Admazely
![Admazely](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535c82a5f7a2f52d26c948_admazely.png)
Admazely offered retargeting tools for businesses. They shut down in 2013 when they ran short on financing and didn't figure out how to secure more cash.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
David Björklund, Peter Vilsholm Therkildsen, Sylwia Erhardt-Bednarska, Søren Holbech Nielsen
Country:
Denmark
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2013
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
Admazely
You can read more about their failure here.
Alikolo
![Alikolo](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535d202d4ea21d9df1a0bc_alikolo-min.webp)
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:
Alikolo
You can read more about their failure here.
Appiterate
![Appiterate](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535d9f79dce6fbf1d6bea3_appiterate-min.webp)
Appiterate was a mobile marketing company that was acquired by Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company. It was closed 2 years after launching.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Anuj Bhargava, Mayank Kumar, Tanuj Mendiratta, Varun Sharma
Country:
United States
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Acquisition Flu
Appiterate
You can read more about their failure here.
Auctionata
![Auctionata](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535a5ced28dee21325e255_auctionata.png)
Auctionata was an online auction platform for art and luxury. Their issues originated from unethical behavior, lack of transparency, and lies by the CEO.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Alexander Gilkes, Alexander Zacke, Georg Untersalmberger, Susanne Zacke
Country:
Germany
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2017
Nº of employees:
250-500
Funding Amount:
> $50M
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
Auctionata
You can read more about their failure here.
Brisk
![Brisk](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535b633f64f08949636e93_brisk-min.webp)
Brisk was a sales and marketing platform founded in 2012. They started to offer customization to paying customers, but this became costly in the long term.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Alfred Beckman, Andreas Pålsson, Hampus Jakobsson, Mikael Tellhed
Country:
Sweden
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Focus
Brisk
You can read more about their failure here.
ChaCha
![ChaCha](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60536056b15d78b898d7c34e_chacha.webp)
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:
ChaCha
You can read more about their failure here.
Crowdmix
![Crowdmix](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535c962d4ac184dae6be46_crowdmix-min.webp)
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:
Crowdmix
You can read more about their failure here.
Digg
![Digg](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535f693f64f074a06659e9_digg-min.webp)
Digg had the mission of "democratizing" the content and news that people saw. However, it missed lots of opportunities to become a thriving social network.
Details of the startup:
Digg
You can read more about their failure here.
Dopplr
![Dopplr](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535e6cb93849afd145be4b_dopplr-min.webp)
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
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Acquisition Flu
Dopplr
You can read more about their failure here.
Fab
![Fab](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535c130d1a6120a416d7dc_fab-min.webp)
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
Fab
You can read more about their failure here.
FoundationDB
![FoundationDB](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535a35478cb448df2c0067_FoundationDB-min.webp)
FoundationDB is a NoSQL scalable layered database that worked faster and needed less hardware than other services of its kind. Apple acquired it in 2015.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Dave Rosenthal, Dave Scherer, Nick Lavezzo
Country:
United States
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2009
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Acquisition Flu
FoundationDB
You can read more about their failure here.
Friendster
![Friendster](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535e5afb17ee3a4a5e6a12_friendster-min.webp)
Friendster was a social gaming site widely popular in Asia. It never put emphasis on the social news feed feature, leading to poor usage and registrations.
Details of the startup:
Friendster
You can read more about their failure here.
HubHaus
![HubHaus](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60dcba6d1d36c154eecd7f35_hubhausapp.webp)
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
HubHaus
You can read more about their failure here.
Karhoo
![Karhoo](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535948bbd7725db766ccb7_karhoo-min.webp)
Karhoo was a cab aggregator. It was out of business after 6 months of operation. Poor management and bad execution of a good concept were the main causes.
Details of the startup:
Karhoo
You can read more about their failure here.
Kiko
![Kiko](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535df04358e2dc322e82e1_kiko-min.webp)
Kiko was a calendar app offering API integrations with other tools. The team worked on various ideas and plans at the same time, which led to its failure.
