to request information and assistance with equipment removal, with some reporting that emails to Bolt contacts and its CEO went unanswered. At the time, it wasn’t clear if the startup had permanently halted operations in all of its locations, but mounting accounts of service shutoffs and continued silence on Bolt’s part did not paint a promising picture. In a statement at the start of August, the company released a statement on its website explaining that its inability to raise necessary funding had led it to shutter operations. Morning Brew discussed the aftermath of the startup’s rapid shutdown,
PropzyTitle: Vietnamese proptech startup Propzy to shut down Product: Propzy Vietnam-based Propzy, a proptech startup, initiated its shutdown in mid-September. CEO John Le stated that the company had been hit hard by the pandemic and ultimately proved unable to recoup its losses in the face of continued lockdowns. Propzy had previously laid off 50% of its staff in June, but announced that it was still on track to raise fresh capital. This did not pan out, and its inability to raise new funding in conjunction with macro turbulence pressured the company to close its doors for good. DealStreetAsia obtained a copy of the internal email sent to employees, which stated,
B3i ServicesTitle: Major insurers pull the plug on B3i insurance blockchain consortium Product: B3i Services B3i was a provider of blockchain-backed reinsurance services formed by some of the biggest names in insurance and reinsurance: AIG, Allianz, and Swiss Re, to name a few. The company initially saw significant success, supporting the establishment of the world’s first reinsurance contract using blockchain technology. It also raised $26M over a 2-year period. However, its inability to close a new funding round after its Series B raised in 2020 forced the consortium’s participants to call it quits. Ledger Insights pointed to the potential factors that inhibited the startup’s ability to fundraise,
WriggleTitle: Bristol restaurant app Wriggle closes down for good following pandemic Product: Wriggle Restaurant discovery app Wriggle shut down at the start of Q3’22. The platform aggregated local food and beverage deals for consumers as a way to help them save money and expand their horizons. While it started out in Bristol, it expanded into 7 cities across the United Kingdom before closing down in July. At that point, it had gained more than 400K downloads and $2M in funding. Company management pointed to pandemic lockdowns as irreparably stymieing its growth. Former founder and CEO Robert Hall spoke to Bristol Live about the startup’s pandemic-induced plight,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2022 Third Update (07/16/22)Driven by overwhelming economic uncertainty and investor skepticism, venture funding has continued to plummet since our last update. In fact, global funding to startups fell 23% quarter-over-quarter to $108.5B in Q2’22 — the largest quarterly percentage drop in funding in nearly a decade. If you’re wondering how this downturn has played out on a company level, look no further — these forces were addressed in reports surrounding about 2 out of every 3 startups covered in the below update. While some companies faced other difficulties — such as a data breach (myNurse) and a lack of product vision clarity (Friday) — a majority of the startups that have folded since April 13 did so due to their inability to raise fresh capital in this harsh fundraising environment. Notably, of the 16 startups that we’ll say goodbye to here, 3 were India-based edtech startups that followed Lido Learning’s footsteps of failure to the end of the line. Read on for the detailed post-mortems of 16 startups that have shut their doors from April 2022 to present. Note that this update is not exhaustive of all startup failures that occurred over the analyzed period. AirliftTitle: Airlift, Pakistan’s top startup, shutting down following funding crunch Product: Airlift Pakistan-based Airlift — a ridesharing turned rapid delivery service — announced that it would be closing down operations in the middle of July. Despite raising an $85M Series B round in August 2021, which at the time seemed to signal a promising future for the country’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, the company was unable to finalize the funding round it had planned for this year. Select investors reportedly notified the startup that it would take them more than 2 months to wire the new funding amid the turbulent economic environment, leading other investors to hold as well. As a result of this uncertainty-induced domino effect, the startup was forced to close, as it could not meet its funding requirements for continued operations. As reported by TechCrunch,
ButlerTitle: Butler shows hundreds of employees the door after raising $50M for room service delivery Product: Butler Despite sharing a message that it was still afloat in mid-May, on-demand virtual room service platform Butler had actually laid off its entire workforce of 1K employees a few days earlier. Reports later indicated that the company had indeed folded. The closure came as a surprise to its hotel client base, leaving many scrambling to find alternative options to cater to their guests. At the time, neither Butler CEO Premtim Gjonbalic nor the company’s investors had commented on the matter, and the office that it had signed a 3-year sublease for had been abandoned after less than a year. As per TechCrunch,
KuneTitle: Nobody is shocked that this Kenyan food delivery startup failed after one year Product: Kune Kenyan food delivery platform Kune closed down at the end of June, after the company ran out of money and could not find a buyer to save it. Like other food delivery startups that have watched their time come to an end, Kune struggled with low margins, an issue that was further exacerbated by rising food costs. According to Quartz Africa,
Volt BankTitle: Volt, Australi’s first online-only bank, shuts down due to fundraising woes Product: Volt Bank Australian neobank Volt Bank closed its virtual doors in June after failing to secure $200M in Series F funding. While the company had previously raised a total of $102M in funding, as was the case with many other startups covered in this post-mortem breakdown, the company lost fundraising momentum as the financial market downturn worsened. As a result of the closure, the company had to lay off its 140 employees, return $100M+ in deposits to customers, and give up its banking license. Reuters commented on broader neobanking dynamics in Australia,
WingocardTitle: Teen financial literacy app Wingocard shuts down Product: Wingocard Wingocard, a personal finance platform for teenagers, launched in May 2021. At the time, it had more than 75K teens on its waitlist and was able to raise nearly $2M in seed funding. However, as the year came to a close, the company unsuccessfully sought out new investors to provide the fresh capital needed to keep it going, and eventually was forced to close down for good in May 2022. According to FintechFutures,
BeyondMindsTitle: AI startup BeyondMinds shutting down, laying off all 65 employees Product: BeyondMinds In a scenario that is probably starting to sound familiar, AI-as-a-service platform BeyondMinds shut down in May after failing to raise funding or find a buyer. Last year, BeyondMinds co-founder and CEO Rotem Alaluf had been pressured to sell the company by investors wary of what was at the time a burgeoning market downturn. Instead of selling, Alaluf left the company and founded another (Wand.ai) with former BeyondMinds employees. Co-founder Roey Mechrez took hold of the reins, but was unable to rein in the resources the startup needed to carry on. CTech stated,
UdayyTitle: Edtech startup Udayy shuts down, lays off entire staff Product: Udayy Indian edtech platform Udayy halted operations at the beginning of June. While the company stated that it had sufficient capital, it decided that it would ultimately not be feasible to keep going as children returned to attending school in person. Udayy initially considered pivoting to a hybrid model to offer offline services as well, but this proved not to be a realistic move. After failing to sell off its English learning courses, it shut down for good and laid off its workforce of around 120 employees. The Economic Times reported,
CrejoTitle: Matrix Backed Edtech Startup Crejo.Fun Shuts Down; Failed To Raise Funding Product: Crejo Crejo, another Indian edtech startup, shuttered at the end of Q2’22 in a tale that largely mirrors Udayy’s downfall. In addition to the harsh fundraising environment, the company cited the reopening of in-person schooling as the final blow to its operations. Co-founder Vikas Bansal stated that the startup had successfully secured new jobs for the vast majority of its workforce and would be providing each employee with one month of severance pay. In an attempt to compensate some of its investors, the company stated that it would attempt to sell its intellectual property and product. As per Inc42,
AheadTitle: Mental Health Startup Ahead Shuts Down Product: Ahead Mental health platform Ahead closed down in the middle of April. The company did not cite a specific reason for the closure, but Sid Viswanathan, the CEO of Truepill, which invested $9M in Ahead in 2020, stated that the startup had moved to exclusively focus on B2B operations. As a result, Truepill decided not to extend continued support. At the time of closure, Ahead stated that it would not be taking any new patients and that it would halt services for existing patients by the end of June. In an announcement on its website, the company stated,
WanderJauntTitle: San Francisco Airbnb rival WanderJaunt abruptly shuts down, vanishes with barely a trace Product: WanderJaunt Airbnb competitor WanderJaunt shut down at the end of June. While the company did not make any major statements regarding the matter, the automated message on its customer service voicemail pointed to economic pressure as the factor driving the decision. While the voicemail message relayed that customers would receive refunds for booked stays, it also indicated that customers should reach out to Airbnb (if they booked a WanderJaunt property through Airbnb) or their bank if they faced any issues. SFGATE discussed the broader context surrounding the closure,
myNurseTitle: Health startup myNurse to shut down after data breach exposed health records Product: myNurse Chronic care management platform myNurse closed down in May after experiencing a data breach. While the company discovered the breach at the start of March, it did not notify affected patients — whose health records, financial information, and other personal data had been accessed — until the end of April. The company denied that the breach was behind its decision to wind up operations, though it also did not provide any other explanation. According to TechCrunch,
GavelyticsTitle: Litigation Analytics Company Gavelytics is Shutting Down Tomorrow Product: Gavelytics Gavelytics was a legal tech startup that helped users gain insight into the behavioral patterns exhibited by judges — such as the tendency to favor defendants over plaintiffs. While the company had previously raised $6M, founder and CEO Rick Merrill stated that the company was not able to bring in the funding it needed to continue moving forward. LawSites shared an early preview of a statement put forward by Merrill,
KaodimTitle: Malaysian startup Kaodim to shut down on July 1, cites rising costs among challenges Product: Kaodim Kaodim — a platform for booking home services like moving and plumbing — announced that it would cease operations at the start of July. The driving force behind the move was two-fold, involving both existing pandemic-related disruption and more recent rising costs stemming from inflation. Employees were notified of the move ahead of time and provided with severance pay. In a note discussing these pressures on the company website, co-founder and CEO Choong Fui Yu stated,
FridayTitle: We are shutting down 🙁 Product: Friday Workplace communication startup Friday announced that it would be turning off its application at the beginning of June. In an announcement on its website, Friday co-founder Luke Thomas touched upon a lack of clarity surrounding product vision as well as market competition as reasons behind the closure. Customers were given 60 days to migrate their data from the application as well as recommendations for other products to use. According to Thomas,
SuperLearnTitle: Another edtech firm, SuperLearn shuts shop as capital dries out Product: SuperLearn Rounding out the trio of Indian edtech startups to recently go under, SuperLearn closed its doors at the end of June. As was the case with Udayy and Crejo, SuperLearn highlighted fundraising difficulties amid the return to offline schooling as a reason for its closing. VCCircle commented on the scenario,
Chisel AITitle: AI software startup Chisel AI shuts down Product: Chisel AI In April 2022, commercial insurance AI startup Chisel AI announced that it would be shutting down. The company, like many others, explained that macroeconomic pressures prevented it from raising more capital, driving it to closure. In a LinkedIn post explaining the decision, the company stated,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2022 Second Update (04/13/22)The narrative surrounding global venture funding has shifted. After steadily increasing over the course of 2021, funding declined 19% quarter-over-quarter in Q1’22, with mega-round funding dropping by 30%. Despite the drop, the quarter was still the fourth largest for funding on record. Many startups were able to secure funding amid the quarterly downturn — like Altos Labs, which raised a staggering $3B round — but others were unable to raise the capital required to keep going. Rapid grocery delivery startups took a notable hit, with Zero Grocery, Munchies, and Fridge No More all shutting down in March. In addition to these startups, 6 others folded due to reasons ranging from sanctions imposed on Russia oligarchs to fines for false advertising. Read on to dive into the detailed post-mortems of the startups that shuttered from February 2022 to present. FastTitle: Fast shuts doors after slow growth, high burn precluded fundraising options Product: Fast Fast, which enabled retailers to offer one-click login and checkout options, halted operations at the beginning of April. The company had started out hot, raising $125M in funding across deals backed by investors like Stripe, Addition, and Index Ventures. However, the company’s burn far exceeded its revenue growth in 2021, putting it in a precarious position as it entered 2022. Just one week after closing a deal with the Honest Company, the startup released a statement from CEO and co-founder Domm Holland announcing its closure:
Zero GroceryTitle: Delivery Startup Suddenly Folds, Leaving Food Business Owners With Thousands in Unpaid Bills Product: Zero Grocery Plastic-free grocery delivery startup Zero Grocery shut down at the beginning of March. Despite having raised $12M just one month earlier, in addition to 3 other seed rounds over the past 3 years, Zero CEO Zuleyka Strasner stated that the startup had “suffered from being chronically undercapitalized.” Several Bay Area food businesses have been left with unpaid bills as a result of the startup’s abrupt closure. A post on the startup’s official Instagram also pointed to a lack of capital as driving its fall from grace,
