135 Failed Startups Founded in the USA
Here’s a collection of 135 failed startups from the United States.
Some of them secured +$100M in funding and built huge teams.
Some others went the bootstrapped way and stayed lean.
In any case, they have all shut down and that has a reason.
Find it out!
135 Failed Startups Founded in the United States
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
- 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) Anki
Anki aimed to intergrate robotics and IoT with kids' toys and games but shut down in April 2019 after failure to raise funding.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Boris Sofman, Hanns Tappeiner, Mark Palatucci
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
3) Appiterate
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
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
4) Argyle Social
The Argyle Social was a social media marketing tool. The leading social media platforms change their APIs every time, which led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Adam Covati
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
5) Aria Insights
Aria Insights developed highly advanced drones. After some pivots, the company couldn't find out the correct business model and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Helen Greiner
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2008
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
6) ArsDigita
ArsDigita was a Web Development Company established in 1997. Their decline was ascribed to an inexperienced external CEO and had to shut down in 2001.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Philip Greenspun, Tracy Adams, Ben Adida, Eve Andersson, Olin Shivers, Aurelius Prochazka, Jin Choi
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 1997
- Closed in: 2002
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
7) 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
- 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.
8) BitPass
Bitpass was a company that gave people a platform to make micropayments online. The main reason for its closure was competition, even after raising $12M.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Kurt Huang
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2002
- Closed in: 2007
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
9) Call9
Call9 was a health startup targeted at patients who needed to speak with a doctor. The founder's inability to achieve growth, led to its shut down in 2019.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Celina Tenev, Timothy Peck, XiaoSong Mu
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
10) 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
- 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.
11) Circa
Circa had the mission of ‘fixing’ what was wrong with journalism. They suffered a financial breakdown and were copied by giants in the news sector.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Arsenio Santos, Ben Huh, Matt Galligan
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
12) 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
- 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.
13) 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
- 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.
14) Design Inc.
Design Inc. linked clients to talented designers. They reached market saturation and the startup could not make enough revenue to cover operation costs.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Bjoern Zinssmeister, Marc Hemeon
- Industry: Design
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
15) 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
- 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.
16) Digg
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:
- Founders: Kevin Rose
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2004
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
17) 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
- 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.
18) 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
- 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.
19) DotCloud
dotCloud was a PaaS for developers that enabled them to host, assemble and run their applications. They could not sustain operation costs by themselves.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Solomon Hykes
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2008
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 250-500
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
20) EventVue
EventVue helped to improve the conference networking experience. They lacked product-market fit and failed to test early the usefulness of the product.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Josh Fraser, Rob Johnson
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: 2010
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of PMF
You can read more about their failure here.
21) 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
- 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.
22) Flowtab
Flowtab was an app that solved the problem of long queues in bars. They tried several business models but never found a profitable one, so they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Mike Townsend
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $0
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
23) 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
- 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.
24) Formspring
Formspring was an anonymous Q&A forum that grew to 1 million users in 2 months. This brought lots of cyberbullying on the site. They shut down after 4 years.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Ade Olonoh, John Wechsler
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
25) FoundationDB
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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Acquisition Flu
You can read more about their failure here.
26) Fuhu
Fuhu was a seller of cloud-served software. After reaching Top 1 on Inc 500, the company amassed an enormous amount of debt and had a very high burn rate.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: John Hui, Robb Fujioka, Steve Hui
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2006
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 500-1,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
27) 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
- 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.
28) 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
- 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.
29) 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
- 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.
30) 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
- 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.
31) 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
- 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.
32) Kiko
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:
- Founders: Emmett Shear, Justin Kan
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2003
- Closed in: 2008
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
33) 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
- 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.
34) 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
- 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.
35) Laurel & Wolf
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:
- Founders: Brandon Kleinman, Leura Fine
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
36) LayerVault
LayerVault helped you store, track, review, and deliver design work. However, they were unable to secure additional capital to sustain their services.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Allan Grinshtein, Kelly Sutton
- Industry: Design
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
37) 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
- 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.
38) Lookery
Lookery gave statistics showcasing services that empowered organizations. It was based on Facebook platform, and after the redesign, they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: David Cancel, Rex Dixon, Todd Sawicki
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: 2009
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
39) 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
- 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.
40) 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
- 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.
41) MatterFab
MatterFab had the goal of making metal-based manufacturing affordable. However, the business never found a profitable business model and pricing strategy.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Matthew Burris
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
42) Monitor110
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:
- Founders: Roger Ehrenberg
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2003
- Closed in: 2008
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
43) 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
- 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.
