Learning from Failure – A Wrong Concept Spells Failure

A startup built on a wrong concept is likely to fail. By wrong concept I mean a space which is either not present, very small or is not one which can be monetized. Though a startup may be able to create some value initially, the inadequacy of the targeted space will eventually result in the startup failing.

Ratemyspeech was a startup which focused on improving presentation skills using a community based feedback platform. The startup had to be closed down due to fact that most people did not care about a service like this and would not be willing to pay any money for it. As the founder says in this article – “Most people (95+%) just don’t care enough about their presentations. So they will not take the time to prepare a draft speech, upload it, expose it to scrutiny, then take the feedback onboard and rework it. The rest, the less than 5% on the other hand takes it very seriously, and many of them have a strong network of people who they can ask. But they wouldn’t pay for some service to make this a bit easier. For them, we would not be able to deliver value.”

Advice – Research the market you are targeting time and again to ensure that it is big enough and monetizable for your startup to sustain.