MunchiesTitle: Unilever-backed quick commerce startup Munchies shuts operations Product: Munchies Munchies — a 30-minute delivery startup — closed its doors in March, just 5 months after it raised $3M in seed funding. The startup set itself apart from other Pakistani grocery delivery players by maintaining a focus on snacks and drinks, targeting the country’s convenience-hungry millennial population. While it was initially successful in doing so, sharing domestic expansion plans just a few months prior to shutting down, the company ultimately halted its operations. It has yet to release a statement on the matter, but both its website and mobile app are now inactive. According to Pakistan Today,
Fridge No MoreTitle: Grocery Startup Fridge No More Shutters in Failed DoorDash Deal Product: Fridge No More Fifteen-minute grocery delivery startup Fridge No More shuttered after a deal with potential buyer DoorDash fell through. While the startup attracted over $15M in funding a year earlier, investors became increasingly “concerned about growing competition and about bad order economics,” CEO Pavel Danilov reportedly told employees. Unable to secure fresh capital, the company notified employees that it would be shutting down operations. Lido LearningTitle: Edtech startup Lido Learning shuts shop Product: Lido Learning K-12 online tutoring platform Lido Learning closed its doors at the end of February. Founder Sahil Sheth reportedly held a town hall meeting, where he informed employees that the company would be shuttering due to financial complications. At that point in time, some of the company’s vendors and staff stated that they hadn’t received their respective payments and salaries for almost 2 months. Lido has not released an official statement on the closure. ET Brand Equity reported,
HummTitle: Humm closes, but tech lives on Product: Humm Humm, a once-promising graduate of the UC Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator, had developed a neurostimulation-backed wearable patch designed to enhance memory. While it had generated positive results in early testing stages, the pandemic and supply chain disruption hampered its ability to continue to test and develop the prototype. After failing to raise essential capital in a Series A round, the company folded. Humm CEO Iain McIntyre plans to join California-based Rogalife to help develop its electrostimulation-driven wearable for anxiety relief. McIntyre stated,
Nice TuanTitle: Alibaba looks on as Nice Tuan hits bottom Product: Nice Tuan Nice Tuan, a community buying platform, reportedly closed at the end of March, despite having raised $1.2B in funding to date. The startup had drawn repeat investments from Alibaba and GGV Ventures, among others, for enabling consumers to collectively buy produce and groceries at competitive rates via WeChat groups. However, in 2021, it fell short of its sales target, largely due to the fact that it was slapped with fines for fraud, dumping, and misleading advertising early in the year. Its financial woes sparked a falling out with Alibaba, accelerating the startup’s downward trajectory. As per Jiemian,
MovezTitle: Sport-tech startup Movez shutting down due to Roman Abramovich sanctions Product: Movez Movez – an augmented reality platform for soccer training – shut down due to sanctions placed on Roman Abramovich. The Russian oligarch owned the startup’s main backer – the Chelsea Football Club – and was sanctioned by the British government for his ties to Vladimir Putin in early March. While Abramovich handed the reins over to the Chelsea Charitable Foundation amid the controversy, the club was still rocked by sanctions, inhibiting it from continuing to fund Movez. As per CTech,
OnwardMobilityTitle: BlackBerry revival is officially dead as OnwardMobility shuts down Product: OnwardMobility OnwardMobility had hoped to help consumers relive the aughts by bringing back the BlackBerry. BlackBerry itself hasn’t manufactured a smartphone since 2016 – however, it offers the brand name under a license that OnwardMobility picked up in 2020. While the company initially planned to release a BlackBerry-branded smartphone with a physical keyboard in 2021, it was unable to bring the product to market, drawing scrutiny from hopeful buyers. Eventually, the company announced its closure, but it did not provide any details on the reasoning behind its decision:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2022 First Update (02/09/22)Global venture funding reached a record $621B in 2021, more than double 2020’s total of $294B. The global unicorn count also rose considerably year-over-year, jumping 69% to hit 959. This momentum carried into 2022, which has already seen the global unicorn club welcome its 1000th member. While you can certainly dig into the success stories of tech’s fantastic beasts, it’s worth taking a look at the startups that never got to have their mythological moment in the sun. Protonn, Neufund, and LendUp, for example, crumbled in the face of product-market misalignment, regulatory pressure, and legal issues — and naturally, pandemic-related complications are woven into the fabric of more than a few cautionary tales. Read on for the detailed post-mortems of these startups and 4 others that have shut down from December 2021 to present. ProtonnTitle: Digital solutions startup Protonn shutdown in less than a year after raising $9 million in Seed Fund Product: Protonn Protonn, a platform to help independent professionals launch businesses, shut down in the first weeks of 2022, despite having raised $9M in seed funding 6 months prior. It was reportedly unable to find product-market fit, and its founders were not able to rework the company’s business model in order to adapt. While not the primary factor, the pandemic contributed to Protonn’s downfall, as it exacerbated existing complications surrounding market alignment. According to the Economic Times,
Local MotorsTitle: Local Motors, the startup behind the Olli autonomous shuttle, has shut down Product: Olli Local Motors — the company behind Olli, an autonomous shuttle — closed down operations in January. Olli was an all-electric vehicle designed to operate in closed environments, such as college campuses and hospitals. While there was some buzz surrounding the announcement of its spring 2021 pilot partnership with Pacific Western Transportation — to bring shuttles to the city of Toronto, CA — the launch itself largely fell under the radar. Local Motors’ closure came only a few months after president and COO Vikrant Aggarwal took over as CEO and expressed the company’s intent to scale up production. Local Motors has yet to release a statement on the matter. Former VP of sales and customer success Chris Stoner commented on his time at the company,
NeufundTitle: Once Promising German Digital Security Platform Neufund Shuts Down Product: Neufund Neufund, a developer of a blockchain platform for investing and fundraising, announced its closure on January 10. The company had performed well up to this point, processing around $22.6M via its Ethereum-based platform and registering 11K investors across 123 countries. Despite its seeming success, Neufund’s fundraising model was ultimately unable to withstand the pressures of a complex regulatory environment. In a blog post, the company stated,
askRobinTitle: Estonian FinTech startup shuts down after reaching almost 2M customers Product: askRobin Estonia-based askRobin was a credit marketplace for underbanked consumers in emerging markets. It initially experienced success with the launch of its financial education chatbot, onboarding 200K+ users within its first month of activity. This compelled the company to broaden its offering to include lending services. Despite expanding its customer base to nearly 2M users, the startup ran into a number of complications amid the pandemic, which, in the end, proved to be insurmountable. As per the company’s founder and CEO Rain Sepp,
IkosTitle: Ikos’ ‘winding down’ of operations comes after years of rapid growth for Pittsburgh-based rental platform Product: Ikos Pittsburgh-based Ikos stated that it would be “winding down” operations in a letter sent to shareholders at the end of December 2021. This announcement came on the heels of multiple years of continuous growth for the real estate rental platform — it had raised $7.6M in equity funding across 6 deals up to that point. Low rental turnover amid Covid-19 hampered the company’s ability to generate revenue, and while the startup looked to raise additional capital in the latter half of 2021, talks with venture firms fell through, as did its attempt to find a buyer. After exhausting their options, co-founders Steven Welles and Patrick Paul made the decision to close for good. According to Welles,
LendUpTitle: CFPB shuts down payday lender it calls ‘a darling’ of venture capital Product: LendUp Payday loan platform LendUp was forced to halt loan origination and the collection of some outstanding loans as the result of a lawsuit from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB stated that the company had violated a 2016 consent order, engaged in misleading marketing practices, and failed to provide adverse-action notices to consumers in a timely manner. While LendUp did agree to the terms established in the settlement agreement, it neither confirmed nor denied the CFPB’s allegations. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra stated,
BinanceTitle: Binance shuts down Singapore cryptocurrency exchange Product: Binance Singapore In mid-December 2021, Binance announced that it would close its portal in Singapore by February 2022. This move came at the tail-end of a series of regulatory challenges faced by the crypto trading platform. In September 2021, the Monetary Authority of Singapore had forced Binance.com to stop providing services to Singaporean residents, compelling its subsidiary, Binance Asia Services (BAS), to apply for a license to operate a regulated cryptocurrency exchange. Like many other crypto players, BAS made the decision to withdraw its application in the face of intense regulatory scrutiny and stated that it would refocus its efforts in the region. KrASIA reported,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2021 Fourth Update (12/8/21)Global venture funding increased 105% YoY to reach $158.2B in Q3’21. While many startups were beneficiaries of this funding boom, particularly the 127 that joined the global unicorn herd, others were not so fortunate. Rising competition, capital shortages, and legal controversy pushed startups like 1520, Apervita, and Payvision to the brink, forcing them to shutter for good. Notably, Covid-19 was rarely mentioned in discussions surrounding this latest batch of startup failures. Read on for the post-mortems of 4 startups that have shut down since September 2021. 1520Title: Instant delivery startup 1520 reportedly closes its doors Product: 1520 1520 — a rapid grocery delivery startup — shut down in December 2021. The company, launched in January of this year, aimed to provide no-fee 20-minute grocery delivery services and was initially successful in doing so. It drew $7.8M in seed funding from investors in April, opened up new dark store locations across Manhattan, and even expanded its services to Chicago in September. However, the company struggled to keep up with its more well-funded competitors, such as Jokr and Gopuff, and ultimately shut its doors in the face of insurmountable customer acquisition costs. Per Grocery Dive,
ApervitaTitle: Apervita ceases operations Product: Apervita Apervita, a health analytics startup, closed its doors in October 2021. While the company had picked up momentum in recent years, acquiring value-based contract and alternative payment administration solutions provider Qcentive and establishing partnerships with organizations like Mayo and Cleveland Clinic, it was not able to raise enough funding to maintain operations. Former Apervita chief informatics and innovation officer Blackford Middleton stated,
YunniaoTitle: Logistics unicorn backed by U.S. investors goes bankrupt Product: Yunniao Same-city logistics company Yunniao went bankrupt at the end of October. Prior to its closure, it had garnered $210M in funding, last raising a $100M Series D round in February 2017. However, the rise of intense market competition and the Covid-19 pandemic set the company into a downward spiral, leaving it strapped for cash. On October 30, the state of the company’s finances was revealed when an employee posted from the company’s official Weibo account, stating that employees had not been paid in months. The post also encouraged staff to seek legal action against CEO Han Yi. This sparked a flood of public grievances:
PayvisionTitle: ING Phases out Payvision Product: Payvision ING announced that it would begin the shutdown of its Payvision subsidiary, a card acquirer and payments platform, at the start of November. ING acquired a majority stake in the startup in 2018 to enhance its omnichannel payments and merchant services. Soon after, the startup became mired in controversy — the European Funds Recovery Initiative publicly claimed that the startup had processed $160M in fraudulent transactions prior to its acquisition. A sign of events to come, ING sold half of Payvision’s operations for €1 in 2020, and it now plans to fully phase out Payvision’s services by 2022. ING pointed to market forces in addressing the move:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2021 Third Update (9/28/21)Investment to startups skyrocketed in Q2’21, as the quarter saw 390 $100M+ mega-rounds and 2,893 global IPO and M&A exits — representing a 109% increase year-over-year. However, this activity was just one side of the private equity coin. Many startups, rather than seeing an influx of fresh capital, shut down altogether due to a number of factors, such as increased competition (KupiVIP), a lack of market traction (Abundant Robotics), and flawed business models (Yelo). While these challenges may have been manageable on their own, in many cases, they proved to be fatal when compounded with pandemic-induced pressures. Read on for the post-mortems of 8 startups that shut down since June 2021. YClosetTitle: Alibaba-backed fashion rental app YCloset shuts down after five years Product: YCloset YCloset — a fashion rental startup — shut down in early July, despite having raised $70M in total disclosed funding since its founding in 2015. In doing so, the company announced plans to end support for its sales and online channels by August 15. Like its US-based counterparts, Rent the Runway and Stitch Fix, YCloset operated using a subscription model and allowed its users to rent branded apparel. Technode brought broader issues in the market to light:
KupiVIP & MamsyTitle: Russian Online Retail Pioneer KupiVIP Shuts Down Product: KupiVIP & Mamsy Discount e-commerce retailer KupiVIP and its affiliate Mamsy shut down after Yandex backed out of a deal to buy the company in July. Founded in 2008, KupiVIP was once one of Russia’s top 10 e-commerce sites — in fact, in 2012 it was valued at $400M. However, its ranking fell as competition in the space increased, ultimately leading it to experience a 10% year-over-year decrease in sales revenue in 2020. Despite having raised $120M in disclosed funding, KupiVIP was unable to compete with rising e-commerce giants like Wildberries and Lamoda, leading parent company Private Trade to close down operations. KupiVIP board member David Waroquier stated,
