4 Failed Blockchain Startups & the Reasons Behind
There are a lot of things to consider when building a new startup - where to get funding, how to validate your idea, and what features should the product have.
One of the challenges is finding a market that is willing to pay for your solution without even knowing what it is yet.
However, 90% of startups will fail and shut down.
In this article, you can find 4 failed Blockchain startups as well as analyses on why they closed down.
4 Failed Blockchain 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
- 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) Koinex
Koinex was a cryptocurrency exchange platform. India's laws got harsh against cryptocurrencies and the obstacles and little profits led to its shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Aditya Naik, Rahul Raj, Rakesh Yadav
- Country: India
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
3) 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
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
4) Phez
Shanti is a 38-year-old software developer and entrepreneur who, using Ruby on Rails, built Phez, a Reddit clone that rewarded users with Bitcoin. After a few months, however, Phez failed due to its poor business model. If Shanti would have sold the BTC he used as rewards at BTC peak, he would have made $29,014!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Shanti Braford
- Country: United States
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
