Startup Graveyard!
What happened to the startup Musical.ly?
Musical.ly was acquired by parent company ByteDance and was operating as its own independent app for a while until ByteDance shut it down and merged it into the popular app TikTok.
This type of startup is a right choice if a business product or service has an untapped market and offers vast growth potential:
What is a Scalable Startup
What is a Venture Capitalist?
What is an investor that gives money to startups in exchange for ownership (equity).
This “easy-to-use interface has empowered millions of users, from small businesses to large corporations, to create professional-quality designs without needing advanced graphic design skills”
Canva
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
What happened to the startup ToysRus?
ToysRUs used to have over 5% of the market share of the toys industry in the mid-1900s, until competitors such as Walmart and Target gave them a lot of competition. Their partnership with Amazon led them to limit their online sales capabilities and eventually not enough revenue was coming in for ToysRUs to reinvest into their stores.
This type of startup has an interest in growth, and they grow at their own pace. Their purpose is longevity rather than scalability.
What is a Small Business
What do startups use to showcase their product idea, market size, financial projections, and the competitive landscape?
What is a pitch deck
The founder wanted to create a space where women felt empowered to take control of their dating lives.
Bumble
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Steve Jobs, Apple
What happened to the community led invention platform, Quirky?
Quirky had an amazing platform for it to succeed in the entrepreneurship space with investors, a driven founding team, and a great idea. However, the company managed to burn through over 185 million dollars of venture capital and had to file for bankruptcy due to a lack of additional funding.
This type of startup is meant to inspire or influence change whether that be anything from the environment to society.
How do VC funds work? (5 step process)
What is 1. Raise Capital, 2. Find Startups to invest in. 3. Close Deals, 4. Invest time and Effort to help the company grow, 5. Exit
TaskRabbit, formerly known as RunMyErrand where people complete errands for users, was acquired by this major company in 2017
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn
What happened to the co-living space platform, HubHaus?
Before Covid, co-living spaces were in great demand with people not being able to afford rent and make new friends in a new city. However, after COVID people started working at home and living with a group of people didn’t seem super appealing during the pandemic. Because of this they didn’t have enough revenue to be able to sustain operations and closed.
This startup does not aim to become large and successful, but rather wants to be acquired or merged.
Buyable startup
What are the possible exit routes for VC investors to achieve a return on their investment?
What is IPO (Initial Public Offering), Mergers, or Acquisitions.
Apoorva Mehta is a former engineer at Amazon who founded a platform that allowed people to shop for groceries online with delivery
Instacart
“Play by the rules, but be ferocious.”
Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike
What happened to the Private car-sharing club for luxury and sports cars, HiGear?
This was an online platform that listed luxury cars for rent. They had a lot of controls for the process of renting a car and said that the main reason for their shutdown was when a gang stole 4 luxury cars totalling more than $400,000 total. They shut down temporarily and were then acquired by Rent2Buy.
Food and restaurant operational, Business services, and ____ are the top three industries for small business startups
Retail
What factors do VCs consider critical when evaluating a founding team’s ability to execute a startup idea?
What is the founding team's past experience, complementary skills, drive, and current resources.
This “mobile-first platform that provides community and tools to help pay down debt and build generational wealth”
Snowball Wealth
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney, founder of the Walt Disney Company