Abundant RoboticsTitle: US: fruit harvesting robot company shuts down Product: Abundant Robotics Robotic apple harvester developer Abundant Robotics announced that it would be closing its doors at the beginning of July. Abundant claimed that it had been unable to develop the market traction necessary to stay afloat amid the pandemic, despite having collected $10M in venture capital investment and additional funding from The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. Prior to the announcement, the company put all of its intellectual property and assets up for sale, which included a number of patents integral to the development of its computer vision-enabled robot for fruit picking. Abundant CEO Dan Steere commented,
YeloTitle: Exclusive: Matrix-backed neo-banking app Yelo shuts down Product: Yelo July 2021 saw the closure of Yelo — a challenger bank mainly geared toward gig workers. After raising a seed round in 2019 and subsequently amassing 4M app downloads, the company faced complications with its business model that were further compounded by the onset of the pandemic. While no official statement was made by the company, in July, an anonymous source close to the company stated,
Orthrus StudiosTitle: Distant Kingdoms dev Orthrus Studios shuts down after entire team is laid off Product: Orthrus Studios Scotland-based video game developer Orthrus Studios shut down following the launch of its fantasy video game “Distant Kingdoms” in May. The company’s team of 10 employees, including founder Oliver V. Smith, were all let go. In a statement on LinkedIn, Smith stated,
HousepartyTitle: Epic Games to shut down Houseparty in October, including the video chat ‘Fortnite Mode’ feature Product: Houseparty At the start of September, Epic Games announced that it would be discontinuing Houseparty come October. Epic acquired the video chat app in 2019 for $35M in order to provide live video chat capabilities to Fortnite gamers. While the company didn’t cite an explicit reason for the shutdown, many surmised that the app had simply proven to be financially unsustainable. In a blog post, Epic stated that Houseparty employees would be redistributed across other teams to focus on developing social features at “metaverse scale,” suggesting that Epic would be moving toward developing a larger-scale virtual environment:
ClicketyTitle: Closing Clickety Product: Clickety At the end of August, project management tool Clickety announced it would be closing down. Customers were told to contact the company to obtain a file containing data related to “group memberships, manual comments, people notes, and merged aliases,” otherwise it would be permanently deleted on October 1. Founder Luke Kanies didn’t provide a specific reason for the closure, simply stating,
MastreeTitle: Unacademy shuts Mastree after a year of acquisition Product: Mastree Unacademy shut down online learning platform Mastree a year after acquiring a majority stake in the company for $5M. Of Mastree’s 240 employees, Unacademy stated that 190 would be redistributed across its other businesses following the closure, though Mastree co-founders Shrey Goyal and Royal Jain chose to fully depart. In an internal note, Unacademy co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal commented,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2021 Second Update (6/16/21)More than a year in, many companies have survived the uncertainty brought on by the global pandemic, or even thrived: Q1’21 saw record-breaking funding go to fintech cos, while retail tech funding tripled year-over-year. But not all companies rode this funding wave to success. Along with Covid-19, other challenges — like overcrowded markets (SuperData Research), mismanagement (Katerra), and difficulties scaling operations (Hey Tiger) — have led to some companies shuttering for good. Read on for the post-mortems of 10 startups that shut down since February 2021. KaterraTitle: Katerra Commences U.S. Court-Supervised Process to Implement Financial Restructuring Product: Katerra Modular construction startup Katerra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early June 2021. The SoftBank-backed unicorn was last valued at $3B in 2018 and had raised nearly $1.5B in total funding from investors such as Khosla Ventures and Greenoaks Capital Management. Although the company cited mismanagement as the driver of its downfall, the collapse of lender Greensill Capital, just 3 months earlier, also played a role. While SoftBank had been funding Katerra directly, Greensill, a SoftBank Vision Fund recipient ($1.5B), was also financing Katerra, highlighting the interconnected nature of SoftBank’s portfolio. This downturn domino effect has led some to question the viability of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, especially given that this follows the 2019 fall of coworking unicorn WeWork, in which SoftBank was the primary investor. Katerra Chief Transformation Officer Marc Liebman stated,
MadefireTitle: Digital comics startup Madefire is shutting down Product: Madefire Madefire, a digital comics startup, entered into an assignment of benefit for creditors (ABC), an alternative to formal bankruptcy, at the beginning of April 2021. This was a sudden announcement for many Madefire users, who were given until the end of the month to download their purchases. The Madefire app powered a number of digital comics apps — such as Archie Unlimited and IDW — which were also shut down. Despite having a wide range of artists, including Dave Gibbons, and investors, like Drake, the company faded out in the face of competition. The Beat reports,
Aerion CorporationTitle: Aerion Supersonic shuts down, ending plans to build silent high speed business jets Product: Aerion Corporation Aerion Corporation, an aeronautical engineering startup, announced its sudden closure at the end of May 2021. The company had drawn attention for developing a patented technology that would allow its AS2 supersonic jets to fly without creating a sonic boom. While the company had fostered partnerships with Boeing, General Electric, and NetJets, and reported plans to fly its first jet by 2024 and begin commercial services by 2026, it ultimately succumbed to challenges associated with securing necessary capital. According to a company statement,
PeriscopeTitle: Farewell, Periscope Product: Periscope Periscope, the livestreaming app that popularized mobile livestreaming, shut down at the end of March 2021 — 6 years after its initial launch. In December 2020, Twitter — which bought Periscope in 2015 for $100M — announced that it would be phasing out the app due to declining usage. The need for Periscope as a standalone service started to wane in 2016 when Twitter announced the launch of its homegrown streaming capabilities. Periscope’s website will remain active with an archive of its public broadcasts and users will still be able to download their data through Twitter as well. Twitter stated,
SuperData ResearchTitle: Nielsen to Shut Down its SuperData Gaming Division Product: SuperData Research Market intelligence provider SuperData Research was shuttered in March 2021 by Nielsen Sports, which acquired the research firm in 2018 to help it enhance its own product offerings. While Nielsen did not specify a reason for shutting down the division, it did state that it would move away from offering gaming services as its own entity and instead add it as an additional feature to its core Nielsen Sports products. Sports Business Journal reported that market competition and Covid-19-related complications could have factored into the decision,
HubbaTitle: Hubba To Shut Down Product: Hubba Canada-based e-commerce startup Hubba shut down in February 2021. The company, which had raised $59M in disclosed equity funding, aimed to help connect independent retailers and emerging brands to bring attention to new products and facilitate wholesale buying. The announcement was a shock both for those familiar with the company’s earlier achievements and IPO plans and for its employees, who were immediately let go on an all-hands zoom call at the start of the month. According to Betakit,
Hey TigerTitle: A Farewell Letter From Our Founder, Cyan Ta’eed Product: Hey Tiger Ethical chocolate brand Hey Tiger announced its closure at the beginning of May 2021, 3 years after opening. The company’s mission was twofold — to produce high-quality chocolate products while simultaneously acknowledging and addressing inequities in the cocoa industry. Not only did it commit to ethically sourcing ingredients, but it also made charitable donations to combat child labor and poverty in cocoa farming communities. Although the company gained a loyal following, it struggled to scale its operations and remain profitable in a manner that aligned with its social goals. A post on the company’s Instagram account stated,
BeamTitle: FTC shuts down savings app Beam under tentative settlement Product: Beam Mobile savings app Beam was shut down under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The app — launched in 2019 — initially billed itself as “the first mobile high-interest savings account for the 99%,” offering interest rates as high as 7% while still permitting “24/7 access” to deposits. However, a 2020 CNBC investigation revealed that dozens of customers were not able to get their money out of their accounts, which ultimately led the FTC to shut it down and bar it from operating a similar business in the future. FTC Acting Director of Consumer Protection Daniel Kaufman stated,
JAAKTitle: Early blockchain music startup Jaak has shut down Product: JAAK UK-based blockchain music startup JAAK announced that it would be taking most of its properties offline starting at the end of March 2021. JAAK’s goal in developing its pilot blockchain network — KORD — was to create a global view of intellectual property rights and payment information to help artists manage rights ownership and correct inconsistencies in royalty payments. A series of Tweets on the company’s corporate account points to challenges with scale and securing adequate funding, among others, as reasons for its undoing,
V1 InteractiveTitle: Disintegration developer V1 Interactive shuts down Product: V1 Interactive Video game developer V1 Interactive announced its closure in March 2021, just 9 months after releasing its debut game called Disintegration. While the company didn’t cite a specific reason for its closure, previous reports indicate that it struggled with growing an audience for its multiplayer offering. It took Disintegration’s multiplayer mode offline in September 2020, and the entire game was taken offline in November. In its final Twitter announcement, it simply stated,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2021 First Update (2/3/21)Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, global VC funding grew 15% year-over-year in 2020 to over $259B. Meanwhile, 2020 saw the number of unicorns (private companies worth $1B+) surpass 500 as well as notable exits by companies like Snowflake, DoorDash, and Airbnb. Not all startups, however, were able to weather 2020’s ups and downs. Several of the companies in this update stated they shut down because they were unable to raise funding (GoBear) or find a viable revenue model (Loon). Some were hit especially hard by pandemic shutdowns and changing consumer behaviors (Brideside). Others, meanwhile, allegedly mismanaged their spending (AWOK) or faced problems unrelated to the pandemic (TenX) that led to their failure. Read on for 15 post-mortems of startups that have shut down since August 2020. QuibiTitle: Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live Product: Quibi Mobile-focused streaming service Quibi shut down in October 2020 just 6 months after launching. The platform — which had raised a mammoth $1.75B from investors like NBC Universal, Viacom, and Warner Bros. Entertainment — offered subscribers shows made up of 5- to 10-minute episodes, meant to be consumed “on-the-go.” The service failed to gain traction with consumers amid a crowded playing field of streaming services and other short form content providers like TikTok. Roku purchased the rights to Quibi’s programming for less than $100M in January 2021. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and chief executive Meg Whitman said in a letter to employees at the time of the shutdown:
Aura FinancialTitle: Hammered by pandemic, consumer lender Aura shuts down Product: Aura Financial Latino-focused consumer lender Aura Financial, which offered customers loans of $300 to $4,000 through supermarkets and other retailers, suspended operations in early January as it faced increasing financial challenges. On LinkedIn, company co-founder James Gutierrez blamed the company’s demise on the pandemic and a lack of funding, as quoted in American Banker:
LoonTitle: Alphabet punctures Loon internet balloon project Product: Loon Loon, the high-flying internet balloon project spun out of X, Alphabet’s (the parent company of Google) innovation lab, closed down in January. According to the Financial Times,
XinjaTitle: Australian neobank Xinja throws in the towel Product: Xinja Australia-based digital bank Xinja announced in December 2020 it would exit banking, returning its banking license and refunding customer deposits. The startup had reportedly spent heavily on its high-interest bank accounts and was unable to close a funding round before announcing its decision to shut down its banking products on its website, noting:
GoBearTitle: Financial services firm GoBear closing business Product: GoBear Despite having raised $17M in fresh funding in May 2020, Singapore-based fintech GoBear announced it would wind down operations earlier this year. The startup, which offered a financial products comparison tool, cited its inability to raise new financing and the pandemic’s downward pressure on consumer demand for products like travel insurance as reasons for its failure. The Strait Times reported:
QuantopianTitle: A Crowdsourced Quant Fund Fizzles in Era of Democratized Trading Product: Quantopian Quantitative trading platform Quantopian announced in October 2020 that it would shut down and that its co-founders and employees would move to Robinhood. The company, which had raised over $51M in funding from names like Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, let users develop and test algorithmic trading strategies for free. Selected algorithms were then used as part of Quantopian’s hedge fund’s investing strategy, and developers would get a cut of the profits. Bloomberg said about the shutdown:
AWOKTitle: Dubai’s Awok shuts down just a year after raising $30 million Series A Product: AWOK Dubai-based e-commerce startup AWOK closed down in early September 2020. While the startup blamed the pandemic for its demise in an official statement, the company had allegedly been far behind on payments to its employees and suppliers before then, despite having secured $30M in funding a year prior.
