106 Failed B2C Startups & their Case Studies
The B2C sector is a competitive one.
But at the same time, it can be really lucrative.
Thousands of B2C startups have emerged in the last years and a lot of money has flown into them
However, the majority of these startups have since shut down.
In this article, you can find some of them as well as analysis on why they failed.
106 Failed B2C Startups
1) 37Coins
37Coins developed a new Bitcoin platform. In 2014, they announced that providing Bitcoin transfer across different regions proved to be impossible.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Johann Barbie, Jonathan Zobro, Songyi Lee
- Country: United States
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
2) Alikolo
Alikolo was an eMarketplace company. The founder didn't have a clear vision and didn't know the reasons why customers purchased at his rivals.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Danny Taniwan
- Country: Indonesia
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
3) Beepi
Beepi was a marketplace for used cars. They ran out of cash to operate and tried to sell to potential buyers, but didn't achieve to close the operation.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Ale Resnik, Owen Savir
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
4) Berg
Berg was a cloud platform on which Little Printer, an IoT device, worked. They had loyal supporters, but couldn't convert it into a sustainable business.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Matt Webb
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Design
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
5) ChaCha
ChaCha was a search engine where you interacted with a human being. However, the startup got stiff competition when Google released its Panda algorithm.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Brad Bostic & Scott Jones
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
6) CircleBack Lending
CircleBack Lending was a loan marketplace. Due to problems with profitability and issues with the industry, the startup was forced to cease its operations.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Manoj Ramnani & Patrick Questembert
- Country: United States
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
7) Crowdmix
Crowdmix was a music streaming platform where people could listen and talk about their favorite bands. They spent £14M before having a working product.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Gareth Ingham, Ian Roberts
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Music
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
8) Dazo
Dazo was a food-tech startup based in Bangalore which emerged as a “food on demand” company. Fierce competition and lack of funding led to Dazo's failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Monica Rastogi, Shashaank Shekhar Singhal
- Country: India
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
9) Delicious
Delicious was a pioneer in social bookmarking tools until it was overtaken by rivals and ultimately acquired by Pinboard at a reduced price.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Joshua Schachter
- Country: United States
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2003
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
10) Desti
Desti was a traveling and mapping iPad app that used AI to help planning a trip. Although users found it useful, they ended up booking on other platforms.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Imri Goldberg, Mosi Shuchman, Nadav Gur
- Country: United States
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
11) Dinner Lab
Dinner Lab offered a culinary experience with a group of strangers in an unusual place. They faced several problems, including the diner's timing.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Brian Bordainick, Francisco Robert, Zach Kupperman
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
12) Dinnr
Dinnr allowed to select a recipe and order pre-measured ingredients accompanied with instructions. However, there wasn’t a market need for the business.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Adil Mohammed, Michal Bohanes
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
13) Dopplr
Dopplr was a social travel network service. In 2009, Nokia acquired it for $20 million and the number of Dopplr users fell since then until shutting down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Dan Gillmor, Lisa Sounio, Marko Ahtisaari, Matt Jones, Taneli Tikka
- Country: United States
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
14) Fab
Fab was an e-commerce company focused on daily design inspiration. Its success resulted in companies launching their same exact replicas of Fab’s platform.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Bradford Shane Shellhammer, Deepa Shah, Jason Goldberg, Nishith Shah, Sunil Khedar
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 500-1,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
15) Flud
Flud was a social news reader platform. They were unable to raise additional funding for their operations and eventually ran out of cash.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Bobby Ghoshal, Matthew Ausonio
- Country: United States
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
16) Gowalla
Gowalla was a location-based social platform that allowed users to share their location. It tried to do many things at once, and shut down after 5 years.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Josh Williams, Scott Raymond
- Country: United States
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
17) Grooveshark
Grooveshark was a streaming music platform. Its major weakness was that it illegally streamed music. They were sued multiples times and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Andres Barreto, Josh Greenberg, Sam Tarantino
- Country: United States
- Industry: Music
- Started in: 2006
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
18) HiGear
HiGear was a peer-to-peer online company that listed luxury cars for rent. A criminal gang stole four cars worth $400k. They opted to shut down operations.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Ali Moiz, Murtaza Hussain
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2011
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
19) HotelsAroundYou
HotelsAroundYou was an India service centered on last-minute and short stay bookings. They weren't capable of raising more money and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Animesh Chaudhary, Harsha Nallur, Mohsin Dingankar
- Country: India
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
20) HubHaus
Hubhaus offered an online platform to rent a house and find people willing to live with you. They even achieved PMF, but COVID came and they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Kerry Jones, Shruti Merchant, Sloane Yu
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2020
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Timing
You can read more about their failure here.