Details of the startup:
Kiko
You can read more about their failure here.
Laurel & Wolf
![Laurel & Wolf](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60538952d6f6feaaf3851eb9_toa-heftiba-FV3GConVSss-unsplash-min.jpg)
Laurel & Wolf was a marketplace for interior design solutions. They shut down due to large spendings on marketing and a bad reputation among customers.
Details of the startup:
Laurel & Wolf
You can read more about their failure here.
Lumos
![Lumos](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535f7babfda06dd7c01ed0_lumos.webp)
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
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Experience
Lumos
You can read more about their failure here.
Monitor110
![Monitor110](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535e0b4466eab125921262_lo-lo-CeVj8lPBJSc-unsplash-min.webp)
Monitor110 offered real-time monitoring services for Wall Street. They lost the edge they had by not validating the product and shut down in 2008.
Details of the startup:
Monitor110
You can read more about their failure here.
MySpace
![MySpace](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535c6d059e6eb333107706_myspace-min.webp)
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
MySpace
You can read more about their failure here.
Pixate
![Pixate](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535ed5882a76e99fdeeabe_pixate-min.webp)
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:
Pixate
You can read more about their failure here.
Rdio
![Rdio](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535bdea04f71654d80d93b_rdio.png)
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
Rdio
You can read more about their failure here.
Reach.ly
![Reach.ly](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535a2103e220c0cf0edc69_reachly.png)
Reach.ly was an analytics tool for e-commerce sites providing customer behavior patterns. Lack of proper market feedback made the company shut down.
Details of the startup:
Reach.ly
You can read more about their failure here.
RewardMe
![RewardMe](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535aa979dce650ead48d84_rewardme-min.webp)
RewardMe was a real-time intelligent CRM Platform for Local Commerce. They wanted to scale up the company prematurely, which lead to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Jun Loayza, Stephen Johnson, Yu-kai Chou
Country:
United States
Industry:
Marketing
Started in:
2010
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
RewardMe
You can read more about their failure here.
Salorix
![Salorix](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535e463c192952a602ad1a_salorix-min.webp)
Salorix offered an engagement platform for brands. It closed down because of its inability to raise money after its investors stopped supporting it.
Details of the startup:
Salorix
You can read more about their failure here.
ScaleFactor
![ScaleFactor](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60afa9f2d86c8197bd47d04d_scalefactorapp-min.webp)
ScaleFactor was a tech startup that claimed to automate SME bookkeeping and payroll thanks to an AI they were developing in-house, which wasn't the case.
Details of the startup:
ScaleFactor
You can read more about their failure here.
SchoolGennie
![SchoolGennie](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535ce11ab072df7c304891_haseeb-modi-CoVhe91yY0E-unsplash-min.webp)
SchoolGennie provided solutions that saved time, reduced costs, and helped make better decisions on schools. But they didn’t test their product-market fit.
Details of the startup:
SchoolGennie
You can read more about their failure here.
SellanApp
![SellanApp](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/605359f9dc898493c7d72e6a_sellanapp-min.webp)
SellanApp connected people who had an idea for an app with app developers that could materialize it. It failed due to an unhealthy co-founder partnership.
Details of the startup:
SellanApp
You can read more about their failure here.
Theranos
![Theranos](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60536116a95e02832465529e_theranos-min.webp)
Theranos was a way to predict diseases with small blood samples. They raised $1.4B but legal investigations pointed out it was a fraud and shut down.
Details of the startup:
Theranos
You can read more about their failure here.
Vine
![Vine](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60535d5e0d1a61745017d933_vine.webp)
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
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Multiple Reasons
Vine
You can read more about their failure here.
Wesabe
![Wesabe](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/605358fa2eee4a04c40d542a_wesabe-min.webp)
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:
Wesabe
You can read more about their failure here.
WOW Air
![WOW Air](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fadb14c46b287ad224b60b9/60536014b12dd9f217d2a2f1_wowair.webp)
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:
WOW Air
You can read more about their failure here.