Ask HN: My startup is failing, but my side project might be winning. Do I quit?
This is a throwaway account.
About 6 months ago, my startup I co-founded received $1M in seed funding. We raised the money on hype and a smooth talking co-founder. Previous to the funding, we had a bit of traction selling some tech to some large enterprises.
Fast forward to today, we've only had 1 more sale over the last 6 months, and the way our pricing is set up, we're making pennies per day. We have 2 total clients, and their contracts run out in May. These 2 clients net us about 30 users per week. We've considered pivots, but we can't agree on which pivot to go with. We are slated to make about $5,000 this entire year. Our runway gives us until December until the $1M runs out. We're not at each other's throats, but we know we are failing.
Over Christmas, I built a small side project on my own and launched it just to see if it would be a hit. 9 weeks have gone by, and it's shown steady growth. It's got 1500 active users, people who are logging in every day and spending about 7 minutes on the site per day. It's got well over 40k page views per week, growing about 20-40 users per day. Each user performs about 6 events per visit (event = upload a file, make a comment, upvote someone's file, make a listing, save for later). There's 1000+ listings with 100,000k+ uploaded files. It doesn't make any money, mostly because I have a moral issue with making money on the side while my main startup is doing so poorly. But I could very easily start adding subscriptions or premium features.
My dilemma: is this side project good enough to quit my own funded startup? I've already asked my co-founder if he would be interested in this pivot, and he said he wouldn't. Do I ride out my main startup while letting the side project grow on its own?
Does anyone have any experience or advice on how to quit your own startup?
I'm so damn confused.
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I've never been in this position so you can just throwaway my input if you want.
Some questions:
- You're burning through $60k/month. What are you spending it on if you're getting no sales? Can you cut the expenses to just focus on the necessities?
- Your co-founder is not interested in the pivot. Why not? Does he see something you don't? Maybe your side project is only getting growth because it's free. If you could "very easily" add paid models, why not try that first to see if it actually works. If it does show some promise, then I think at that time, it would be better to approach your investors as you've at least validated it a little. I don't know what the side project is but is it legit? You talk about uploading files so perhaps people are using it in a way that might be a legal grey area?
- I'll challenge you here and say that I don't think you do have a moral issue with this. After all, you started this side project while having this startup which took away time from it so you didn't have moral objections with that. That being said, the fact that you did go out seeking something else either tells me a) you're not good at focusing on one thing in which case a startup may not be a good path for you or b) you have an inclination that the startup is not going to work in which case you should get out of it. Unless I'm missing another possibility, both options point to the same conclusion - you want to leave the startup behind.
In that case, tell your investors and give them the option that they can put the remaining money into this side project or they can have the money returned.
I think you should be having this conversation with the investor whose money you're burning through at the rate of tens of thousands per month! Now, I dunno your precise situation so you should probably speak to your personal attorney first about your contractual obligations to your investor as well to your co-founder and anyone else in the picture.
But I think the investor is hoping to recoup or better yet to grow the value of that $1m investment, regardless of how that happens, as opposed to get a data point on the quality of the original investment decision. I don't know exactly what your side project is but if it is generating consistent growth and daily engagement with little or no additional effort on your part that sounds promising.
If I was your investor Id be far more impressed by your candor about the need to change direction than I would disappointed about the first idea not panning out.
One concern is that your current investors could sue, claiming ownership of your side project.
Why not pivot to your side project? If your cofounder doesn't want to do it as a pivot, pitch it to your investors. If they also aren't interested, then you can quit in good conscience (and make sure it's legally done right so they don't come back and sue you later).
I stayed at a startup where I was early way too long even when was clear we were headed into the ground. The most depressing five months of my life.
If it's clear you're doomed now, you should leave whenever something better comes along. Your call on whether this is the new startup, or something else.
To quote Mitch Hedberg: "My roommate said to me, 'I'm gonna go shave and use the shower; does anyone need to use the bathroom?' It's like some weird ass quiz where he reveals the answer first."
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