BridesideTitle: Wedding apparel retailer Brideside abruptly shuts down Product: Brideside Launched in 2013, wedding and bridesmaid dress retailer Brideside shut down in November 2020, as it and the wedding industry on the whole faced significant headwinds due to Covid-19. According to Retail Dive,
JoonkoTitle: The fintech company Joonko to cease operations after only 12 months of existence Product: Joonko Berlin-based financial products comparison site Joonko shut down in October 2020 after only 1 year in operation. The startup, which had received $11M in seed funding from Ping An Ventures and Raisin, was in talks to raise another financing round which fell through. As quoted in Born2Invest, the company’s press release at the time of its closure stated:
HubHausTitle: Bay Area co-living startup HubHaus implodes, stranding renters and homeowners Product: HubHaus Co-living rental platform HubHaus, which raised over $12M in VC funding, announced it would wind down operations in September 2020 after months of missed payments. The company laid off all employees and transferred all tenants’ leases to the homeowners abruptly. The San Francisco Chronicle reports,
TerrAvionTitle: TerrAvion Abruptly Files For Bankruptcy, Ceases Operations Product: TerrAvion Agtech imaging startup TerrAvion folded abruptly in September 2020. According to CropLife, company CEO Robert Morris said in an email to customers:
RubicaTitle: Seattle cybersecurity startup Rubica shuts down after running out of cash Product: Rubica Cybersecurity startup Rubica, which initially offered its services to individual consumers and small businesses, closed up shop in November 2020. The 4-year-old startup had attempted to pivot to offering its services to larger customers as it struggled to generate enough revenue from its consumer subscription service, but it was unable to convince investors of the viability of its model. Rubica CEO and co-founder Frances Dewing told GeekWire:
HavenTitle: Haven, the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture to disrupt health care, is disbanding after 3 years Product: Haven Haven, a joint venture by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase aimed at lowering healthcare costs, announced it would shut down in February 2021, 3 years after launching. According to CNBC,
TenXTitle: Crypto payment and wallet project TenX shuts down Product: TenX Cryptocurrency payments startup TenX is sunsetting its current services and has disabled new signups and deposits. The startup, which was incubated by PayPal in 2016, announced in October 2020 it would discontinue its cards as its card issuer Wirecard filed for insolvency. The company stated,
Lumina NetworksTitle: SDN startup Lumina Networks closes shop, citing Covid-19 impact Product: Lumina Networks Lumina Networks, a provider of open source software for telecom networks, announced it was going out of business in late August 2020. Although backed by AT&T Ventures and Verizon Ventures, the company was unable to find a sustainable revenue model, citing the pandemic as a contributing factor, according to its statement:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2020 Second Update (8/18/20)The first half of 2020 has been defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the downfall of many iconic retailers as well as a range of startups that faltered amid a global lockdown. In this update, the hospitality industry was hit especially hard, with several short-term rental and travel startups forced to wind down operations. Fashion and media companies also lost customers and dollars they needed as consumer spending pulled back and investor appetite waned. The pandemic hasn’t only been to blame for the ends of these startups, however. Some of these failed companies were facing problems far before the crisis, from over-promised software to stiff competition to shady business practices. Read on for the post-mortems of 14 startups that shut down since January. AtriumTitle: $75M legal startup Atrium shuts down, lays off 100 Product: Atrium Legal tech and law firm startup Atrium shut down in March 2020, following an unsuccessful pivot to a pure software offering in January. The firm had received just over $75M in funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and New Enterprise Associates, and it was once valued at over $250M. CEO Justin Kan noted in his interview with TechCrunch,
ScaleFactorTitle: ScaleFactor Raised $100 Million In A Year Then Blamed Covid-19 For Its Demise. Employees Say It Had Much Bigger Problems. Product: ScaleFactor Finance and accounting platform ScaleFactor raised $100M from investors before shutting down in June 2020. In an interview with Forbes, CEO Kurt Rathmann blamed pandemic-related financial woes for the demise of the company, which promised to automate customers’ bookkeeping needs. However, some former clients — and employees — protested this characterization, stating that the AI tech powering the platform was often unpredictable, creating errors that even outsourced accountants the company had hired couldn’t keep up with fixing. According to a Forbes investigation published in July 2020,
Starsky RoboticsTitle: The End of Starsky Robotics Product: Starsky Robotics Starsky Robotics, an autonomous trucking tech startup, folded in March 2020. In a blog post, CEO Stefan Seltz-Axmacher outlined the reasons the company had failed, stating:
Essential ProductsTitle: Essential, Andy Rubin’s phone company, is shutting down Product: Essential Products Consumer hardware startup Essential closed down in February 2020, following the flop of its Essential Phone launched in 2017 and other unfinished projects. Founded by Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, the startup drew significant interest, raising over $330M. However, after a 2018 New York Times report revealed that Rubin had allegedly left Google due to sexual misconduct allegations, attention to the startup cooled. According to The Verge,
JumpshotTitle: Avast Antivirus Is Shutting Down Its Data Collection Arm, Effective Immediately Product: Jumpshot Avast Antivirus’ CEO Ondrej Vlcek and board of directors promptly shut down subsidiary Jumpshot after an investigation by Motherboard and PCMag revealed that Avast, the antivirus security platform, was collecting and selling private user web browsing data through Jumpshot. According to The Verge,
SorabelTitle: Indonesian fashion e-commerce startup Sorabel to shutter operations Product: Sorabel Fashion e-commerce startup Sorabel was unable to weather the storm created by the Covid-19 crisis, announcing plans to wind down operations in July 2020 as consumers avoided non-essential spending. Sorabel had received over $28M in disclosed funding, and was reportedly poised to close new financing when the pandemic hit and investors withdrew. Deal Street Asia reported,
HollarTitle: Online dollar store Hollar to wind down Product: Hollar Launched in 2015, Hollar — backed by investors like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Lightspeed Venture Partners — received over $45M in funding to bring the dollar store online. However, Axios reported in February 2020 that the startup would wind down operations amid financial troubles:
The OutlineTitle: The Outline, an attempt to build a bolder kind of news site, appears to have met its end Product: The Outline Bustle Digital Group shut down digital media company The Outline in April 2020, just one year after acquiring it. Founded in 2016 by journalist Joshua Topolsky, the company raised over $10M in funding to develop a news site that featured immersive design, bold colors, and full-page ads. Amid low site traction and added pressure from the Covid-19 crisis, Bustle Digital laid off The Outline’s staff as part of broader company layoffs. According to Neiman Lab,
Stay AlfredTitle: Stay Alfred to permanently close down Product: Stay Alfred Apartment rental startup Stay Alfred was hit hard by the pandemic, as shutdowns forced the company to close its properties and investor interest dried up. The startup, which had raised $62M in funding, announced it would permanently cease operations in May 2020. According to Short Term Rentalz, CEO Jordan Allen said in an interview with the Spokane Journal,
StockwellTitle: Stockwell, the AI-vending machine startup formerly known as Bodega, is shutting down July 1 Product: Stockwell AI-powered vending machine startup Stockwell announced its plans to shut down in June 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic made its business model of in-office and in-apartment building vending machines nonviable. In August, 365 Retail Markets announced its acquisition of Stockwell’s tech platform, which it intends to integrate into its point-of-sale systems. CEO Paul McDonald told TechCrunch,
Pillow and ApartmentJetTitle: Expedia Shuts a Short-Term Rental Biz It Created From 2 Acquisitions Product: Pillow and ApartmentJet In 2018, Expedia acquired rental management software startups Pillow and ApartmentJet in an approximate $54M deal. Expedia combined the startups to form a platform to help landlords and tenants offer short-term rentals. According to Skift, Expedia shut down the platform in May 2020 as Covid-19 decimated the demand for its services,
MixerTitle: Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming Product: Mixer Acquired in 2016 by Microsoft, the interactive game streaming service Mixer let viewers interact with streamers via crowd-sourced controls. After failing to scale Mixer to compete with Twitch and YouTube, Microsoft announced in June 2020 that it would shut down the platform and partner with Facebook Gaming. According to The Verge,
LassoTitle: Facebook is dumping its failed TikTok clone Lasso to make way for its other TikTok clone on Instagram Product: Lasso As Facebook prepared the launch of Instagram’s Reels, it shut down its other TikTok clone, Lasso. The app, which was only available in select markets, never gained traction in the US and was shut down by Facebook in July 2020. Business Insider reported,
TroverTitle: Photo-sharing startup Trover, started by Rich Barton and acquired by Expedia, is closing down Product: Trover Another Expedia acquisition felled by the pandemic is photo sharing platform Trover. Founded in 2011 by Rich Barton and Jason Karas, Trover aimed to connect travelers through images and experiences shared on the site, which shut down in August 2020. The startup raised $12M before being acquired in 2016 by Expedia. According to GeekWire,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2020 First Update (1/21/20)The last few months of 2019 saw the demise of a range of startups, from a biopharmaceuticals company to a rental and storage startup to a ride-hailing app. Venture capital funding and deals fell for the second straight quarter in Q4’19, according to the PwC and CB Insights Q4’19 Venture Capital Funding Report, a trend further illustrated by the number of companies that cited lack of funding as their primary reason for shuttering. Read on for 15 post-mortems of startups that have shut down since October 2019. Sienna BiopharmaceuticalsTitle: Sienna Biopharmaceuticals to shut down by end of week Product: Sienna Biopharmaceuticals California-based Sienna Biopharmaceuticals had raked in $86M in venture funding before going public at a valuation near $300M in 2017. It ultimately filed for bankruptcy after several pipeline drug flops. According to Becker’s Hospital Review,
VicisTitle: The N.F.L.’s Favorite Helmet Maker Is in Financial Trouble Product: Vicis Football helmet maker Vicis entered receivership after struggling to turn a profit, despite praise for its high-tech helmets. It had raised more than $74M in disclosed funding from investors, but failed to gain market share in a highly complex and competitive industry. According to the New York Times,
StratoscaleTitle: Stratoscale closes down, lays off 60 Product: Stratoscale Once valued at nearly $90M, Stratoscale developed data center infrastructure software. The Israel-based software company had accumulated funding from big-name investors such as Cisco Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures, among others, but shuttered after a failed acquisition. As CEO Ariel Maislos told Globes,
HipmunkTitle: Four years after being acquired, Hipmunk is shutting down Product: Hipmunk Founded by Adam Goldstein and Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, Hipmunk was one of the first metasearch travel sites that allowed users to compare flights, hotels, and car rentals from multiple websites. It gathered $55M in funding before being acquired by SAP Concur in 2016, which struggled to integrate the search engine. Its co-founders made a bid to take over the startup before it shuttered but were rejected. As SAP Concur spokesperson Alex Vaught told Skift,
IgnitionOneTitle: How IgnitionOne, an adtech company that holding company Dentsu bought for $275 million, wound up selling in a fire sale Product: IgnitionOne Once a pioneering adtech firm, IgnitionOne fell from glory after failing to renew its line of credit. A notable problem ex-employees lamented was that management was too personally invested in the startup, hindering growth and adaptability. Zeta Global ultimately purchased the company. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Will Margiloff wrote,
OmniTitle: Omni storage & rentals fails, shutters, sells engineers to Coinbase Product: Omni Storage and rental startup Omni folded after failing to scale and generate revenue, with Coinbase reportedly agreeing to hire 10 of its engineers. Omni had gathered $35M in funding from Highland Capital and Ripple, among others. According to TechCrunch,
MiaoshenghouTitle: Miaoshenghou closes all 80 stores; another fresh food e-commerce company folds Product: Miaoshenghou Fresh food delivery market Miaoshenghou shuttered in December 2019, quietly closing its 80 Shanghai-based stores. The founder noted that low profit margins, as low as 10% to 20% for fresh goods, ultimately led to the chain’s demise. As the founder told China Economic Net,
JunoTitle: Gett Announces Closure of Juno and Strategic Partnership With Lyft Product: Juno New York ride-hailing app Juno was shut down by parent company Gett in November. The company had long struggled with profitability, and reportedly lost $1M a day. It had previously raised $30M from Jordache Ventures and Rakuten before getting acquired by Gett in 2017. According to the press release,
CrediFiTitle: RE data startup CrediFi to shut down following failed sale Product: CrediFi Commercial real estate loans data startup CrediFi shut down in December 2019, after failing to find footing in a competitive space that featured incumbents like CoStar Group. It had earlier raised $29M from a host of investors including Battery Ventures, Viola Ventures, and Liberty Media Corporation. The Real Deal writes,
Kettlebell KitchenTitle: Kettlebell Kitchen Shuts Down Its Prepared Meal Delivery Service Product: Kettlebell Kitchen Meal kit startup Kettlebell Kitchen, which focused on tailored meal kits for specific diets, closed shop in November 2019. It reportedly lost $12M a year, struggling to turn a profit amid a crowded meal kit delivery market, with numerous rivals like HelloFresh and BlueApron competing for the same demographic. The Spoon writes,
VanidayTitle: Rocket-Internet backed salon booking service Vaniday Singapore shuts shop Product: Vaniday Beauty booking platform Vaniday shut down in December 2019, despite raising a reported 7-figure round in June. In an interview, CEO Saurabh Chauhan said that the company hadn’t been profitable since its first investment in 2015. According to DealStreetAsia,
Coolest CoolerTitle: Crowdfunding disaster Coolest Cooler is shutting down and blaming tariffs for its downfall Product: Coolest Cooler Widely regarded as one of Kickstarter’s greatest failures, Coolest Cooler finally ceased operations in December after floundering for 5 years. The initial project, which promised a cooler that featured a blender and a bluetooth speaker, raised more than $13M, but ultimately failed to deliver its coolers to more than 20,000 people. In a project update, the team blamed the trade war,