21) Juicero
Juicero was a juice company that packed fresh organic fruits. They claimed their juicer was innovative, until customers found out the machine was useless.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Doug Evans
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
22) Kitchit
Kitchit brought local chefs to your home. They had to compete with other big food providers in the same market, which provoked their failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Brendan Marshall, Ian Ferguson
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
23) Kno
Kno introduced double paneled e-textbooks. Despite raising $80M, the company saw its chances of scaling up diminish once Apple introduced its iconic iPad.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Babur Habib, Osman Rashid
- Country: United States
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: +10,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
24) Leap Transit
Leap Transit was a private bus service based in San Francisco. They didn't comply with the SF regulations, which made them halt their operations.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Kyle Kirchhoff
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
25) Lumos
Lumos provided the ultimate smart switching tech. After the shutdown, the founders recognized they were not the right team to build a hardware company.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Pritesh Sankhe, Tarkeshwar Singh, Yash Kotak
- Country: India
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
26) Mailbox
Mailbox made your inbox more manageable and efficient. They didn't find a way to monetize the app. After being acquired by Dropbox, Mailbox shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Gentry Underwood, Scott Cannon
- Country: United States
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 500-1,000
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
27) Maple
Maple prepared and delivered meals in NY. They were losing money on each meal and it only began making a profit from 2016, just before they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Akshay Navle, Caleb Merkl
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
28) Moped
Moped was a free social app. It had not enough entertaining and fast-growing content that could attract a broad mass of users. It closed after 16 years.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Schuyler Deerman
- Country: Germany
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 1998
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
29) Move Loot
Move Loot was an online resale marketplace for furniture. They decided to have a furniture stockroom without thinking about the expenses of running it.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Bill Bobbitt, Jenny Karin Morrill, Ryan Smith, Shruti Shah
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
30) MySpace
MySpace became the most popular social networking site before Facebook. After competing with them, they decided to repurpose it as a platform for artists.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Aber Whitcomb, Brad Greenspan, Chris DeWolfe, Colin Digiaro, Josh Berman, Michael Addicott, Tom Anderson
- Country: United States
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2003
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 250-500
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
31) Navdy
Navdy provided a display that projected GPS in the cars' front. They failed due to a saturated market and a device that didn't satisfy customer needs.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Doug Simpson, Karl Guttag
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
32) PepperTap
PepperTap provided a platform to buy and deliver groceries from local markets. Customers found delivery fees too expensive for their needs, and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Milind Sharma, Navneet Singh
- Country: India
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 1,000-5,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
33) Pixate
Pixate wanted to make prototyping and designing apps more accessible and effortless. It was acquired by Google in 2015, and after a year, it was shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Kevin Lindsey, Paul Colton
- Country: United States
- Industry: Design
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
34) Quibi
An analysis on why did Quibi, a short-form video streaming platform, shut down despite raising $1.8 billion from investors and having an experienced team.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Jeffrey Katzenberg
- Country: United States
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Nº of employees: 250-500
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
35) Rdio
Rdio, a music streaming platform, failed due to poor marketing and distribution, ultimately folding to competition from Spotify and closing down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Carter Adamson, Janus Friis, Niklas Zennström
- Country: United States
- Industry: Music
- Started in: 2008
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
36) RoomsTonite
RoomsTonite was a last-minute hotel booking app for people traveling to India. They raised $1.5M in funding but the money didn't arrive and they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Suresh John
- Country: India
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
37) Seven Dreamers Laboratories
Seven Dreamers Laboratory built a robot that washed, ironed and folded laundry. However, their product was expensive and couldn't match human's dexterity.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Shin Sakane
- Country: Japan
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
38) Shuddle
Shuddle was the go-to service for parents that needed someone to drive their kids to school. Parents found it disappointing, so they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Nick Allen, Rodrigo Prudencio
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
39) Shyp
Shyp imitated the Uber model with an on-demand shipping service. However, they were unable to figure out a profitable business model and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Jack Smith, Joshua Scott, Kevin Gibbon
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
40) Sidecar
Sidecar was a transportation company. They had top-notch technology but no marketing strategy, and could only become useful in high-density cities.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Jahan Khanna, Sunil Paul
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
41) Skully
