Whatever the hell they want to? Sheesh - it's a failed startup, not the loss of a child. People fail at all sorts of things all the time, and the best way to guarantee an eventual success is to keep stepping up to the plate.
Easy to say. But a "failed startup" is often coincidental with a failed relationship, failed self-image, drained savings, eroded health.
Starting another one right away can be a 'rebound' decision. It can be helpful to wait a little while, maybe work at some mundane job until you get your perspective back.
But yes, keep positive, assume you will soon be back in the game.
After my startup failed (and all of the pivots we could think of didn't work), I tried a few other ideas with different partners. None of those worked, and I ended up doing consulting work (mostly for other startups) for a while. It paid ok, but I realized that I wasn't really doing my own thing, and I could do significantly better by working for someone else. I also kind of realized that I just wasn't ready to go out and start something else for various reasons.
A pretty interesting startup made me a pretty good offer, and after consulting for them for a month, I figured that I might as well take the stock options if I was working for someone else. Worked there for a while, and then they got acquired by a big company. Got to see an acquisition first-hand, which was definitely interesting. Now I'm working at a big company, which I never thought would happen again, but I guess that I see it in a different way.
I'm not really sure how I got from point A to point B, but it has been an interesting ride. And I think that pretty soon I'll be ready to start something else.
Maybe it's time for you to found/cofound. It matters more when it's your creation, and that might be the missing ingredient. You gained battle scars and learned quite a bit at your three failed startups, and to hell with baseball analogies anyway.
Do it again, but better. Typically with a higher chance of success and re-using all the connections they've made during the running of the previous one. There is no stigma attached to failing at starting up because the rest of the business world knows how hard it is and those that are successful likely have had a few failures themselves to look back to.
This had me thinking about that interview question:
"In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?"
Replace girl with "failed startup" and boy with "successful startup" and the answer must be the same... the overall success rate of all startups must be 50%, assuming that people always try for a successful one after they fail.
Of course, that means there will be those who succeed on their first try and you might be the one that experiences twenty failures in a row...
It is interesting because we put a lot of ourselves in the code we write and the ideas pursued. So when something fails, It can be a process to get over it. Although trying and failing is better than never taking a risk.
[+] [-] bartonfink|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoeAltmaier|15 years ago|reply
Starting another one right away can be a 'rebound' decision. It can be helpful to wait a little while, maybe work at some mundane job until you get your perspective back.
But yes, keep positive, assume you will soon be back in the game.
[+] [-] dlevine|15 years ago|reply
A pretty interesting startup made me a pretty good offer, and after consulting for them for a month, I figured that I might as well take the stock options if I was working for someone else. Worked there for a while, and then they got acquired by a big company. Got to see an acquisition first-hand, which was definitely interesting. Now I'm working at a big company, which I never thought would happen again, but I guess that I see it in a different way.
I'm not really sure how I got from point A to point B, but it has been an interesting ride. And I think that pretty soon I'll be ready to start something else.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] messel|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoeAltmaier|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biot|15 years ago|reply
"In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?"
Replace girl with "failed startup" and boy with "successful startup" and the answer must be the same... the overall success rate of all startups must be 50%, assuming that people always try for a successful one after they fail.
Of course, that means there will be those who succeed on their first try and you might be the one that experiences twenty failures in a row...
[+] [-] bowmande|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chopsueyar|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] htsh|15 years ago|reply
After finishing up and working at a law firm for a year, I realized that I'd rather fail at startups than do that for a living.
[+] [-] cletus|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buckwild|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] what-to-do|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zrgiu|15 years ago|reply