Inboard TechnologyTitle: Electric skateboard startup Inboard is for sale and all employees have been laid off Product: Inboard Technology Santa Cruz-based Inboard Technology began as a Kickstarter project that raised more than $400K to develop a popular electric skateboard. But its failed pivot to electric scooters sank the startup. In a memo posted on its website, the CEO writes,
SpaciousTitle: WeWork is shutting down a restaurant coworking startup it acquired only 4 months ago Product: Spacious WeWork shuttered restaurant-based coworking subsidiary Spacious after acquiring it just 4 months earlier. Spacious is just one of many startups, such as Managed by Q and Meetup, that have become collateral in WeWork’s implosion of an IPO. According to Recode,
8tracksTitle: To everything there is a reason Product: 8tracks After 11 years, music streaming platform 8tracks shuttered, citing lack of revenue and increased competition from big players. It had previously raised nearly $7.5M from Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, Index Ventures, and more. In a blog post, the founder wrote,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2019 Third Update (10/16/19)This quarter saw the fall of several big startups, including a number of companies that raised over $50M in funding before going under — such as Hong Kong unicorn Tink Labs, which reached a valuation of $1.5B before shuttering. Notable startup deaths ranged across industries, from AR/VR and healthcare to autonomous vehicles and agtech. In their final statements, shuttered company executives frequently cited common factors like a drop-off in funding and increased competition, especially within emerging industries. Scandals have also plagued this latest cohort of failed startups, from an IP battle over apples, to bribes offered to doctors, to an FBI raid on a poop–testing company with questionable billing practices. Read on for 12 post-mortems of startups that have shut down since July. Tink LabsTitle: Inside the Unraveling of Tink Labs Product: Tink Labs (aka Hi Inc.) In one of the largest startup deaths this year, Hong Kong-based Tink Labs, which provided free-to-use smartphones in hotel rooms, ended its services in over 600,000 hotel rooms across 82 countries. According to the Financial Times,
uBiomeTitle: Health Testing Startup uBiome Files for Chapter 7 With Plans To Shut Down Product: uBiome Medical diagnostics startup uBiome was unable to weather an FBI investigation and related fallout from the reveal of the company’s predatory billing practices. According to a Forbes article about the shutdown,
SingulexTitle: East Bay blood testing company closes, laying off 71 Product: Singulex Medical testing startup Singulex closed in the wake of a whistleblower suit that claimed it was billing federal health programs for unnecessary blood tests that it pressured upon healthcare providers. Singulex paid a $1.25M fine in August 2018 and shuttered in July 2019. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Special Agent in Charge Chris D. Hendrickson said,
DAQRITitle: Another high-flying, heavily funded AR headset startup is shutting down Product: DAQRI DAQRI, a Los Angeles-based AR startup, found itself floundering after burning through investments in excess of $250M and acquiring 4 other entities. Internal sources cited difficulties common among forerunners in emerging industries, including competitors with extensive corporate backing and difficulties training users to use the technology. According to TechCrunch,
VrealTitle: Moving on to new realities… Product: Vreal Vreal, a VR platform where video game streamers could share their virtual environment with viewers who could then interact in that VR space, called it quits after raising almost $12M in a Series A round in Q1’18. According to a statement from the company:
Reach RoboticsTitle: Reach Robotics – End of the Road Product: Reach Robotics Reach Robotics, the startup behind gaming robot MekaMon, shut down after being unable to make it in the hypercompetitive consumer hardware industry. Both co-founders weighed in with their thoughts around the life and challenges of Reach Robotics. Co-founder Silas Adekunle:
Co-founder John Rees:
Oryx VisionTitle: Low-Cost LiDAR Startup Oryx Vision Shuts Down Product: Oryx Vision Israel-based lidar startup Oryx Vision made the unusual move this year to preemptively shut down its operations — not due to running out of funds, as is frequently the case, but because the founders saw the roadblocks ahead of them in the autonomous vehicle space and decided that Oryx was not equipped to survive into the future. Oryx Vision will be returning approximately $40M to investors as part of this decision. Per co-founder Ran Wellingstein:
Pellion TechnologiesTitle: The death of a promising battery startup exposes harsh market realities Product: Pellion Technologies Rechargeable battery startup Pellion shuttered due to rising concerns around its ability to yield profit in the autonomous vehicle industry. The company developed a lithium-metal battery which could support drones, but not a mass market of electric vehicles. Quartz reports,
PhytelligenceTitle: Ag tech startup Phytelligence shuts down after losing dispute over Cosmic Crisp apple variety Product: Phytelligence After losing the rights to its key product (a new strain of apples named Cosmic Crisps) in a legal battle with Washington State University, agtech startup Phytelligence closed its doors for good. Geekwire writes,
DocTalkTitle: Matrix Partners-backed health-tech startup DocTalk winds up operations Product: DocTalk DocTalk, an India-based startup backed by Y Combinator and Matrix Partners, folded after trying to pivot from being a mobile communications platform between doctors and patients to an electronic medical record (EMR) solutions entity. According to people privy to the shutdown:
HomepolishTitle: Instagram Versus Reality at Failed Interior-Design Start-up Homepolish Product: Homepolish Homepolish, a customizable interior design startup, built a business around sparkling marketing and promises of highly vetted designers that it ultimately couldn’t follow through on. After high-profile denouncements of Homepolish and documentation of the shoddy work done by the startup, the company fell apart — but not before CEO Noa Santos announced that designers would not be paid owed wages and customers would not be able to get refunds. The New York Magazine writes,
Mac & MiaTitle: Kids’ Clothing Startup Mac & Mia Shuts Down Product: Mac & Mia Kids’ apparel delivery service Mac & Mia announced it would cease operations after a short-lived run that began in 2018. The company was unable to carve out its desired niche and had to close shop in late August 2019. According to ChicagoInno,
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2019 Second Update (6/19/2019)A slew of startups have wound down in the last few months across a broad range of industries. San Francisco-based robot maker Anki shuttered after using up its sizable pile of cash, while low-cost Icelandic airline Wow Air abruptly ceased operations after failing to secure new financing. Other notable closures include customized footwear maker Shoes of Prey, which decided that its approach didn’t have enough mainstream appeal, and Stratolaunch, a satellite launching company founded by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Read on for 13 post-mortems of startups which have shut down since the beginning of March. AnkiTitle: Robotics startup Anki shuts down after burning through almost $200 million Product: Anki Consumer AI robotics company Anki had raised over $200M from prominent investors but the company wasn’t able to stay afloat after reportedly failing to attract a new round of investment or an acquirer. Anki posted a statement on its website:
StratolaunchTitle: Space firm founded by billionaire Paul Allen closing operations Product: Stratolaunch Stratolaunch was founded by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aimed to launch satellites from planes. The Reuters report of its shuttering came just weeks after it had completed its first test flight:
Wow AirTitle: Iceland’s Wow Air Shuts Down After Failing to Raise New Cash Product: Wow Air Low-cost airline Wow Air abruptly shut down in March after being unable to secure additional funding. Bloomberg’s report included part of a letter its Chairman Skuli Mogensen sent to Wow Air staff:
Panda TVTitle: Panda TV Officially Shuts Down its Service Product: Panda TV The Esports Observer reported on Chinese video streaming service Panda TV shutting down:
Roadstar.aiTitle: Roadstar.ai: The Rise and Fall of a Self-Driving Startup Product: Roadstar.ai Autonomous vehicle startup Roadstar.ai was developing autonomous vehicles and had raised around $128M in 2018, but its co-founder was mired by allegations of fraud. Synced Review described the situation in its coverage:
Seven Dreamers LaboratoriesTitle: Laundroid company folds before its giant robot does Product: Seven Dreamers Laboratories Panasonic-backed Seven Dreamers Laboratories offered a laundry machine which aimed to act as a combined washer, dryer, and clothes folder. Engadget thought that the machine was trying to do too much:
LesaraTitle: No investor found: Lesara’s online store is now offline Product: Lesara The German online fashion retailer couldn’t keep operations going after failing to find an investor or a buyer, according to neuhandeln.de:
Crazy TeacherTitle: “Crazy Teacher” announced that it will stop operating Product: Crazy Teacher Chinese home tutoring app Crazy Teacher — which included Tencent as one of its investors — closed in April, as reported by Pencil News:
ArivaleTitle: Scientific wellness startup Arivale closes abruptly in ‘tragic’ end to vision to transform personal health Product: Arivale Geekwire reported that genetic testing startup Arivale shut down suddenly:
Aria InsightsTitle: Drone maker Aria Insights, formerly CyPhy Works, shuts down Product: Aria Insights Aria Insights — backed by high-profile investors such as Lux Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners — offered drones which were designed to gather data from challenging environments. The Robot Report says that Aria Insights was in the middle of rebrand when it closed:
Shoes of PreyTitle: The Shoes of Prey Journey Ends Product: Shoes of Prey Co-founder Michael Fox announced in a blog post that the brand was shutting down, citing a lack of demand for their customization approach:
HomeShareTitle: HomeShare Closing Its Doors Product: Homeshare HomeShare aimed to help users find affordable accommodation but, after failing to secure new financing, the company announced it was closing in a post on its website:
FabricTitle: Sunsetting the Fabric App Product: Fabric In a blog post, the Y-Combinator graduate said it couldn’t make its memory curation app a sustainable product:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2019 First Update (2/28/2019)In the last few months, we’ve seen a number of company shutdowns across several different sectors. Former unicorn Aiwujiwu, a China-based online property listing platform, ceased operations just a few years after reaching its billion-dollar valuation (2015). Other notable failures span industries from food delivery (Munchery) to transportation (Arrivo, Chariot). Read on for 11 post-mortems of startups that have shut down since mid-November 2018. AiwujiwuTitle: Chinese Online Property ‘Unicorn’ Aiwujiwu Shuts Down Product: Aiwujiwu While no official statement has been made, the former unicorn’s website appears to be inactive:
ArrivoTitle: Hyperloop startup Arrivo is shutting down Product: Arrivo The company hasn’t announced its shutdown, but The Verge shared some information:
ChariotTitle: Important Update from Chariot Product: Chariot The Ford-owned shuttle transportation company announced its decision to cease operations in a blog post:
Fifth DimensionTitle: Predictive Analytics Company Fifth Dimension Shuts Down Product: Fifth Dimension According to Israel’s CTech:
Lighthouse AITitle: Lights out Product: Lighthouse AI Lighthouse AI’s CEO Alex Teichman shared a farewell message on the company’s website:
MuncheryTitle: Thank you for making a place for us at your table Product: Munchery As a player in the increasingly crowded food delivery space, Munchery writes:
Naya HealthTitle: Breast pump start-up Naya Health shuts down after failing to raise money Product: Naya Health The women’s health company emailed its users explaining its decision to shut down (per CNBC):
OnavoTitle: Apple removed Facebook’s Onavo from the App Store for gathering app data Product: Onavo The Facebook-owned app was pulled from the App Store for violating data collection policies, according to Apple (via TechCrunch):
Poppy Care CompanyTitle: With Heavy Hearts, Poppy is Discontinuing its Services Product: Poppy Care Company The platform connecting families and caregivers addresses its shortcomings in a blog post:
SCHAFTTitle: Google parent to pull plug on bipedal robot development Product: SCHAFT The Google-owned robotics unit has been shut down:
SophiaTitle: Sophia has closed Product: Sophia The company, which sought to match people with life counselors, now redirects users to other platforms seeking mental wellness resources:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2018 Third Update (11/14/2018)This fall has brought a wave of startup shutdowns from sectors across the board. Some were wrapped in high-profile controversy and drama, like Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos. Others went more quietly — some, like watch rental company Eleven James, so quiet that no official shutdowns were announced to the public. Read on for 18 post-mortems of startups that have shut down since August 2018. AirwareTitle: Drone startup Airware crashes, shuts down after burning $118M Product: Airware In a statement, drone company Airware confirmed its shutdown:
Alta MotorsTitle: Alta Motors reportedly shutting down production of [its] electric motorcycles Product: Alta Motors The company hasn’t announced its shutdown, but Electrek shared some information:
CanadaDrugs.comTitle: Fake meds draw concerns from online pharmacy users Product: CanadaDrugs.com The circumstances of the online Canadian pharmacy’s shutdown by the FDA were reported as follows:
CloudMineTitle: Center City’s CloudMine, $6M in debt, files for bankruptcy Product: CloudMine An email statement from healthcare data platform CloudMine details its Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing:
Defy MediaTitle: Defy Media, home of YouTube superstars Smosh, is shutting down Product: Defy Media The digital media company released the following statement:
DriverTitle: ‘We ran out of money’ Product: Driver The company, which sought to match patients with clinical trials, shut down just two months after its launch:
Eleven JamesTitle: What’s Happening to Subscription Watch Club Eleven James? Product: Eleven James Reports describe the quiet shutdown of the watch company:
FastbeeTitle: I’d do it all over again, says founder of failed start-up Fastbee Product: Fastbee Fastbee founder describes his experience with the food delivery startup:
Halo+ Smoke AlarmTitle: Dear Halo customers Product: Halo+ Smoke Alarm Halo said goodbye to customers in a post:
Henri BendelTitle: L Brands Takes Action to Increase Shareholder Value – Announces 2019 Closure of Henri Bendel Stores and Henri Bendel E-Commerce Product: Henri Bendel The women’s accessories stores will be shutting down by early 2019:
LiquavistaTitle: Amazon has shut down Liquavista Product: Liquavista The Digital Reader confirmed the screen tech company’s shutdown in an article:
PathTitle: Goodbye Product: Path Social network company Path posted a goodbye message on Twitter:
SeatwaveTitle: GET ME IN! and Seatwave are shutting down Product: Seatwave Ticketmaster addressed the shutdown of its online ticket marketplace in a blog post:
TheranosTitle: Theranos is shutting down Product: Theranos The New York Times wrote about the blood testing company and its plans to shutter operations:
TreatoTitle: Israeli medical intelligence startup Treato shuts down Product: Treato The Israeli medical intelligence startup shuttered according to court documents:
WimduTitle: Wimdu, Rocket Internet’s Airbnb clone, to shut down this year ‘facing significant business challenges’ Product: Wimdu The vacation rentals marketplace announced that it would be shutting down by the end of 2018 due to “significant financial and business challenges.”
