
My startup failed, and this is what it feels like (2014) - jeremylevy
https://medium.com/female-founders/my-startup-failed-and-this-is-what-it-feels-like-c5d64b3ae96b
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goodJobWalrus
Here is the previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7933155](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7933155)

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zerr
Interesting, but in the first place - why did they move to USA/NYC? Why they
couldn't launch the mobile app or website from Australia? Maybe this is
related to that solving of chicken and egg problem they mention...

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brianwawok
Well if their business model was around selling high priced fashion clothes, I
suspect NYC has a much much bigger market over Australia.

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zerr
Yes, but as I understand they had an app/website, not a retail shop in NYC,
right?

So, maybe I'm naive but why they couldn't upload the mobile app on the app
store and website's HTML/CSS/JS/back-end files _from_ Australia?

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robszumski
They needed to build buzz in the US. That means talking to people, getting
your first traction, people discussing the app on the subway, pitching it to
women at bars, college campuses, etc.

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Bogdan91
Could've payed some some student beer money to pitch it in bars.

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Mz
I am glad to see female founders getting a little more attention here these
days, but I wish more attention were given to _why_ they fail and how to do it
better. Here was my take on this piece:

[http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-decade-
lat...](http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-decade-late-and-
millions-short.html)

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thucydides
What's Nikki up to now?

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prometheus13
Great question. A quick web search shows that she is giving talks about her
start-up that failed about two years ago, but I could not find much else.

In a recent bio her article on medium is listed prominently:

Nikki was the founder & CEO of 99dresses, a Y Combinator-backed startup that
allowed women to trade fashion with each other using a virtual currency. She
started the business as a naive 18-year-old fresh out of high school, and
experienced a roller coaster 4 year journey before shutting down 99dresses in
2014 and writing about it in a wildly popular Medium post entitled 'My Startup
Failed And This Is What It Feels Like...'.

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nostrademons
Needs a [2014] in the title. In light of current discussions about a current
startup crunch, it'd be nice to make it clear that this one isn't part of it.
Good postmortem, though.

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dang
Added.

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zeeshanm
Startups don't fail. Founders just stop doing their work. You can't succeed if
you give up.