Skully was a helmet targetting motorcycle riders. They had to close shops due to no fundings and couldn't complete the production of the pre-orders.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Marcus Weller, Mitch Weller
- Country: United States
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
42) Sprig
Sprig delivered meals to customers who were looking for healthy choices. Sprig found the process time-consuming and expensive, and decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Gagan Biyani, Matt Kent, Morgan Springer, Neeraj Berry
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
43) Springpad
Springpad was designed to empower users to clip, organize, and interpret all types of web content. The company failed to develop a monetization strategy.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Jason Horman
- Country: United States
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2008
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
44) Stayzilla
Stayzilla, once a thriving homestay network with $33.5M in funding, closed due to unsustainable operational costs and consistent financial losses.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Rupal Yogendra, Sachit Singhi, Sachit Singhi, Yogendra Vasupal
- Country: India
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 250-500
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
45) Stereomood
Stereomood was a music platform that provided mood-based song listings. The company was acquired but they weren’t able to make a profit.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Daniele Novaga, Eleonora Viviani, Giovanni Ferron, Maurizio Pratici
- Country: Italy
- Industry: Music
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
46) Teforia
Teforia was a tea brewer that yielded the perfect cup of tea by combining tradition with smart technology. It had an absence of market fit and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Allen Han, Kris Efland
- Country: United States
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
47) Tilt
Tilt was a social payments startup. The CEO was believed to become the next Zuckerberg. However, lack of focus led to shutting down their operations.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: James Beshara, Karolyn Baxter, Khaled Hussein
- Country: United States
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
48) Totsy
Totsy was a flash sale company that offered high-end fashion brands online for a low-price. Flash sales lost their attractiveness and became obsolete.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Christophe Garnier, Guillaume Gauthereau
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
49) Turntable.fm
Turntable.fm was a platform on which DJ and fans were brought together. The cost of running it proved to be too expensive and they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Billy Chasen
- Country: United States
- Industry: Music
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
50) Tutorspree
Tutorspree wanted to enhance tutoring. Their vision of pairing up tutors and students to meet up in person was not practical, which made it shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Aaron Harris, Josh Abrams, Ryan Bednar
- Country: United States
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
51) Utrip
Utrip was a travel planning startup that used AI to create personalized itineraries. Keeping the recommendation engine alive was too much for them.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Gilad Berenstein, Yair Berenstein
- Country: United States
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
52) Vine
What happened to Vine? Why did Vine shut down? When? Does TikTok face the same risk? Here's our detailed analysis.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Colin Kroll, Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov
- Country: United States
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
53) Vreal
Vreal was a virtual reality startup that enabled users to interact with content creators. They were ahead of their time in a market not fully developed.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Todd Hooper
- Country: United States
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Timing
You can read more about their failure here.
54) Wantful
Wantful was an e-Commerce founded in 2011. After experiencing exponential growth, it shut down in 2013 due to stiff competition from other companies.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: John Poisson
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: +10,000
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
55) Wattage
Wattage was a platform with an ambitious goal: to break the entry barrier for hardware design. They weren't able to validate market interest.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Brett Hagman, Jeremy Bell, Peter Nitsch
- Country: Canada
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
56) Wesabe
Wesabe is a former Personal Finance Management system that helped clients make better financial decisions. Having better competitors made Wesabe fail.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Jason Knight, Marc Hedlund
- Country: United States
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2010
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
57) WOW Air
WOW Air was the Icelandic answer to RyanAir for low-cost air travel in Europe. The cause of failure was that they wanted to become too big too fast.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Skuli Mogensen
- Country: Iceland
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
58) Zoomo
Zoomo's goal was to build trust in the Indian used cars market. The buy-and-sell vehicle market was relatively young in India and decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Arnav Kumar, Himangshu Hazarika
- Country: India
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
59) Zulily
Zulily was an online store selling clothing and other products. They declined in popularity because of their poor marketing and user-attention strategies.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Darrell Cavens, Mark Vadon
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 1,000-5,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
60) 140 Canvas
After dropping out of university, Harry went back home and found a gift: a fake big tweet from Federer. That’s when he came with a business idea: fake tweets printed and sold for £30. He partnered with a friend and launched the project within 2 months. However, after a Youtube’s influencer campaign, the site got 17,000 visitors and only 20 sales. That’s when they realized not so many people were interested in their product...