WongaTitle: Administrator’s updates Product: Wonga An update on the payday loan provider’s website reads:
YogomeTitle: Months After Raising $27M, Education Startup Yogome Shuts Down Amid Fraud Allegations Product: Yogome In a team meeting, staff members of the edtech startup were reportedly told:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2018 Second Update (8/13/2018)In the first half of 2018, we’ve seen some big name startups shutter their doors. High profile retail startups including the Kardashian’s DASH Stores, Ivanka Trump’s eponymous brand, and Gap-owned Weddington Way all closed up shop. Another newsworthy startup, Cambridge Analytica began insolvency proceedings amidst controversy. Retail wasn’t the only sector that has been hit these last few months. We’ve also had popular tech startups Klout and StumbleUpon close operations too. An unsustainable business model was the most often cited reason behind the death of these startups, from travel technology (Bluesmart) to the food delivery space (Chef’d). Read on for the post-mortems of 16 startups that have shut down from our last update in April 2018. ApprendaTitle: Troy-based Apprenda stopping operations, investor says Product: Apprenda Safeguard CEO and president Brian Sisko gave an update during an earnings call:
Chef’dTitle: Meal-kit company Chef’d suddenly shut down and laid off its hundreds of employees Product: Chef’d In an email sent to employees, founder and CEO Kyle Ransford explained:
BluesmartTitle: A Journey Ends, the Travel Evolution Goes On… Product: Bluesmart The connected luggage company shared the following note on its website:
CareSyncTitle: CareSync shuts down Product: CareSync CareSync posted the following message on its website:
LanternTitle: Thank You and Farewell Product: Lantern The team at Lantern signed off with this message:
StumbleUponTitle: SU is moving to Mix Product: StumbleUpon In a post on Medium, co-founder Garret Camp explained the decision to shutter StumbleUpon:
Cambridge AnalyticaTitle: Cambridge Analytica and Scl Elections Commence Insolvency Proceedings and Release Results of Independent Investigation into Recent Allegations Product: Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica posted the following press release on its website:
OSSICTitle: A Very Sad Goodbye Product: OSSIC OSSIC posted a message on its Kickstarter page explaining why the company would not be able to deliver the product:
DaWandaTitle: A Letter From The CEO Product: DaWanda Founder and CEO Claudia Helming shared this message on the website:
FieldbookTitle: Fieldbook is Shutting Down Product: Fieldbook In a Medium post, the executive team at Fieldbook explained its decision:
PuddleTitle: Peer to Peer Micro-Credit Site Puddle Shuts Down Product: Puddle The company sent out an email to employees describing the decision:
DASH StoresTitle: Closing Our DASH Doors Product: DASH Stores Kim Kardashian West spoke for her sisters (and co-founders) in a note on her website:
Ivanka TrumpTitle: Ivanka Trump Closes $100 Million Fashion Business Product: Ivanka Trump Ivanka Trump released the following statement about her brand shutting down:
KloutTitle: Sunsetting Klout Product: Klout CEO of parent company Lithium Peter Hess posted a message on the Lithosphere community forums:
DoughbiesTitle: Team Doughbies is moving on Product: Doughbies The team from Doughbies recorded a short video explaining its desire to move on:
Weddington WayTitle: Weddington Way has closed Product: Weddington Way On their website, Weddington Way announced its closure to customers:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2018 First Update (4/17/2018)In the last few months, startups have shuttered for reasons ranging from the conventional (Doppler struggled to raise capital to support the production of a complex hardware product), to the regulatory (Coinprism’s CEO cited concerns about the regulatory future of the cryptocurrency space), to the unexpected (connected wine bottle startup Kuvée ran into trouble following fires in Napa Valley). A number of recently shuttered startups cited fierce incumbent competition as the reason for their closures. Philadelphia-based B2B food delivery startup Zoomer floundered in comparison to UberEats and GrubHub, while video platform Videma had difficulty luring consumers away from established platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Read on for post-mortems of 11 startups that have shuttered since our last update in October 2017. CoinprismTitle: ‘Colored coins’ startup Coinprism is shutting down Product: Coinprism web wallet In an email to CoinDesk, Coinprism founder and CEO Flavien Charlon wrote:
ShypTitle: I can’t wait for you to see what we do next Product: Shyp Shyp CEO Kevin Gibbon published a company post-mortem on LinkedIn after the company shuttered in late March.
KuvéeTitle: A $178 wine bottle that connects to Wi-Fi raised $6 million from investors, and now the startup is shutting down Product: Kuvée connected wine bottles
IntroNetTitle: An experienced startup founder learns some new lessons Product: IntroNet Mike Krupit, CEO of IntroNet, a service for professionals to make and track introductions, wrote a lengthy post about the factors that contributed to the company’s failure:
ChorusTitle: Dick Costolo explains why he shut down his fitness startup after 8 months: ‘We were up against hard-wired human behavior’ Product: Chorus
SansaireTitle: High-tech cooking startup Sansaire shutting down, ceasing production of new sous vide device Product: Sansaire
BarooTitle: Pet care startup Baroo shuts down as competitors raise hundreds of millions Product: Baroo AmericanInno examined what went wrong at Boston-based pet care app Baroo:
ZoomerTitle: Confirmed: Zoomer is shutting down Product: Zoomer B2B food delivery service
OttoTitle: So close. Product: Otto digital locks Smart lock startup Otto CEO Sam Jadallah wrote a Medium post about the closure of his company, after an acquisition deal failed to go through.
VidmeTitle: Goodbye for now Product: Vidme video platform
Vidme co-founder Warren Shaeffer additionally added in a separate email:
Doppler LabsTitle: Dear customers, Once-Hot, Smart-Earbud Startup Doppler Labs To Shut Down Product: Doppler Labs‘ smart earbuds A letter on Doppler’s website read:
In an interview with Forbes, Doppler CEO Noah Kraft explained further:
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2017 Third Update (10/31/17)Since midsummer, the consumer hardware space has continued to claim its share of high-profile, VC-backed casualties — including Juicero’s $400 juicer-as-a-platform, Teforia’s $1,500 tea infuser, and Jawbone’s lineup of high-design (but rarely shipped) wearable fitness trackers. But overpriced, over-hyped hardware products weren’t the only “innovations” we said goodbye to: we also recently witnessed the deaths of startups working in mobile AR, e-commerce, digital media, and more. Read on for post-mortems on 10 of the latest startups to bite the dust. JuiceroTitle: Juicero can’t “carry forward the Juicero mission” Product: The Juicero Cold-Press Juice “Platform”
Blin.gyTitle: My Mobile AR Start-Up Died So Yours Doesn’t Have To Product: Blin.gy App Blin.gy founder David wrote a 1700-word Medium post with lessons from his startup’s lifecycle. Three notable excerpts:
TeforiaTitle: Dear Teforia Customers and Partners Product: Teforia Tea Infusor
JawboneTitle: Jawbone to Be Liquidated as Rahman Moves to Health Startup Product: Jawbone The Information broke the news of Jawbone’s demise based on insights from a source close to the company.
HelloTitle: Goodbye, Hello. Product: Hello‘s Sense smart sleep sensor
Pearl AutomationTitle: Auto startup Pearl shuts down Product: Pearl Automation‘s wireless rear-view camera Pearl’s demise was first reported by Axios.
WikimartTitle: How Wikimart.ru went bankrupt after raising dozens of millions Product: Wikimart‘s B2C e-commerce marketplace East-West Digital News reported on how international sanctions, mismanagement, and strategic missteps contributed to the failure of this Russian e-commerce platform that had raised $81M in disclosed funding. Six months prior to Wikimart’s July 2017 demise, co-founder Maxim Faldin wrote the following note on the company’s Facebook page.
Fresco NewsTitle: When the money runs out Product: Fresco News‘ social reporting platform The Outline referenced CB Insights’ failure intelligence in an in-depth post-mortem on this digital media startup.
