FX.co ★ Startup Failures

Developers of Internet companies, analyzing the situation with the most famous startups in 2015, figured out the reasons that triggered the closure of once-popular projects. They examined the most frequent mistakes of the technology startups' creators, suggesting to take notes to those who are engaged in the technology business.

Secret is an anonymous social network.

David Byttow, the founder of this startup, created a product that was used by about 15 million people.

Investments: the Secret application attracted $35 million.

Start: January 2014.

Closing: April 2015.

Duration: 15 months.

Reason: David Byttow considered that this project is not consistent with his worldview and did not justify the hopes placed on it.

Initially, the idea seemed promising, especially against the background of the desire for anonymity, but in the end, the target audience of the project was not the one that Byttow imagined.

Clinkle is a mobile service that allows you to make payments using ultrasound (Aerolink technology).

The beginning was promising: it was assumed that the universal payment platform would replace many others. However, it all ended in scandals and the loss of most investors.

Investments: the startup attracted $30.5 million.

Start: 2011.

Closing: September 2014.

Duration: 3 years, although the project functions to this day, only as a service for students, which allows making payments and earning "gifts".

Reason: the founder of the project, Lucas Duplan, committed a series of managerial errors due to inexperience.

Grooveshark is a recommendatory music service.

This project is a service where users can download any songs, create playlists and use music recommendations (Grooveshark Radio).

Investments: the project attracted $4.6 million.

Start: March 2006.

Closing: April 2015.

Duration: 9 years and 2 months.

Reason: claims of copyright infringement from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. Earlier the project was one of the large-scale music campaigns with personal recommendations, which gave the world many valuable musical ideas.

FOBO is an iOS app for selling used gadgets online.

This service conducted price monitoring and 97-minute auctions. If the product isn't bought, it will be purchased by the service itself at the starting price.

Investments: the startup managed to get $1.6 million.

Start: January 2011.

Closing: September 2014.

Duration: 3 years and 9 months.

The reason: the service never reached any peaks in the business, remaining something between eBay and Gazelle. The application was convenient and worked well, but most preferred to use the usual services.

Allmyapps is the first application store for Windows PC. This project was designed to help install new applications and updates for Windows.

Investments: it raised $1.4 million.

Start: June 2009.

Closing: October 2014.

Duration: 4 years and 5 months.

Reason: this startup didn't succeed because of the banal shortage of funds. As a result, the business had to be sold.

Circa News is a news application for smartphones and PCs. This project helped generate the most important news for a particular user.

Investments: the project received $5.7 million.

Start: December 2011.

Closing: June 2015.

Duration: 3 years and 7 months.

Reason: the project never managed to monetize, moreover, the number of users was very modest. However, the founders of the startup didn't say the exact figures.