How To Fail - How to launch a web software startup and fail spectacularly!

I left my perfectly good job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start a software company called CodeCoalition http://codecoalition.99bots.com and I failed spectacularly! I lost tons of money in the first three months and made tons of mistakes. Learn from my mistakes and don't fail like I did my first time. Make sure you have a business plan, don't purchase unnecessary things, stay focussed on a single great project, make sure that your project has customers and revenue streams before you invest tons of time into building it, don't chase after the magical passive income, don't focus on the silly details that add nothing to your bottom line, and most of all... DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL! Ask for help, and look for those who know how to succeed!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• business
• entrepreneurship
• failed
• money
• get rich quick
• passive income
• start a business
• home business
• business mentorship
• SAAS

[WSUCougsFTW]

I enjoyed your video a great deal. Very brave of you to admit to these mistakes. I'm curious about #4 in particular. While what you say makes sense, at the same time, it seems like it would be hard to secure customers without a product. Seems like a chicken and egg problem in some ways.

[aarontrank]

@WSUCougsFTW You should check out some of the Lean Launch or Lean Startup ideas that a lot of high tech entrepreneurs are using... Check out the website mixergy and search for "eric ries lean startup interview". I probably should have started by securing email subscribers from a splash page who were interested in the potential product, then determined if it was worth building. I also should have considered other verticals before I called the whole idea a failure :)

[grapp1000]

Funny that you should talk about "passive income" - isn't that exactly what Tim Ferriss's first book is about?

[aarontrank]

@grapp1000 The Four hour workweek is about applying the "Pareto Principle" to business... How to maximize the financial return on your investment of time by eliminating the "busy work" that we all seem to get dragged into during our work days... I didn't apply the Pareto Principle in my business.... although I read, and was inspired by Tim's book, I got stuck in the minutia and wasted a LOT of time!

[CaraBear12]

Great video and great advice

[WSUCougsFTW]

@aarontrank Thanks for the comment. That makes sense. I've seen several videos with Mr. Ries, but not that one so I'll check it out. I see what you mean about building other information before building the product. I've seen the splash page idea in a few places already. In fact, I've joined some of them but they never seem to come to fruition. Anyway, thanks again for your insights.

[howtotruckdriver101]

You should push your product to storage auction people.

[amvestcorp]

hi, i just sent you a message through your website(nadabid.com). let me know if you're interested in contacting me. amvestcorp@yahoo.com

thanks

adam