

Ask HN: How soon do founders usually realize that startup failed - kia

Of course it depends. PG even wrote that founders on early stages usually have a false impression that their startup failed. But if the idea is not working (no market, etc) how soon do founders usually understand this? How soon do they realize that there is no point trying to save the company?
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coryl
Usually as soon as they've hit the market and haven't made the sales, revenue
or numbers they expected to make.

At this point a decision to pivot may be made, along with minor tweaking. It
all relates to the metric being measured, which is usually $$$ or userbase. No
traction = no future.

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kineticac
it will fail when you realize you aren't 100% passionate about what you're
doing.

we fail every day, maybe every hour. If you realize you're failing, that
actually translates to you being aware enough to know what's going wrong.

By knowing what's wrong, you can fix it. If you're totally dedicated and
obsessed, failure is just part of the process.

Failure also happens often, there's just one massive failure at the end which
is basically representative of an individual who has finally found an excuse
to quit something they're not totally in love with.

Startups end as a failure because the founders choose to see it that way.
There's no other concrete reason why.

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carlos
It's inversely proportional to the money received by a VC. That's why it's a
must to have your startup as small as possible.

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taphangum
The day we wake up dreading what we're about to do

