Worth Reading: 8 Real-World Stories Of Why Startups Fail

While we work on gathering our Failure stories to share here on SiliconCaribe.com with you. Here’s a sweet article you can learn from also. It’s one of the things I feel passionately about – removing the stigma of failure in our Caribbean culture. Failure in my expeirence just means you’ve tried something and learnt something. Those who are successful, keep going.

Failure: it’s a common theme among start-up founders. In the Silicon Valley, it’s almost a badge of honor. But for all the dire statistics out there, what are the real reasons some start ups don’t make it? And what lessons can we learn from them?

We asked 8 (now) successful founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share why a prior start-up didn’t make it – and what they’re doing differently knowing what they know now.

 1. We Did Not Have A Narrow Focus

My first start up team had a very big idea about encouraging sustainability. If we could get individuals to track how often they took small, sustainable actions – refilling water bottles, reusing paper bags, etc. – we could create a culture where reuse was prevalent. Not only were we trying to change behaviors – difficult! – but we assumed that gamification would be a critical element. And that education was a critical element. And that social sharing was critical. There was more, too.

If I were to restart that business, I would focus on the root issue of encouraging sustainable actions and tackle only one aspect of it. We have seen many companies pop up in this space, but each only focuses on one of the many complex ideas. At the start, be great at something small. Then expand. – Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

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