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Harry Dry
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
61) Autto.in
Autto.in was an on-demand doorstep car service provider, created by Deepak in 2017. Soon after launching, a co-founder joined him and they started marketing the startup, spending a lot of money in customer acquisition. As money burnt, they decided to reach investors, who put them pressure in growing fast. After some months, they decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Deepak Murthy
- Country: India
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
62) Birdy
The Birdy was a simple app to track spending habits. Corey never figured out how to monetize it which also caused scaling issues.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Corey Maass
- Country: United States
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
63) BusyMind
BusyMind was a simple app that guided people through basic breathing and observation exercises. Lack of time destroyed the startup.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Kevin Lamping
- Country: United States
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
64) Chowdy
Steve and his housemate were always complaining food was expensive in Toronto. So, they came with a solution: hire a chef for themselves and 20 friends. This simple idea quickly escalated into a business, that, within a few months, was making +$110,000 per month. But, as it went up fast, it also came down rapidly. The business was involved in some legal problems, which forced the founders to shut it down. Read Steve’s failure story and learn from his mistakes!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Steven Long
- Country: Canada
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
65) Cuddli
Robert was the co-founder of Cuddli, a dating app for geeks. The startup was based in the US but they had their development team in Croatia. Media features grew the app to 100k users but a combination of a small market and their inability to monetize the app forced the startup to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Robert Walker
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
66) Fantastic House Buyers
Fantastic House Buyers was an online service designed to improve the expensive and stressful experience of buying a house in the UK. Alan built it himself and start trying a lot of different marketing strategies. However, after a few months, he realized he had built something that no-one wanted.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Alan Murray
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Services
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
67) Flux
Flux was a modular multi messaging client. They raised a small angel round of 70K € and invested another 15K €. A combination of many issues led to their failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jan Johannes
- Country: Germany
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
68) Formatically
Duncan Hamra has been building businesses with his best friend Tyler since they were in high school. They built Formatically, an instant citation tool that didn't take off. We'll discuss what went wrong with this project, and how those learnings helped him start Memberstack.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Duncan Hamra
- Country: United States
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
69) Graphite Docs
Justin Hunter had the courage to challenge Google Docs, all because he was scared of losing all his writing saved in the cloud. So he created Graphite Docs, a privacy-focused alternative to Google Docs powered by blockchain, that assured users that their saved files were indeed safe. And the effort paid off; he started gaining traction from individual users. However, he decided to focus on the B2B model, rather than B2C, and this decision cost him the business. Why? Read on to find it out.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Justin Hunter
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
70) Gulp
Jeff Orr and two friends in college started Gulp- an app to pay bar cover. Gulp was meant to replace the inconvenience of having to go an ATM to pay for a bar’s cover fee, but with the lack of affiliate marketing knowledge and some bad unit economics, the friends quickly ran out of money.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jeff Orr
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
71) Gymlisted
Gymlisted was a website for finding the right private gym. Every day, Tom would go home from his day job and code up features for Gymlisted until midnight. Once launched, they started with their marketing efforts. But they soon realized there was pretty much no demand for what they were offering.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Tom Zaragoza
- Country: Canada
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
72) Habitual
Holger Sindbaek is the founder of Habitual, a habit-tracking app that was initially created since Holger could not find an app that could suit his habit-tracking needs after reading Atomic Habits book. With other successful apps under his belt like a Solitaire card game played by 3M people per month, it seems like he has the knack of making startups fly. So what went wrong with Habitual? Discover it in this interview.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Holger Sindbaek
- Country: Denmark
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2019
- Closed in: 2021
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
73) Howell Market
Howell Market was an online store where individual sellers could go to sell their products. Cody, the founder, partnered with his family and friends, but things didn’t work out as his partners weren’t passionate about the vision of the company.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Cody Howell
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
74) Hubrif
Tobi Ogunwande is a Nigerian filmmaker who tried to build the Netflix for African short films as a result of his frustration to find great African movies. He partnered with a technical co-founder and soon after launching, they were seeing an average of 1,000 views on their films. However, they soon realized the market niche was too small and there wasn’t a clear business model. Eventually, they run out of money and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Tobi Ogunwande
- Country: Nigeria
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
75) Juice Startup
Wit Sumathavanit has recently started to pivot from offline to online entrepreneurship. But before that, he tried to build a juice business in Bangkok. He lost around $3,000 but those learnings impacted his process to validate new ideas.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Wit Sumathavanit
- Country: Thailand
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2020
