How we went from $1M raised and 100k users to shut down

👋 Hey Failories! It's Nico over here.

Last week's article on Y Combinator failed startups completely blew up. It went viral on Hacker News and received tons of shares on social networks. +25k users read it in three days.

Based on all the feedback we received, we've made some modifications. Firstly, we corrected some information which was wrong/not clear. Secondly, we removed the "Other startups" section as we decided we would only focus on the biggest failed startups. Finally, we added two new more failed startups stories (Airware and Homejoy).

Today I have two new interviews: a failed live streaming platform that went from 100k users and $1m raised to 0, and a successful SaaS for repair shops which is making $100k/mo.

This newsletter is sponsored by Starkflow.

INTERVIEW

How we went from $1M raised and 100k users to shut down

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.

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INTERVIEW

Turning a Personal Problem into a $100k/mo SaaS

RepairDesk is a repair management software. Usman came up with the idea when working at his brother’s cellphone repair shop. He developed the software himself along with a web design company he teamed with. His main takeaway from growing this SaaS to +$1M in AAR is to make friends with your customers.

How we went from $1M raised and 100k users to shut down