44) Munchery
Munchery allowed users to order gourmet food. However, they couldn't deliver the experience that it promised and build a profitable business model.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Conrad Chu, Tri Tran, Van Tran
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
45) 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
- 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.
46) 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
- 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.
47) Netscape
Netscape was one of the most significant internet applications in history. Despite its early success, they couldn't beat Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: James Clark, Jon Mittelhauser, Marc Andreessen
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 1994
- Closed in: 2008
- Nº of employees: 5,000-10,000
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
48) OpTier
OpTier provided customers with a business transaction monitoring platform. Little market share, revenue, and investment led to OpTier's failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Amir Alon, Motti Tal
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2002
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of PMF
You can read more about their failure here.
49) Parse
Parse offered a platform for mobile app devs with tools to let them build, run and test applications. Facebook bought Parse and shut it down in 2017.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Ilya Sukhar, James Yu, Kevin Lacker, Tikhon Bernstam
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2011
- 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.
50) 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
- 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.
51) Poliana
Poliana's aim was to bring order to the USA political system. They had low market demand and ran out of funds even after implementing 3 business models.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Grayson Carroll, Patrick Cason, Seth Whiting, Shawn Whiting
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
52) PoliMobile
PoliMobile provided political campaigns with a strategic way to reach their supporters. No one wanted to pay for such a service and they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Curt Prins
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $0
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
53) PostRocket
PostRocket was a Facebook marketing platform co-founded in October 2010. Many technical issues and depending on FB affected the quality of their service.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Murry Ivanoff, Tim Chae
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
54) QBotix
QBotix offered solar panels that tracked solar light. Their competitors' efficiency improved, making QBotix's innovative solar panels less cost-effective.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Wasiq Bokhari
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
55) 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
- 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.
56) Rafter
Rafter was a course material provider for colleges. They had lots of competition and had to deal with logistical, financial, and market challenges.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Sara Leoni
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2006
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
57) 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
- 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.
58) RethinkDB
RethinkDB is a distributed and scalable NoSQL database. Choosing the wrong market was mentioned by the founder as one of their major mistakes.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Michael Glukhovsky, Slava Akhmechet
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of PMF
You can read more about their failure here.
59) RewardMe
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
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
60) Salorix
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:
- Founders: Santanu Bhattacharya
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
61) ScaleFactor
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:
- Founders: Kurt Rathmann
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2020
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
62) Secret
Secret was an app that allowed users to post content anonymously. Active users rapidly declined after 18 months from its launch and cyberbullying emerged.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Chrys Bader-Wechseler, David Byttow
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
63) 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
- 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.
64) 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
- 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.
65) 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
- 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.
66) Sip
Sip was made by ProductHunt. It covered news in the tech industry in a bite-size format. Due to no market need and lack of focus, PH shut it down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Ryan Hoover, Nick Abouzeid, Chad Whitaker
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $0
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
67) 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
- 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.
68) SpoonRocket
SpoonRocket was a food delivery service making healthy meals each day. When their financial situation declined, they failed to fundraise to stay afloat.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Anson Tsui, Steven Hsiao
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
69) 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
- 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.
70) 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
- 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.
71) Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch aimed to launch orbital rockets from the stratosphere. Paul Allen’s passing away in October of 2018 spell out the same fate for Stratolaunch.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Paul Allen
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 500-1,000
- Funding Amount: $0
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
72) TeeBeeDee
TeeBeeDee was a social network aimed at people over 40 to share their experiences. They weren’t able to grow their user base fast enough to survive.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: David Markus, Jon Brandt, Robin Wolaner, Todd Basche
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2007
- Closed in: 2009
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
73) 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
- 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.
74) Theranos
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:
- Founders: Elizabeth Holmes
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2003
- Closed in: 2018
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
75) 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
- 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.
76) 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
- 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.
77) Transpose
Transpose was a comprehensive information management platform. Operated for two years before shutting down due to the inability to generate enough revenue.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Hussein Ahmed, Matt Goyer, Samah Gad, Skyler Johnson-Wagner
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
78) 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
- 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.
79) 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
- 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.
80) 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
- 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.
81) 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
- 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.
82) 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
- 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.
83) 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
- 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.
84) 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
- 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.
85) Yik Yak
What was Yik Yak? Why was it shut down? Are there any alternatives nowadays? Find the answers to these questions and more in this article.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Brooks Buffington, Tyler Droll, Will Jamieson
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
86) Zirtual
Zirtual was a virtual assistant marketplace for busy entrepreneurs. Its management and the high burn rate brought the firm on the verge of bankruptcy.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Collin Vine, Erik Jensen, Maren Kate Donovan
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
87) 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
- 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.
