Failory’s Newsletter Archive

From EVs to Penthouses

How BluSmart cofounders burned millions in public funds.

May 8, 2025

The Product Leaked. Literally.

Why Zero Co couldn’t recover from a leaky rollout.

May 1, 2025

Lost to the Algorithm

Why Smashing failed to fix your feed.

April 24, 2025

Sued by Your Backers

Why the ‘AWS of Fintech’ was taken down by its own investors

April 17, 2025

A Language Without a Market

Why Wing couldn’t turn open-source love into revenue

April 10, 2025

Fall of the Canva of Data

WhyHive promised Canva-style simplicity for data. It didn’t last.

April 3, 2025

Bad Genes

The downfall of 23andMe’s billion-dollar bet.

March 27, 2025

Why Flipkart Killed ANS

A $40M acquisition—now completely worthless.

March 20, 2025

$190 Million Mistake

Why Apostrophe’s huge acquisition couldn’t ensure its survival

March 13, 2025

The Market Wasn’t Ready

Edtech in Africa has a monetization problem.

March 6, 2025

Breach in the Business

This security firm couldn’t patch its own collapse.

February 27, 2025

The Humane Pin is Dead

The $499 wearable no one wanted is gone.

February 20, 2025

Buyer Too Late?

Level, a benefits startup, shut down —then buyers came knocking.

February 14, 2025

Your Bank Fees Won

Cushion helped users fight fees—so why did it fail?

February 6, 2025

When Banks Play Startup

Zing's collapse and why big banks keep failing at fintech.

January 30, 2025

Shake Your Phone, Earn Bitcoin

Why Shakepay gives you crypto when you shake your phone.

January 28, 2025

EV Startups Keep Dying

How Canoo went from NASA to bankruptcy.

January 23, 2025

$500 for One Color?!

How RemoteOK uses upsells to make users pay more.

January 21, 2025

A Pandemic Mirage

Pandion’s pandemic-fueled rise ended in a sudden collapse.

January 16, 2025

Make Memes, Not Ads

The future of marketing is meme-powered.

January 14, 2025

A Christmas Miracle?

How Bench went from shutdown to salvation during the holidays.

January 9, 2025

Friction That Sells

How intentional friction can increase conversions and retention.

January 7, 2025

2024’s Biggest Startup Crashes

From failed social media apps, to the "Uber of Weed".

December 26, 2024

Automated YouTube Marketing

How Calm’s evergreen videos attract users while they sleep.

December 24, 2024

Coca-Cola Couldn’t Save Them

Why Thrive failed even with powerful support.

December 19, 2024

The Rise of Mini Tools

Why AI-powered tools are the new go-to growth strategy.

December 17, 2024

The End of NFTs?

Nike-owned NFT startup RTFKT has shut down.

December 12, 2024

Spotify’s Secret, Unwrapped

Why year-in-review works—and how to copy it.

December 10, 2024

4 Years, €2M, and a Green Dream

Grünfin's closure reveals the hurdles of scaling a mission-driven business.

December 5, 2024

Next-Level Product Pages

How AI is transforming e-commerce product pages.

December 3, 2024

Billions, Batteries, Bankruptcy

Why $13.8B didn’t stop Northvolt’s downfall.

November 28, 2024

Make Links Irresistible

Why OG images are the key to increase CTR.

November 26, 2024

Medical Pods Are Real?

How Forward spent $657M building sci-fi medical pods—and failed.

November 21, 2024

10 Lessons to Fundraise, Hire & Grow

Lessons from Warp’s founders on thriving in competitive markets.

November 19, 2024

Supersonic? Not So Fast

Why Exosonic failed to bring back supersonic flights.

November 14, 2024

Speak Their Language

How Canva used localization to gain 100M+ new monthly users.

November 12, 2024

Farming on a Billion

Why Bowery’s billion-dollar vertical farm couldn’t survive.

November 7, 2024

Outcomes, Not Subscriptions

Why solution-based pricing might be the future of SaaS.

November 5, 2024

A Billion Dollar Crash

The flying taxi startup that couldn’t lift off.

October 31, 2024

Scrape Your Way In

How Senja uses AI and web scraping to boost B2B activation.

October 29, 2024

Fintechs in Freefall

Why CapWay’s collapse shows no Fintech is safe.

October 24, 2024

Decentralized Creativity

How unsupervised TikTokers power CheaterBuster’s TikTok success.

October 22, 2024

Great Clients, No Future

How Toplyne’s promising start still led to failure.

October 17, 2024

Ditch the Homepage

How Rows turned their homepage into their product.

October 15, 2024

Farewell, Uber of Weed

What Eaze’s downfall means for cannabis startups.

October 10, 2024

The Aha! Shortcut

How AI turns PamPam's onboarding into a quick win.

October 8, 2024

Bananas, Loans, and Defaults

How Greenikk’s unpaid loans led to their shutdown.

October 3, 2024

Stealing from the Competition

Why SavvyCal will buy your Calendly subscription.

October 1, 2024

Kyros In Trouble

How Kyros went from raising $15M+ to facing fraud allegations.

September 26, 2024

AI-Powered Growth Loops

How Verse attracted 250K users with a viral side-project.

September 24, 2024

School Funds, CEO Fun

How school district money couldn’t save AllHere from itself.

