Why Start-ups Fail: False Starts. We learned in the previous post that the founder of Triangulate, Sunil Nagaraj identified that the root causes of the company’s downfall were his choice of initial market, online dating, and not talking to the right people. In his book Why Start-Ups Fail? Professor Tom Eisenmann provides more granularity to …
Category Archives: Case Study
Case Study: A date with destiny Triangulate Part 3
Why Start-ups fail A Founder’s Reflections: Triangulate started out with the intention of being a superior matching engine to find suitable partners in many areas of life, such as job applications or university admissions. It was premised on three basic assumptions; that the engine would deliver better matches, that users would be able to detect …
Continue reading “Case Study: A date with destiny Triangulate Part 3”
Case Study: A date with destiny – Triangulate Part 2
Why the start-up Triangulate failed to go viral. By now the metrics for the site were mixed. The user base was growing at over 40% month on month but user engagement was low, with only 27% of new users in California, the site’s target market, returning in the second week after they signed up. Also, …
Continue reading “Case Study: A date with destiny – Triangulate Part 2”
Case Study: Triangulate, a date with destiny, Part 1
Sunil Nagaraj saw a need for software that identified suitable pairings using algorithms to analyze data on the attributes and preferences of both sides in an exchange. Whether that was a date, a job offer, or a real estate transaction. His initial business concept was that he would be able to license such a matching …
Continue reading “Case Study: Triangulate, a date with destiny, Part 1”
How to avoid start-up failure: Mistimed launch
CB Insights survey of 110 tech firms that failed ranked mistiming your product launch as the eighth leading cause of a start-up failure. 10% of business owners attributed their business failure to this cause. Mistiming your product launch can be subdivided into three categories. 1) You launch your product too early; this is probably the …
Continue reading “How to avoid start-up failure: Mistimed launch”
Case Study: Quincy Apparel – Part Four – A Review
Quincy Apparel had the makings to be a successful business. The MVP tested using trunk shows demonstrated that the business concept resonated with potential customers. Trunk shows are events, often by invitation only, where garment manufacturers exhibit their creations to an audience of potential buyers. The founders responded to the feedback from early customers to …
Continue reading “Case Study: Quincy Apparel – Part Four – A Review”
Case Study: Quincy Apparel Part Three.
In this post; Quincy Apparel launches its fall season. Sales are good, but the financial results are disappointing. Please read Quincy Apparel Parts One and Two to learn about the company’s journey so far. By now Quincy had raised $950,000. $250,000 from friends, family, and angel investors. The balance had been obtained from two venture …
Case Study: Quincy Apparel Part Two
In this post, I continue to look into why a promising start-up, Quincy Apparel, that had everything going for it, failed. Today I look at the launch of their first season. The story so far. The business was founded by two Harvard Business School MBA graduates Christina Wallace and Alex Nelson, Quincy Apparel was going …
Case Study: Quincy Apparel Part One
Part one of four of a case study of a start-up failure. A promising business opportunity Christina Wallace completed a double major in maths and theatre studies at Emory University. She moved to New York City, where she was an artistic manager at the Metropolitan Opera. She enrolled in an MBA program at Harvard Business …
Why Start-Ups fail 