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How and Why Our Startup Failed
A founder’s honest reflections on hitting the wall and coming out the other side
On Blue Monday last month (pseudoscientifically the most depressing day of the year, to which I can now anecdotally attest), my co-founder, Byron McCaughey, and I decided to close our startup, Track.
Now, I’m writing this as a reflection on why the business failed in the first place, along with the rationale behind (and experience of) the decision to tell family, friends, investors, users, and the wider world that it was the end of our startup.
It’s worth noting that I expect my perspective may change with time. That’s fine and will perhaps make an interesting follow-up.
Why Track failed
The simple answer is we hit the wall — we were unable to bring in the funding our business needed to survive. Specifically, following a pre-seed investment by Pi Labs, we couldn’t get past the first meeting with VCs, and a crowdfunding campaign failed to gather sufficient momentum. After that, efforts to secure a six-month bridge from angels were the final orders at the Last Chance Saloon.