September 19, 2024

Paid Onboardings

Why Apollo gives free credits to users that complete their onboardings.

September 17, 2024

Nobody's Buying Carbon Credits

Nori marks the second major collapse in the carbon credit industry this year.

September 12, 2024

Choose Your Homepage

Why Milanote built 20+ persona-based homepages.

September 10, 2024

When Auditors Flee

The collapse of ReshaMandi, India's $65M AgriTech startup.

September 5, 2024

Loyalty Pays Off

How JetBrains keeps customers loyal by lowering prices over time.

September 3, 2024

The Hidden Struggles

How personal battles led to Buildspace’s closure.

August 29, 2024

Viral Job Posts

Why startups are creating social media challenges to recruit talent.

August 27, 2024

Close, But Not Unicorn

What Tally's collapse tells us about Fintech's fragility...

August 22, 2024

Onboarding Discounts

Why Hyperfury gives 95% off to users that complete their onboarding.

August 20, 2024

The Crash of the Kenyan Jeep

Shutting down after 13 years building the ultimate African SUV.

August 15, 2024

Ad-Driven Validation

What Voodoo's fake mobile game ads can teach us about idea validation.

August 13, 2024

Scaling To The Grave

What Moxion Power teaches about the dangers of scaling to quickly.

August 8, 2024

Divide and Conquer

How Wayfair divided the furniture industry into 200+ sites and reached $500M ARR.

August 6, 2024

Giving Back Funding

Why Bluelearn shut down with 70% of its funding still intact.

August 1, 2024

Forget VCs, Get Celeb Investors Instead

How Step grew with the help of celebrity investors.

July 30, 2024

When 175 Employees Is Not Enough

Aaqua, the social media app that never was.

July 25, 2024

Viral Conflict

How picking up a fight can make you reach new customers.

July 23, 2024

The New Theranos?

A $500K Richard Mille, a tech logistics startup and a story of fraud.

July 18, 2024

Open Handbooks

Why startups are sharing how they operate with the public.

July 16, 2024

Big Koo-Lapse

How Koo almost beats X in the Indian market.

July 11, 2024

Why Did a Timer Go Viral?

How Calm got 2M visits from a 2-minute timer.

July 9, 2024

Hydrogen Explosion

Why Universe Hydrogen is shutting down after raising $100M.

July 4, 2024

Always Yours, Jason

How 37signals use Founder Letters as landing pages.

July 2, 2024

Rare Disease Tech

What the fail of KovakDx says about HealthTech incentives.

June 27, 2024

Experts For Hire

How Shopify grows through an experts marketplace.

June 25, 2024

ClimateTech is Struggling

What Running Tide's failure tells us about Climate Tech.

June 20, 2024

Spending $15K on Pizzas to Get $1M

Why Antimetal sent 1,000 pizzas to startups and VCs on launch day.

June 18, 2024

Lab Meat is Still Far Away

Why one of the biggest startups cultivating meat shut down.

June 13, 2024

SaaS Playgrounds

How to get 1.5x conversions with Interactive Demos.

June 11, 2024

AgTech's $120M Collapse

Why the world's largest climate data platform shut down.

June 6, 2024

Billboards Are Still OP

How Monday.com uses billboards to generate awareness.

June 4, 2024

The FTX of Fintech

How Synapse's failure is affecting hundreds of Fintech startups.

May 30, 2024

The King of Tools

How VEED gets 4.8M users/month by building free tools.

May 28, 2024

The Failure of the African Amazon

How Copia failed to build the African Amazon despite raising $130M.

May 23, 2024

Lights, Camera, Arc-tion

How Arc Browser creates loyal followers through YouTube videos.

May 21, 2024

Why I am moving to SF

My new role at Daydream, the Programmatic SEO startup.

May 16, 2024

Homepage Marketing

Why Stripe, Linear and Amie invest so many resources on their homepages.

May 14, 2024

The Failure of the Apple Store of Weed

How MedMen's valuation went from $3B to 0.

May 9, 2024

The Rationale Behind a $27M Acquisition

Why HubSpot and other SaaS are acquiring media companies.

May 7, 2024

Pay-Per-Mile Tesla

The startup that leased Teslas by mile shuts down.

May 2, 2024

500K Visitors With One Course

How Ahrefs uses online courses to acquire customers.

April 30, 2024

Interest Rates Killed Them

How the increase in interest rates lead to Fundid's shutdown.

April 25, 2024

No More Freemium

The new stategy that Airtable is using to get 40% more conversions.

April 23, 2024

The Art of Knowing When To Quit

How to know if your startup should be shut down.

April 18, 2024

How ConvertKit Grows Through Concierge Migrations

Stealing competitors' clients by offering them free switches.

April 16, 2024

The Startup That Wanted GPT to Drive Your Car

How Ghost Autonomy burnt $220M trying to innovate in the self-driving industry.

April 11, 2024

The Surprising Effectiveness of Recap Emails

How Grammarly boosted retention with emails that users actually want to read.

April 9, 2024

When $230M is Not Enough

How Rezi burnt all of their money leasing New York apartments.

April 4, 2024

The Day Wise Created 250K Variants of a Calculator

How Wise used Programmatic SEO to obtain over 40.7M users/mo

April 2, 2024