8th reason: - you tried to start a social network in a niche you were not a member of. as the founder, you should have been the #1 user, the one that creates new content every day, relentelessly, and showing the rest of the community how to use the website.
(ok maybe it's the case and i am wrong, but it's a frequent mistake for first-time entrepreneurs)
Kevin Merritt
· 1 year ago
What an incredibly refreshing post. Thanks for sharing it Dan. If failure is a much better teacher than success, I look forward to your second act.
John
· 1 year ago
Please use "would have" instead of "would of".
Sri
· 1 year ago
Wow,
that is so insightful. Really appreciate you coming out and giving a candid insight into how you had done.
Can you post a bit more on how to rally the press? I find that marketting is one of the hardest party in a startup and could really use some tips :D
cheers Sri
PS: Cant wait to see your next big thing. Good luck in the future.
dMix
· 1 year ago
@Heri: I was the main user championing the site. I am a very big supporter of indie music and actively involved in various communities related to it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attract too many content contributors early enough and I continued to constantly add albums. The hard part was doing that while trying to maintain all the other responsibilities.
There was also a direct correlation between my daily traffic and the amount of new content on the site. Not only did it bring in users it also brought in some nice traffic from search engines.
@Sri, thats a good idea, I'll post about getting press soon. I'm not an expert but I had the opportunity to meet with a guy running a PR over the winter. It's an interesting field.
Adam
· 1 year ago
That was a great, insightful read. I love learning what doesn't work. I definitely think #8 was your biggest problem. It's a cool idea, but it feels more like a subsection of digg than it's own thing.
At the end of the day, though, you've still got a great site that didn't fail, it just hasn't taken off.
Eric
· 1 year ago
Very nice article. I particularly like #1 and #8. #1 serves as a good reminder that we should always prioritize: knowing what's the most important at the moment and execute perfectly on that, instead of staying at the comfort zone to do what is easy.
Totally agree on #8 too, I guess building a music community would need a very different approach and design than a news site.
Good post! Rock on.
Srikanth Shirodkar
· 1 year ago
Dan,
Many thanks for your candid analysis. I am sure this investigation this will prove to be your new strength.
Continuing the postmortem a little further,
a. Had you created a project plan for the schedule dates - release dates, formal launch, press releases etc? If so, did you have any learnings here?
b. Did you have a business plan in place before taking on the development? If so, what were the gaps you found in say estimating the market sizes?
c. Between you and your co-founder, was there clarity of roles? Were there any implicit or explicit role-divisions? Does he blame you for anything in particular?
He was not a techie, was not into indie music and couldn't interact with your visitors... so was he made the co-founder to avoid paying him?
Would be great to get your thoughts on these. Also wishing you the very best on your new projects :-)
Cheers!
prateekdayal
· 1 year ago
Very useful post dMix. I can relate to a lot to things written down here probably because I am running a similar online music community. Its called www.Muziboo.com and we are based out of Bangalore India.
We could probably talk a bit more.Let me write an email to you.
Regards Prateek
Christopher Allen
· 1 year ago
As a long-time entrepreneur, I find post-mortem analysis of ventures or projects written by their founders to be useful not only for the readers, but also to the author as it provides some thoughtful reflection and closure. Admitting failure is hard to do, but I suspect an essential part of what makes someone be ultimately a successful entrepreneur in the long run.
All Comments
- you tried to start a social network in a niche you were not a member of. as the founder, you should have been the #1 user, the one that creates new content every day, relentelessly, and showing the rest of the community how to use the website.
(ok maybe it's the case and i am wrong, but it's a frequent mistake for first-time entrepreneurs)
that is so insightful. Really appreciate you coming out and giving a candid insight into how you had done.
Can you post a bit more on how to rally the press? I find that marketting is one of the hardest party in a startup and could really use some tips :D
cheers
Sri
PS: Cant wait to see your next big thing. Good luck in the future.
There was also a direct correlation between my daily traffic and the amount of new content on the site. Not only did it bring in users it also brought in some nice traffic from search engines.
@Sri, thats a good idea, I'll post about getting press soon. I'm not an expert but I had the opportunity to meet with a guy running a PR over the winter. It's an interesting field.
At the end of the day, though, you've still got a great site that didn't fail, it just hasn't taken off.
Totally agree on #8 too, I guess building a music community would need a very different approach and design than a news site.
Good post! Rock on.
Many thanks for your candid analysis. I am sure this investigation this will prove to be your new strength.
Continuing the postmortem a little further,
a. Had you created a project plan for the schedule dates - release dates, formal launch, press releases etc? If so, did you have any learnings here?
b. Did you have a business plan in place before taking on the development? If so, what were the gaps you found in say estimating the market sizes?
c. Between you and your co-founder, was there clarity of roles? Were there any implicit or explicit role-divisions? Does he blame you for anything in particular?
He was not a techie, was not into indie music and couldn't interact with your visitors... so was he made the co-founder to avoid paying him?
Would be great to get your thoughts on these. Also wishing you the very best on your new projects :-)
Cheers!
We could probably talk a bit more.Let me write an email to you.
Regards
Prateek