8 Failed Startups Founded in Canada
Here’s a list of 8 failed Canadian startups.
Some of them were big, with huge teams and funding rounds.
Others were smaller, ran by the co-founders and with no funding.
But all of them shut down. And each for a specific cause of failure.
8 Failed Canadian Startups
1) Verelo
Verelo was a Canadian startup that offered web monitoring services from multiple locations. Not enough traction made the company shut down in 2012.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: McGrath, Michael Curry
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2012
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
2) 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
- 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.
3) Addressbin
Addressbin was an easy way to collect email addresses. Bad marketing and big competitors where the problems that dug its grave.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Adam Bard
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
4) 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
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
5) Community Coders
While in university, Kaito started Community Coders, a business that connected companies looking for web development and digital marketing services with high school students. However, as the months went over, it became difficult to close deals and the startup began to lose its course until they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Kaito Cunningham
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
6) 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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
7) REPitchbook
Charlie Reese is a Canadian software developer who came with (what he thought it was) a revolutionary idea for a SaaS business in the real estate industry. Using his knowledge in JavaScript, React, and SQL, he built a prototype in 6 weeks. But he failed to validate his idea and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Charlie Reese
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
8) Team Voice
Team Voice was a SaaS platform for HR professionals. The problem they were trying to solve turned out to be a human problem, not a technology one.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Kirill Vechtomov
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
