
Ask HN: What are signs of a startup failing? - wpmoradi
For those of you that work at start-ups.  What are some signs you look for that signal you to jump ship?  Thanks.
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muzani
Founders no longer work on it full time. This is an extremely strong indicator
and I've never seen a startup recover from this.

Employees get tasked to things other than the core business of the startup.
Usually consulting or some other side business.

Startups rarely ever die loudly. They just seem to crawl off away from
everything else and try to die as quietly as possible.

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waisp
What if the core business changes direction - and the there is a change up of
the board....

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muzani
It's okay if they change core business. The problem is when employees do what
they didn't sign up for, or when they focus on things that are not the core
business (e.g. consulting or some other company held by the same owner).

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kylegalbraith
Things I have seen that are usually indicators (although not always as it can
vary from company to company).

* Hiring comes to a halt.

* Senior members begin quitting.

* Transparency becomes infrequent.

* Teams are being dismantled.

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ccdev
I should have started looking for jobs when my hours were cut from full time
to part time at a startup I was at. I guess I was expecting a rebound to
happen.

A few months later, I messaged the founder asking if he had an ETA for when
the work hours would go back to normal. I got laid off after that.

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waibelp
I dont know who posted it originally (here on HN) but there are a lot of signs
which may be true for startups as well as for non-startups:

[http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom](http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom)

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taprun
* Free food disappears * Hiring suddenly stops

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pryelluw
Radio silence. As in the founders/management avoiding communication. Huge red
flag.

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segmondy
There's a thousand signs, you will always see some. It's not one thing in
particular, it's a combination of things. It's the ability to recognize that
more and more of those things are happening instead of less and less.

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abra_kadabra
It might be subtle and is similar to what others have said, but if you find
the founders running out of steam, losing passion, for the startup, that can
be a sign.

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badc0d3
More closed doors meetings or offsite meetings

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waibelp
Not a joke: Kicker score gets changed from 10 to 3 points over night

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wpmoradi
What is a Kicker score

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waibelp
In our company the management changed the score counter for goals on the
foosball-table from 10 possible points to a maximum of three.

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soulchild37
_Senior /core staff leaving_

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codegladiator
No sale in over a month

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wpmoradi
What if you dont have a product out yet.

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codegladiator
What is a startup without a product and sales ? Or do you mean someone
internally can use the product but it is still not out for more then a month ?
Yes, a sign of failure.

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SamReidHughes
There are many startups which make products that take more than a month to
make.