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
76) Kaya.gs
In 2011, Gabriel decided to build a Go Server that would launch new features every few weeks. He and his co-founder built and launched it in 2 months and in the following months, they raised $20,000 through a crowdfunding campaign. 1 year into running and they were shut down: product, engineering, and morale were the problems to blame.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Gabriel Benmergui
- Country: Argentina
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
77) Kolos
In 2012, Ivo started a 3-year journey building a business that sold iPad racing wheels, which would suck up $50,000 in personal and investor funds. The hardware accelerator he went through wasn't able to help turn his business into a success, neither was the Kickstarter campaign successful. Learning from the experience, today Ivo runs $1M+ crowdfunding campaigns. Read below to learn about his journey.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev
- Country: Bulgaria
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
78) Kopely
After a decade of training and coaching, Andrew realized that stress was one of their clients’ main issues. That’s how he thought about creating a stress relief app. He partnered up with a dev company to build his idea while he took care of marketing. In few months, he got a great list of interested people, but COVID-19 changed things… the devs were no longer interested in building the app.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Andrew Laux
- Country: United States
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2019
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
79) Lernin Games
Jordi Miró has been building products and companies since 2007. After a successful CTO experience in Wuaki TV, he founded Lernin Games, an EdTech startup focused on toddlers. He raised €1.5M and built a team of 10, but Lernin ran out of cash and the project couldn’t succeed.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jordi Miró
- Country: Spain
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
80) Lieferoo
In 2014, Aazar, a Pakistani entrepreneur, decided to create an Uber for logistics and awkward items trying to solve a problem he and many other people were having: Bringing items from Pakistan to Germany. He soon validated the idea and built the product. But a combination of bad marketing and bad team fit led to their failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Aazar Shad
- Country: Germany
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
81) LocalTown
Michael founded LocalTown, an online marketplace built using no-code tools. After noticing a lot of makers needed help with launching their side projects, he started building tools to solve the problems of that niche.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Michael Novotny
- Country: United States
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
82) Lockpick Entertainment
Lockpick Entertainment was a small game studio, that created Dreamlords, a famous MMORTS game. They did it well, making thousands per month. But they began to increase the scope, and after 6 years, they went out of business due to bankruptcy.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jesper Bylund
- Country: Sweden
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2006
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
83) Mishra Motors
Mishra Motors was to be the premier electric sports bike in India. Time and capital were the causes of its collapse.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Naveen Mishra
- Country: India
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
84) Mongoose Cricket
In 2009, Thomas Evans began working alongside Marcus, the creator of a radical new cricket bat named the Mongoose. After spending over $130,000 on glitzy marketing, and failing to break through the heavily traditional cricket market, they were forced to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Thomas Evans
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2011
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
85) NE Lounge
Following his objective of reaching $10k/month from his online businesses, Jake launched NE Lounge, an Amazon FBA store selling inflatable products. 1 year and $16,000 later, the startup shut down. Choosing the wrong product in an unfamiliar niche is the cause to blame.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jake Lang
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
86) NewCo
If you are interested in the no-code movement, you’ve probably heard Ben Tossell’s name. But today we’re not here to talk about Makerpad, one of the leading communities for no-coders, but about Ben’s previous project: NewCo. We want to know what went wrong, what were the lessons learned, and how it led to his success afterward.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Ben Tossell
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
87) NOX
Jeremiah is an ex-entrepreneur who co-founded NOX, a nightlife app that allowed users to book events, services, and VIPs. The 5-person-team raised $90,000 from several angel investors but had to pivot into an e-commerce platform for alcoholic beverages, which was eventually making $20,000/month. However, the lack of both financial discipline and ideas to scale led to its failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jeremiah Lam
- Country: Singapore
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
88) Okami Pack
Tim is a 32-years-old entrepreneur who in 2014 spent 10 months working on a Kickstarter project that would never launch: the Okami Pack. He quit his job to follow his dream of creating this survival pack, but as the months went over, he started running out of cash and saw himself forced to shut the startup down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Tim Chard
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
89) openmargin
Marc co-founded *openmargin, a social e-reader app that turned books into small communities. Being too early in the market, having huge competitors like Amazon, and not shipping fast enough were three of the reasons for the startup’s failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Marc Köhlbrugge
- Country: Netherlands
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
90) Phoenix
Phoenix was a SaaS app to send a last message to the people you love when you die. However, it was the app which died first.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Enrique Benitez
- Country: Mexico
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
91) Playdate
Logan was the CEO and CTO of Playdate, an on-demand social networking app. In two years, the startup grew to a team of 7 at its peak and 5,000 monthly active users. However, a collection of causes made the startup uninvestable and they eventually run out of money.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Logan Rado