88) 101 Studios
101 Studios was a producer of video games that taught users things while they played. They went with a “business to professor” business model, but despite professors like the idea, they wouldn’t implement it in their classes. The startup could never reach product-market fit and shut down months later.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Matt “GundayMonday” Sever
- Industry: Education
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
89) Adproval
Matthew founded Adproval, a marketplace to connect blogging and social media influencers with brands. Raised around $300k in funds and made $200/mo from their self-service software for bloggers. In the end, they made over $200k in revenue from consulting services but it wasn't enough.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Matthew Anderson
- Industry: Marketing
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
90) Ansaro
Sam was one of the co-founders of Ansaro, a SaaS that aimed to revolutionize the recruiting industry through the use of technologies like AI. They raised $2.25M from institutional investors and $750K from friends and family, grew the team to 6 members and earned in total $100k. But with expenses of $70k/month and no product-market fit, they had to shut down 2 years later.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Sam Stone
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
91) BeehiveID
BeehiveID was a startup on the dating market, that identified online accounts created for fraudulent use. Techstars and RightSide Capital decided to invest $70K on their business. However, after some months BeehiveID closed their doors. Being too dependent on Facebook data killed their startup.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Mary Haskett
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
92) 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
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
93) Boston Apartment Hub
Boston Apartment Hub was an apartment listing site for the Boston area. The idea was probably too ahead of its time.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jon Sherman
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2006
- Closed in: 2007
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
94) 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
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
95) Cam.ly
Dane built Cam.ly, a wifi camera that would stream and store video in the cloud. They competed with Google Nest's predecessor but failed to build a polished product before convincing investors to fund it.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Dane Jensen
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2010
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
96) 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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
97) Delite
Delite was a SaaS platform for B2B wholesale orders. It didn’t satisfy any necessity of customers. Just that thing in life you keep putting off.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Patrick Walls
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
98) Eloquis
Eloquis was all about bringing personalization to mobile apps. The problem? Early in the market and targeted the wrong customer segment.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Rohit Nallapeta
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2011
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
99) Eventloot
Justin Anyanwu is a maker who a few years ago built Eventloot, a SaaS platform for wedding planning professionals. He hired some designers and developers and got the SaaS working. But after a few months of running Facebook Ads and sending cold emails, they decided to shut it down. They hadn’t built a platform that solved the problems wedding planners had.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Justin Anyanwu
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
100) ExploreVR
Andrey Norin is a budding entrepreneur, responsible for all the successes and the failures of ExploreVR. This was a directory site focused 100% on virtual reality. He started it in 2017 and shut down a few months later. His lack of experience in creating a business from scratch was the main cause of failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Andrey Norin
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
101) 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
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
102) Gawkbox
GawkBox was a platform where viewers of live streams could play mobile games to donate real money to streamers. Chris co-founded this as his first startup and he was able to successfully raise $4.4M in venture funding, which the startup invested in marketing until they achieved 500k users and more than $1M in revenue. However, multiple mistakes and a series of reasons led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Christopher Brownridge
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
103) 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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
104) 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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
105) Hawthorne Strategies
Michael Hawthorne Jr. was the founder of Atlanta-based consulting agency Hawthorne Strategies LLC. The agency worked with NFL Players to develop their philanthropic foundations and awareness campaigns to address community issues that they cared about. Read on to know how overwhelm, overwork, and failing to scale led the potentially-profitable business to the ground.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Michael Hawthorne
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2013
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
106) Hot Barber
Hot Barber was a website that let hair stylists set up profiles and customers browse portfolios, but the founders couldn't find a way to monetize it!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Julia Enthoven
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
107) 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
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
108) Ink
Andrew Askins, in partner with two of his best friends, started his company Krit in 2014. In 2015 they launched Ink, a tool that let freelancers create contracts and get them signed online. They got a couple thousand free users, but ultimately got burnt out before they could make the business model work. Now, they have been able to overcome this failure and build a successful consulting business.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Andrew Askins
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
109) KnowNet
KnowNet was a tutoring platform. A SWOT analysis saved Rik and Ari from lifting their name into the failure hall of fame.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Rik Ganguly
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
110) 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
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2019
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Dependence on Others
You can read more about their failure here.
