Failed at a bootstrapped startup (http://shoutt.me/) earlier this year after a painful 2 years. Learnt a lot and failed a lot - in practically everything - marketing, sales, growth, tech, operations. Lost a fair bit of money too. Failed because the product was wrong and it took us 2 years to accept it.
Succeeded in one thing - found the right co founders.
In 2 months started working on the another idea (https://doctorc.in) with the same co founders - moved to India. Got funded this August. Could execute infinitely better on this one because of all the lessons learnt in Shoutt. The experience of failure of the first startup is paying off now in the second one.
Shoutt was a great idea. I'm not sure why all startups like this fail to take off - Vark, Jelly, etc. Is it a timing thing? I mean everyone has a smartphone now, right? So how come it never works out?
Wishing you and your team the best of luck with the new venture!
It seems a good idea at first. But it doesn't actually solve an acute problem. Convincing people to use it on a daily basis is hard for such kind of an app.
I honestly believe that you have the single most important thing for a startup (a true 'just starting out' startup). The right co-founders (co-founding team).
It's the one thing out of all the other things that you listed that cannot be learned. It is dependent on pure and simple luck. So, I have hopes for you guys if you have that plus a plethora of lessons learned. Good luck! Even though you may not even need it. ;)
Succeeded in one thing - found the right co founders.
In 2 months started working on the another idea (https://doctorc.in) with the same co founders - moved to India. Got funded this August. Could execute infinitely better on this one because of all the lessons learnt in Shoutt. The experience of failure of the first startup is paying off now in the second one.
I wouldn't have it any other way.