DoormanTitle: Package delivery startup Doorman is shutting down Product: Doorman Excerpts from a TechCrunch report:
RaptrTitle: Raptr is shutting down this month Product: Raptr
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2017 Second Update (6/9/17)The first half of 2017 has seen plenty of startup deaths – some expected, some less so. Most surprising was the sudden shutdown of Sprig, a startup in the beleaguered food-delivery space that first received funding in 2013. Meanwhile, two former industry leaders also closed their doors: Adtech platform AudienceScience shut down after losing a major client, and social bookmarking pioneer del.icio.us finally went dark after surviving multiple acquisitions. (May its bookmarks rest in peace.) Read on for the reasons 22 startups shut off the lights since early February. SprigTitle: Sprig Couldn’t Cut It In Food Delivery Space Product: Sprig
BeepiTitle: Car startup Beepi sold for parts after potential exits to Fair, and then DGDG, broke down Product: Beepi
AuctionataTitle: Auctionata Shutters After No Investor Is Found to Save Company Product: Auctionata Paddle8 AG
MarkafoniTitle: Naspers e-commerce firm Markafoni to shut down Product: Markafoni
ImzyTitle: Imzy, the nicer Reddit, is shutting down Product: lmzy
DOWNLOAD THE BEST OF our startup failure researchGet all our research on why startups fail, and what you can learn from them. HomeHeroTitle: There’s No Magic in Venture-Backed Home Care Product: HomeHero
BTCjamTitle: BTCjam Sets Closing Date. Users May Withdraw Stored Bitcoin until July Product: BTCJam
AudienceScienceTitle: AudienceScience Shuts Its Doors Less Than A Month After P&G Client Loss Product: AudienceScience
StayzillaTitle: Stayzilla, India’s Airbnb for homestays, closes its service Product: Stayzilla
del.icio.usTitle: Social bookmarking pioneer Delicious heads to the dead pool Product: del.icio.us
BridjTitle: Out of Aces. Product: Bridj
QuixeyTitle: Quixey closure reportedly due to Alibaba debt deal Product: Quixey
AOptix TechnologiesTitle: It’s Lights Out for AOptix Product: AOptix Technologies
QuidsiTitle: Amazon Pulls Quidsi Apps After Announcing Plan To Shut Down All Quidsi Sites Product: Quidsi
MobeamTitle: The “Death of Paper Coupons” Will Have to Wait Product: Mobeam
GuveraTitle: Australian streaming startup Guvera has shut down after taking $185 million from investors Product: Guvera
snapCardTitle: Wyre Pivoted Away from Consumer Bitcoin Payments Product: snapCard
Aquion EnergyTitle: Aquion Energy Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Product: Aquion Energy
Table8Title: Restaurant Reservation Startup Table8 Is Shutting Down Product: Table8 (aka TableNow)
LOYAL3Title: Discount Brokerage Loyal3 Shutting Down Product: LOYAL3
PlastcTitle: Fintech ‘Plastc’ Shuts Down After Cancelling All 80,000 Pre Orders Product: Plastc
RithmioTitle: Chicago Startup Rithmio Has Shut Down Product: Rithmio
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2017 First Update (2/10/17)The tail end of 2016 and start of 2017 were a rough period for startups, in which many were culled from the herd. Pre-smartphone answer service ChaCha asked “can we stay in business?” and received the answer “no.” A drone company with tons of preorders and lots of buzz folded up and left customers stranded, and some blockchain startups ran into regulation challenges, complications, and plain old lack of funding. There are a million reasons startups fail, here are 26 more stories to add to the list. ChaChaTitle: ChaCha, unable to find financial answers, shuts down operations Product: ChaCha
DealstruckTitle: Why is Finance for Small Business Still Broken? Product: Dealstruck
Shoes.comTitle: Vancouver’s Shoes.com shuts down operations Product: Shoes.com
Lily RoboticsTitle: The Adventure Comes to an End Product: Lily Robotics
VidAngelTitle: VidAngel Just Crowdfunded $10M Using Reg A+ & Now Court Orders Video Streaming Business to Shut Down Product: VidAngel
App.netTitle: App.net is shutting down Product: App.net
TaskBobTitle: Home services startup Taskbob shuts shop Product: TaskBob
ChangeCoinTitle: ChangeTip Shutting Down Product: ChangeCoin
BuildzarTitle: Exclusive: Building materials marketplace Buildzar shuts down Product: Buildzar
VinayaTitle: A lot more wearable woe as Vinaya restructures and seeks pivot to b2b Product: Vinaya
BesomebodyTitle: Boston startup Besomebody, once featured on ‘Shark Tank,’ shuts down app Product: Besomebody
BriefMe MediaTitle: Unfortunate News Product: BriefMe Media
Angel SensorTitle: Open source wearable Angel shuts down Product: Angel Sensor
Loanbase/BitLendingClubTitle: BitLendingClub Closing Soon Due to Regulatory Pressure Product: Loanbase/BitLendingClub
RendeevooTitle: Rendeevoo is no more Product: Rendeevoo
OmnirefTitle: Y Combinator-backed Omniref is shutting down on January 31, 2017 Product: Omniref
BitphoneTitle: Bitphone closing due to regulatory requirements Product: bitphone
All Romance eBooksTitle: All Romance eBooks is Shutting Down Product: All Romance eBooks
OpshTitle: A Final Farewell From The Opsh Founders Product: Opsh
Plain Vanilla GamesTitle: Plain Vanilla Closes Shop, Lays off Staff Product: Plain Vanilla Games
Pixelmage GamesTitle: Hello Hero’s Song Players Product: Pixelmage Games
ScarfTitle: Alberta Health Services shuts down innovative meal-sharing system Product: Scarf
ShelfieTitle: Shelfie to Shutdown on 31 January – Download Your eBooks NOW Product: Shelfie From their shutdown announcement:
Founder Peter Hudson [said via] email that:
The Social RadioTitle: #TheParrot says goodbye! Product: The Social Radio
WhatsOnRentTitle: Exclusive: Online rental marketplace WhatsOnRent shuts shop; returns 50% funding Product: WhatsOnRent
VrideoTitle: Taking Our Goggles Off Product: Vrideo
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2016 Third Update (11/8/16)We rounded up 14 more startups whose lessons ranged from “stick to what you’re good at” to “don’t use your VC money like a personal piggy bank.” Classic startup issues like running out of money, getting squeezed out by bigger players, and failing to find a market fit and MVP are also on display. One notable entrant actually gave money back to their VCs so that it could possibly help fund other new companies. There’s something you don’t see every day. The Happy Home CompanyTitle: The Happy Home Company shuts down, team members move to Google Product: The Happy Home Company
SunEdisonTitle: How SunEdison went from Wall Street star to bankruptcy Product: SunEdison
Wash.ioTitle:
Washio Shuts Down Its On-Demand Dry Cleaning Service
Drugstore.comTitle: Walgreens to Shut Down Drugstore.com, Focus On Own Website Product: Drugstore.com
Maximum PlayTitle: MaxPlay lays off almost all workers as game engine startup switches to licensing Product: Maximum Play
Maximum PlayTitle: Failed HUD Helmet Maker Skully Spent Funding On Strippers And Exotic Cars: Lawsuit Product: Skully Helmets
GozoomoTitle: Millions still in the bank, GoZoomo shuts shop, returns VC money. The whole story Product: GoZoomo
PicturelifeTitle: Photo-storage service Picturelife shuts down 18 months after being acquired Product: Picturelife
HivebeatTitle: Why we’re shutting down Hivebeat and what we’ve learned along the way Product: Hivebeat
ElectroloomTitle: Thanks and farewell Product: Electroloom
MobileIgniterTitle: MobileIgniter to Shut Down After Five Years and Multiple Pivots Product: MobileIgniter
Sonitus MedicalTitle: CMS Killed My $80M Venture-Backed Startup Product: Sonitus Medical
Gawker MediaTitle: Gawker Says Goodbye With Emotion and Defiance Product: Gawker Media
KarhooTitle: Uber rival Karhoo shuts down after blowing through a reported $250M in funding* Product: Karhoo
*Chief executive Daniel Ishag put the funding amount at $52M in a Nov. 10 interview with The Financial Times. Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2016 Second Update (7/28/2016)We rounded up 14 more startups whose lessons ranged from fraud and investor dropouts, to logistics issues and product problems. A recurring element in this cohort was running out of runway and being unable to raise more financing. KitchensurfingTitle: On-demand chef service Kitchensurfing shuts down Product: Kitchensurfing
Take Eat EasyTitle: The right words to say goodbye Product: Take Eat Easy
PepperTapTitle: The PepperTap Journey: our story Product: PepperTap
BlackJetTitle: Celeb-backed BlackJet Is Grounded. Again. Product: BlackJet
Dinner LabTitle: How Dinner Lab Blew Through $10 Million On A Failed Restaurant Startup Product: Dinner Lab
YelohaTitle: Lights Out for Yeloha – Why We Shut Down the Solar Sharing Network Product: Yeloha
SharpScholarTitle: We Shut Down Our Edtech Startup. Here’s What We Learned. Product: SharpScholar
BackplaneTitle: Lady Gaga’s startup Backplane burns out and sells assets Product: Backplane
ShuddleTitle: Shuddle shuts down its ‘Uber for kids’ transportation service Product: Shuddle
JumioTitle: Identity verification startup Jumio files for bankruptcy, will sell assets to early backer Eduardo Saverin Product: Jumio
TrustBuddyTitle: TrustBuddy Loses Trust. Peer to Peer Platform Closes Following “Suspected Misconduct”, Swedish Police Contacted Product: TrustBuddy
Fashion ProjectTitle: After laying off most of its staff, clothing resale startup Fashion Project regroups Product: Fashion Project
PostGhostTitle: Post Ghost Shutdown: An Open Letter to Twitter Product: PostGhost
Chef NightlyTitle: Chef Nightly food delivery app shuts down amid intense competition Product: Chef Nightly
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2016 First Update (2/15/2016)The funding and deal activity pullback in Q4’15 was a reality check for venture, and there is more of a focus on business fundamentals. We rounded up 11 startups deserving of an autopsy from the tail-end of 2015 and the start of 2016. From Rdio to the massive KiOR (that raised $403M in total funding), there were a variety of lessons to be learned: hiring problems, inability to compete, legal issues, and many more. Leap TransitTitle: Behind the Failure of Leap Transit’s Gentrified Buses in San Francisco Product: Leap Transit
RdioTitle: Why Rdio died Product: Rdio
KiORTitle: How Tech Billionaire Vinod Khosla’s Biofuel Dream Went Bad Product: KiOR
SideCarTitle: Why We Sold to GM Product: SideCar
HealthspotTitle: Why did HealthSpot fail? The telemedicine industry weighs in Product: Healthspot
FlytenowTitle: The Beginning of the End Product: Flytenow
Delivree KingTitle: Dehli-based logistics startup Delivree King shuts down Product: Delivree King
Top 10Title: London hotel ranking startup Top10 raised $12 million in funding — but now it’s shutting down Product: Top 10
PrismaticTitle: Prismatic is shutting down its news app for iOS, Android, and Web on December 20 Product: Prismatic “Four years ago, we set out to build a personalized news reader that would change the way people consume content,” the Prismatic team wrote in a blog post. “For many of you, we did just that. But we also learned
content distribution is a tough business and we’ve failed to grow at a rate that justifies continuing to support our Prismatic News products.” Carrier IQTitle: AT&T Snaps Up Assets, Talent From Carrier iQ, Phone Monitoring Startup Goes Offline Product: Carrier IQ
Laguna PharmaceuticalsTitle: Heart Drug Safety Concerns Prompt Shutdown at Laguna Pharmaceuticals Product: Laguna Pharmaceuticals
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2015 Second Update (12/3/2015)From Quirky to Homejoy to Zen99, we’ve added 11 startup post-mortems to the 34 we previously added in our first 2015 update. While unicorns continue to be minted and mega rounds continue, there are still many new lessons to be learned from startups facing risks as they navigate the turbulent contract worker economy or failing to acquire customers. The 11 new additions, below. PixableTitle: Pixable Closing Up Shop After One Crazy, Awesome Ride Product: Pixable
BonafideTitle: Bitcoin Reputation Startup Bonafide to Shut Down Product: Bonafide
Dine InTitle: After Falling Through The Series A Gap, Restaurant Delivery Startup Dine In Shutters Product: Dine In
QuirkyTitle: The Rise and Fall of Quirky — the Start-Up That Bet Big on the Genius of Regular Folks Product: Quirky
HomejoyTitle: Homejoy Shuts Down After Battling Worker Classification Lawsuits Product: Homejoy
SelltagTitle: Selltag has shut down Product: Selltag
Zen99Title: Why Zen99 Shut Down Product: Zen99
QBotixTitle: RIP QBotix: Robotic Solar Tracking Fails to Reach the Market Product: QBotix
VatlerTitle: Inside story of VATLER’s shut down Product: Vatler
BetterTitle: Lessons From Mayo Clinic-backed Better Shutting Down Product: Better
ShopaTitle: Shopa shuts down just months after raising £7m in growth capital Product: Shopa
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2015 First Update (8/15/2015)From Zirtual to Circa to Secret, we’ve added 34 startup post-mortems through mid-August 2015. While mega-financings and “unicorns” have dominated the headlines in 2015 YTD, there are still many new lessons to be learned from startups taking on out-of-control burn rates or failing to monetize properly.The 34 new additions, below. SecretTitle: Sunset Product: Secret
ZirtualTitle: What Happened and What’s Next Product: Zirtual
CircaTitle: Farewell to Circa News Product: Circa
KatoTitle: ‘Slack Ate the World‘ Product: Kato
The Last Guide CompanyTitle: One Last Update Product: The Last Guide Company
UDesignTitle: My Startup Failed and This is How It Went Down Product: UDesign
WattageTitle: Well, We Failed Product: Wattage
PatterbuzzTitle: Down, But Not Out Product: Patterbuzz
NebulaTitle: Nebula Is Shutting Down Product: Nebula
DoneByNoneTitle: DoneByNone Goes Down Product: DoneByNone
BrawkerTitle: Brawker Shuts Down Product: Brawker
ProtoExchangeTitle: Company Update Product: ProtoExchange
BalancedTitle: Migrating from Balanced to Stripe Product: Balanced
Wardrobe Wake-UpTitle: Wardrobe Wake-Up to Shut Down Product: Wardrobe Wake-Up
Why Own ItTitle: Verleih App, Shareconomy Product: Why Own It
MeloticTitle: Melotic Exchange Shutting Down Product: Melotic
GroovesharkTitle: Grooveshark is Dead Product: Grooveshark
GigaOmTitle: A Statement about GigaOm Product: GigaOm
Digital RoyaltyTitle: Hanging Up the Crown Product: Digital Royalty
Ordr.inTitle: Why This Google-Backed Brooklynite Says Congress Could Have Saved His Business Product: Ordr.in DOWNLOAD THE BEST OF our startup failure researchGet all our research on why startups fail, and what you can learn from them.