111) Legaats
Legaats was a web app where baby boomers and senior citizens could share their important life lessons. 5 were the causes of its failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Deepak Chhugani
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
112) 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
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
113) Melon
Kevin was the founder of Melon, a food delivery startup aimed at being more cost-effective. Melon’s unique approach was quickly validated through an MVP and in just two months, the business grew to $10k/mo and 500 users. However, they realized becoming profitable would be hard and decided to discontinue the service.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Kevin Wang
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2019
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
114) MotionThink
After moving to SF, Andrew joined a startup accelerator that included a co-founder dating phase. There, he met some co-founders with whom he built MotionThink, a startup that built productivity tools for freelancers. Some months and +$100,000 after, the startup was shut down. Learn what went wrong!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Andrew Chen
- Industry: Productivity
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
115) MotoBox
Simple, WiFi-enabled, OBD-II vehicle data logger and cloud services creating a platform for custom software development, which couldn’t reach customers.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Joe Stech
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2013
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
116) 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
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
117) 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
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
118) Pactero
Wes founded Pactero, a platform to simplify the process of managing income share agreements. He confused the initial launch hype with market validation, but it was vanity. The business made around $180 total after spending $55k.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Wes Wagner
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2020
- Closed in: 2021
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
119) 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
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
120) 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
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
121) Readership
Gregg Blanchard developed Readership from a fascination with Twitter API. While the visual analytics on Readership was appealing, it didn’t bring enough marketing value to get the buy-in needed to be a successful start-up.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Gregg Blanchard
- Industry: Analytics
- Started in: 2019
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
122) 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
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
123) Rent Nest
Steven was co-founder at Rent Nest, an app that allowed users to collect and share information on houses to rent. They raised some money from friends and were soon accepted on a startup accelerator. Throughout two years, the startup grew to $12k/mo, but they were spending +$40k/mo, which led them to eventually running out of funds and shutting down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Steven Glod
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
124) Singulution
Hunt was a software engineer at a Silicon Valley company when he decided to build Singulution, a point of sale & business management solution for multi-location vendors. However, after 10 months of work and $30,000 spent, he couldn’t validate his idea and ran out of money. The company was eventually absorbed by another startup.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Hunt Burdick
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
125) Tali
Matt created Tali, a timekeeping solution for lawyers powered by voice technology like Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. Like many first start-ups, they encountered many mistakes while trying to build. He created Tali in the effort to help lawyers more effectively keep track of their time instead of using pen and paper. Ultimately, due to a lack of traction and a misfit product market they had to wind things down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Matthew Volm
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2019
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
126) Tandem
Tandem was a live streaming platform for fitness. Cause of failure? Live fitness isn't that engaging. Influencers were reluctant to adopt a new platform.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Nick Raushenbush
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
127) Tandem App
Will is a software engineer based in San Francisco, who co-founded Tandem, an app to help people stay on top of their medications. They carried out some research and considered it was a great business idea. But, after launching, they discovered retention was really difficult and decided not to continue.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Will Sun
- Industry: Health
- Started in: 2016
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
128) The Blogging Manifesto
The Blogging Manifesto was a blog to help readers with their blogging problems. The lack of passion resulted to be a big problem.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Ryan Biddulph
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
129) 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
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
130) Vacation Bird
Gene founded VacationBird, a marketplace for finding your vacation rental. It was an early version of Airbnb and a VRBO competitor. Having a misalignment of incentives between co-founders and poor planning were the main causes to shut it down in 2012.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Gene Maryushenko
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2011
- Closed in: 2012
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
131) Vulpine
Derric Haynie is an entrepreneur based in Oakland, California who, years ago, launched Vulpine Interactive, a social media and advertising agency. Peaking at 10 clients, $40k/mo and 5 employees, things were expected to keep going well. However, they ended up shutting the business and walked away with $70k in debt. Learn what happened!
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Derric Haynie
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
132) WorldOs
WorldOS was a P2P infrastructure provider. Lucas tried to productize a buzzword, but was not solving the right problem.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Lucas Gonze
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2005
- Specific cause of failure: No Market Need
You can read more about their failure here.
133) 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
- Industry: Entertainment
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2018
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
134) Yottio
Jon was one of the Yottio’s co-founders, a mobile-first tool that enabled video participation on broadcast television. The startup went through all experiences, including making $200k in revenue, spending $150k for operations, a co-founder leaving the business and a $20m acquisition offer. However, Yottio eventually ran out of cash and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jon Lawrence
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
135) Zapstream
Zapstream was a social live streaming platform, which competed with Meerkat and Periscope. The startup raised $1m from angels and grew from 0 to 100k users. However, a combination of dwindling engagement, mismanagement of money, and the inability to fundraise further, led to their shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Devan Sood
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
