🎉 Hey Failories! It's Nico here.

This week I bring you an interview with the founder of a failed startup and an analysis of Katerra's shut down.

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content 📚

📱 Raising +$1M and failing to build a "mobile interface" business. Andrew was the founder of Siempo, a smartphone interface designed to support mental health and wellbeing.

The startup raised $1.1M over four years, but did not generate revenue. Without having found product-market fit, they had to dissolve the company in 2020. Here's how not to build a software startup.​

💀 What happened to Katerra, the construction startup? In the recent weeks, Evergrande, the second-largest property developer in China, has been on the news because of its inability to pay off its debts.

Many startups in Evergrande's industry had problems this year. One of them was Katerra, which aimed to become the Salesforce of construction. They raised $1.6B, but lack of focus led to their shut down less than six years after being founded. Here's Katerra's failure story.​

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🔴 You don't need a technical co-founder or developer to launch your product. In this free video, See how you can start your tech startup without a tech background. Learn what to do first so you can start selling to customers. Watch the Video →

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what I'm reading 👀

​"Fake it 'till you build it". Many real stories on how founders have faked their software products so as to validate their business ideas and get early customers.

​Three years of building products. Alex West is the founder of CyberLeads. He recently quit his job to focus 100% on his project. Prior to building this successful business, he failed with 19 products. In this article, he shares his story and lessons.

​The content strategy maturity model. It's well known that your content marketing efforts depend on your goals and target customers. This article introduces a new factor to consider: the maturity of content marketing within your business' industry.

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That's all for this week. Let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers,

Nico

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