I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea (2020)
The main reason this didn't work is that the founder didn't identify a <i>customer</i> willing to spend <i>money</i>.<p>A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution.<p>This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-sided business models like advertising. That's one of the hardest businesses there is to start. And it's what the founder did here, too.<p>It sounds obvious stated as follows, but every startup failure I've read or heard about fails to get these ducks in a row:<p>- problem to be solved<p>- customer who has the problem<p>- customer willing to spend money to solve the problem<p>- enough customers willing to spend money on solving the problem to fuel a startup<p>Oddly enough, many of the startup success stories gloss over these fundamental components. The net result is that there's way too much emphasis on the <i>idea</i> and not nearly enough on the <i>customer</i>.