- Country: United States
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
92) Raw Gains
Jack Ellis quit his full-time job to pursue Raw Gains, a fitness app focused on bodybuilding & coaching. It was self-funded and worked alone on the project. After a meaningless launch, he expected people would “just turn up” and stopped working on it.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jack Ellis
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
93) Reality Hunt
Toby founded two projects that gave him lots of valuable lessons for his current Startup Mill projects. They were RealityHunt and "I Voted Remain". He learned to build a simple landing page before committing to building it and to build processes that simplify your way of working.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Toby Allen
- Country: Belgium
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
94) Refolo
Lola founded Refolo, a meal-planning app focused on plant-based eating. After spending 2 years selling a solution for a problem that people weren't already investing money in, she decided to shut it down looking for other opportunities.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Lola Ojabowale
- Country: United States
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
95) Ropero
Ropero was an e-commerce aiming to sell t-shirts in an unprepared market. Many expenses and little earnings.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Rafael Soto
- Country: Mexico
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2006
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
96) Sharkius
Sharkius was a social games company. It grew too fast, too quickly. It reached $80k/month revenue within months and wasted it. Learn from their mistakes!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: David Kramaley
- Country: United Kingdom
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
97) Taleship
Sergio Mattei is an 18-year-old entrepreneur who built Taleship, a social writing application. He developed it himself when he was 16 and participated in a startup competition. Unfortunately, he didn’t win, but was able to get a lot of experience and knowledge that allowed him to grow it to +600 users. Hurricane Maria demotivated Sergio, who finally decided to shut down Taleship.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Sergio Mattei Diaz
- Country: Puerto Rico
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
98) Teacher Finder
Andrew Davison is one of the automation kings. He is a Zapier Certified Expert and an Integromat Partner running Luhhu, a business automation agency. Before that, he built Teacher Finder, a marketplace for language teachers. It didn’t take off, but using Zapier each day helped him start his agency.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Andrew Davison
- Country: Hungary
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
99) The Nerd Cave
The Nerd Cave was a new kind of retail model, a truly safe space for gamers of all kinds to go and enjoy their passion and hobby. They were doing it great, earning $16,000 AUD/month. But when they moved to a new location, they saw a big loss of income, which provoked the closure of their doors.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: David Desi
- Country: Australia
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
100) The Punjab Kitchen
Amit is a hard-core sales professional, who decided to set up a home-made food business with his wife. They started investing $1,200/month to set up the startup and get the first customers. However, once running they had to confront a big problem: the prices of their competitors were much lower. After some pivots, they decided to shut it down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Amit Gogia
- Country: India
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
101) ToyGaroo
Toygaroo was the Netflix of toys. Funded by a great group of people based in Los Angeles, the company appeared on Shark Tank asking $100k for a 10% stake. They ended up raising $250K in 2 funding rounds, but after some months, they had to shut down the company. Inventory and logistical costs were too high, so capital rapidly disappeared.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Phil Smy
- Country: United States
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
102) Vivalatina
Nicolas started an e-Commerce that imported sterling silver jewelry from Mexico and resold it in France. His lack of knowledge on marketing made it impossible to him to achieve customers. After some big mistakes, he decided to shut it down and start re-thinking the business model. He is now making $7,200/Month.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Nicolas Tranchant
- Country: Mexico
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
103) WedMap
Tauras is a 30-year old entrepreneur from Lithuania. With the objective of digitizing the wedding planning process, he co-founded WedMap. They launched the tool within some months and carried out a vast number of marketing strategies, which led to a monthly revenue of $2k. However, different problems on team, resources, skills, and product meant WedMap’s failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Tauras Sinkus
- Country: Switzerland
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
104) WURA
WURA was an on-demand video platform for African and Nollywood movies. Mike hired a few developers to build it and spent $35,000 on Facebook marketing. The business grew fast and he was making $3,861 per month. However, YouTube competition and cash flow killed the startup.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Michael Ojo
- Country: United States
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
105) Young Entrepreneurs' Program
Fabian founded Young Entrepreneurs Program, a one-year educational program for entrepreneurs aged 17 to 23. After 2 years and 150,000€ spent, they had 30,000€ in ARR and had to shut down due to no product-market fit.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Fabian Tausch
- Country: Germany
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
106) Zor Technology
When he was 16 years old, Mat wanted to help his family improve the standards of living. So, he started a business which imported consumer electronics and re-sold them at almost x10 the original price. Through affiliates, he was able to put his business on the track to 6 figures in the first year. However, one day he received a call from a law firm which forced him to shut down the startup.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Mathew Carpenter
- Country: Australia
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2008
- Closed in: 2009
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
