What I Learned From Losing $100,000 on Two Failed Startups
Don’t invest more money, energy, or time than you’re prepared to lose
Over the last five years, I founded and shuttered two startups, losing $100,000 of personal and seed money in the process.
I worked on the first startup — an app that helped diners discover new restaurants — for a year, and the second startup — a stock market investing publication — for two years. The company details are less important than the insights. Shutting down my dream idea (twice) was painful and humbling. But I survived, learned a ton, and progressed my career in the process. And thankfully, I’m lucky to have a good day job, a happy home, and an amazing family.
Recently, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on what I learned along the way, which boiled down to these 20 lessons:
1) Startups need your money, energy, and time (MET) to survive.
New ventures draw on three precious resources: Money, energy, and time (“MET”).
- Money in this case means your savings, revenue, and any capital raised from friends, family, and investors.
- Energy is your physical and emotional bandwidth to create something from nothing.