TalentpadTitle: Talentpad Is Shutting Down Product: Talentpad
This Is My JamTitle: Jam Preserves Product: This Is My Jam
37CoinsTitle: Today, We Are Shutting Down 37Coins Product: 37Coins
CampusTitle: Build Campus Is Shutting Down Product: Campus
LumosTitle: Five Reasons Why My IoT Startup Failed Product: Lumos
ratemyspeechTitle: Let It Go, Let It Go…Sunset of My First Startup Product: ratemyspeech
RewardMeTitle: Premature Scaling Killed Us Product: RewardMe
PolianaTitle: The Life and Death of a Political Startup Product: Poliana
KinlyTitle: The Idea Is Dead…Love Live the Idea Product: Kinly
KolosTitle: 10 Lessons I Learned From Burning Through $50,000 on a Hardware Project That Bombed Product: Kolos
College Inside ViewTitle: Case Study of a Failed Startup Product: College Inside View
ComboCats StudioTitle: Traps for Friends – Our Attempt at Fair IAP Multiplayer Product: ComboCats Studio
BitshuvaTitle: My Startup’s Dead! 5 Things I Learned Product: Bitshuva
AllmyappsTitle: Story of an Almost Successful French Startup Product: Allmyapps
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2014 Second Update (9/24/2014)An additional 25 startup post-mortems have been added, including more recently failed additions from this year including 99dresses (Fenox VC), Dinnr, Unifyo (EC1 Capital) and VoterTide (Optimas Group). 99dressesTitle: My startup failed, and this is what it feels like… Product: 99dresses
DinnrTitle: Seven lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr Product: Dinnr
Seismic VideoTitle: How I Failed Launching Seismic Video Product: Seismic Video
Treehouse LogicTitle: Thoughts on shutting down Treehouse Logic Product: Treehouse Logic
BackchatTitle: The End of a Great Experience Product: Backchat
Patient CommunicatorTitle: Why Patient Communicator Failed Product: Patient Communicator
TwitpicTitle: Twitpic is shutting down Product: Twitpic
BergTitle: Week 483 Product: Berg
WishbergTitle: The Final Note Product: Wishberg
GreenGar StudiosTitle: Failure of a success Product: GreenGar Studios
Rivet & SwayTitle: The inside story of Rivet & Sway Product: Rivet & Sway
DijiwanTitle: Why our startup failed Product: Dijiwan
WantfulTitle: Some news about Wantful Product: Wantful
Disruptive MediaTitle: The Disruptive Advantage 3 Product: Disruptive Media
CalxedaTitle: Low power won’t bag ARM the server crown Product: Calxeda
Turntable.fmTitle: Shutting down Product: Turntable.fm
TutorspreeTitle: When SEO fails – Single channel dependency and the end of Tutorspree Product: Tutorspree
NirvanixTitle: A Nirvanix Postmortem – Why There’s No Replacement For Due Diligence Product: Nirvanix
PostRocketTitle: PostRocket to Shut Down Product: PostRocket
VoterTideTitle: VoterTide Postmortem Product: VoterTide
SkyRocketTitle: A Startup Postmortem Product: SkyRocket
GameLayersTitle: A Story of GameLayers Product: GameLayers
SerendipTitle: Serendip Is Shutting Down Product: Serendip
UnifyoTitle: Unifyo – Post Mortem Product: Unifyo
LookeryTitle: Couldery Shouldery Company: Lookery
Startup Failure Post-Mortems 2014 First Update (6/3/2014)We’ve added 25 additional startup post-mortems, which include many recent additions in the past several months such as Canvas (Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz), Outbox (Founders Fund, Floodgate), Manilla (Hearst Corp.) and AdMazely (SEED Capital). Here’s why the latest group hit the skids. Canvas NetworksTitle: Today my startup failed Company: Canvas Networks
BlurttTitle: Shutting Down Blurtt Company: Blurtt
ManillaTitle: Manilla Is Shutting Down Company: Manilla
PumodoTitle: A startup postmortem with a happy ending? ..in Thailand Company: Pumodo
AdmazelyTitle: Startup Failure: How it feels Company: Admazely
SpringpadTitle: Springpad Says Goodbye Company: Springpad
ExfmTitle: Changing Tune Company: Exfm
Samba MobileTitle: Samba Closing Down Company: Samba Mobile
inBloomTitle: inBloom Retiring Company: inBloom
FindoryTitle: Starting Findory: The end Company: Findory
FindItTitle: FindIt is shutting down – Thank you for all the support! Company: FindIt
MyFavoritesTitle: The little startup that couldn’t (a postmortem of MyFavorites) Company: MyFavorites
Inq MobileTitle: Inq Mobile Shuts Down Company: Inq Mobile
OutboxTitle: Outbox is Shutting Down—A Note of Gratitude Company: Outbox
ArgyleTitle: Argyle Social is shutting down our service Company: Argyle
ExecTitle: What I learned about online-to-offline Company: Exec
Bloom.fmTitle: Close, but no cigar Company: Bloom.fm
StippleTitle: Stipple Shuts Down Company: Stipple
ZumboxTitle: Zumbox to Shutter its Operations Company: Zumbox
DelightTitle: Failed to delight: Post-mortem of my first startup Company: Delight
Mochi MediaTitle: Mochi Media Winding Down Services Company: Mochi Media
SalorixTitle: Salorix Shuts Operations Company: Salorix
HowDoTitle: The last step Company: HowDo
ReadmillTitle: Epiloque Company: Readmill
PlancastTitle: The Uphill Battle Of Social Event Sharing: A Post-Mortem for Plancast Company: Plancast
Original 50 Startup Post-Mortems (Published January 20, 2014)IntellibankTitle: 7 Things I learned from Startup Failure Company: Intellibank
TeamometerTitle: Startup Lessons Learned from My First Startup Company: Teamometer
Standout JobsTitle: A Postmortem Analysis of Standout Jobs Company: Standout Jobs
CusoyTitle: Cusoy: A postmortem Company: Cusoy
FlowtabTitle: Flowtab Company: Flowtab
FormspringTitle: Formspring – A Postmortem Company: Formspring
Mass-customized JeansTitle: Internet Startup: Lessons from Failure Product: Mass-customized Jeans
ParceldTitle: Lessons from my failed startup Company: Parceld
SaaspireTitle: Lessons from my failed startup Company: Saaspire
GroupSpacesTitle: Looking back at 7 years with my startup GroupSpaces Company: GroupSpaces
Zillionears.comTitle: My Startup Failed. F@<#. Company: Zillionears.com
EverpixTitle: Out of the Picture: Why the world’s best photo startup is going out of business (Editorial) Company: Everpix
HelloParkingTitle: Part Two of the HelloParking postmortem: a look back, and a new perspective Company: HelloParking
GowallaTitle: Play By Your Own Rules Company: Gowalla
SonarTitle: Postmortem of a Venture-Backed Startup Company: Sonar
Decide.comTitle: Postmortem of a Venture-Backed, Acquired Startup Company: Decide.com
ShnergleTitle: Shnergle Post Mortem Company: Shnergle
TigerbowTitle: Tis the Season for a Tigerbow Post Mortem Company: Tigerbow
Travelllll.comTitle: Travelllll Post-Mortem Company: Travelllll.com
VitotoTitle: Vitoto Offically Shutting Down Company: Vitoto
FludTitle: Why Startups Fail: A Postmortem For Flud, The Social Newsreader (Editorial) Company: Flud
On-Q-ityTitle: On-Q-ity, a Cancer Diagnostic Company: R.I.P. (A VC’s perspective) Company: On-Q-ity
Condom Key ChainsTitle: How My Startup Failed Product: Condom Key Chains
WesabeTitle: Why Wesabe Lost to Mint Company: Wesabe
ArsDigitaTitle: ArsDigita – From Start-up to Bust-up Company: ArsDigita
RiotVineTitle: RiotVine Post-Mortem Company: RiotVine
NouncerTitle: The Last AnNounce(r)ment Company: Nouncer
BricaBoxTitle: BricaBox: Goodbye World! Company: BricaBox
Boompa.comTitle: Boompa.com Launch Postmortem, Part 1: Research, Picking a Team, Office Space and Money Company: Boompa.com
EventVueTitle: EventVue Post-Mortem Company: EventVue
DevverTitle: Lessons Learned Company: Devver
KikoTitle: Lessons from Kiko, web 2.0 startup, about Its Failure Company: Kiko
OvertoTitle: Lessons Learned: Startup Failure Part 1 Company: Overto
Monitor110Title: Monitor110: A Post-Mortem (A VC’s perspective) Company: Monitor110
NewsTiltTitle: Why We Shut NewsTilt Down Company: NewsTilt
AftermathTitle: Aftermath Company: Diffle
PlayCafeTitle: 10 Lessons from a Failed Startup Company: PlayCafe
SMSnoodleTitle: Lessons from our Failed Startup Company: SMSnoodle
Untitled PartnersTitle: Untitled Partners Post-Mortem Company: Untitled Partners
Cryptine NetworksTitle: Key Lessons from Cryptine Networks’ Failure Company: Cryptine Networks
ImerciveTitle: Imercive Post-Mortem Company: Imercive
MeetroTitle: Meetro Post Mortem Company: Meetro (aka Lefora)
eCrowdsTitle: Post Mortem on a Failed Product Company: eCrowds
RealTime WorldsTitle: Hubris, ambition and mismanagement: the first post-mortem of RealTime Worlds (Editorial) Company: RealTime Worlds
BackfenceTitle: Co-Founder Potts Shares Lessons Learned from Backfence Bust Company: Backfence
Sedna WirelessTitle: What an Entrepreneur Learned from His Failed Startup (Interview) Company: Sedna Wireless
DOWNLOAD THE BEST OF our startup failure researchGet all our research on why startups fail, and what you can learn from them. If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform. Which phase of the product life cycle requires potentially the most significant amount of money for marketing campaigns?The introduction phase is the first time customers are introduced to the new product. A company must generally includes a substantial investment in advertising and a marketing campaign focused on making consumers aware of the product and its benefits, especially if it broadly unknown what the good will do.
What can the marketers of consumer products expect to find when they study and apply the product life cycle theory to their products?A product's life cycle is usually broken down into four stages; introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Product life cycles are used by management and marketing professionals to help determine advertising schedules, price points, expansion to new product markets, packaging redesigns, and more.
Which of the following statements is true of the idea generation stage in the new product?Which of the following statements is true of the idea generation stage in the new-product development process? Truly innovative companies develop extensive innovation networks that capture ideas and inspiration from every possible source.
At what stage of the new product development process are most new product ideas rejected?e. Most new-product ideas are rejected at this stage, called the idea screening stage.
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