Startups Which Should Have Succeeded But Failed

Ideas are like magic. Either they work or they just fizzle out and die. The same concept works with startups as well. While some startups with supremely crazy ideas boom and leave you wondering about how that happened, others which should have succeeded, failed miserably. Today, instead of looking at the successful startups, here is taking a look at the ones which should have succeeded, but didn’t:

1. Friendster

Touted to be one of the first social media websites in the World, Friendster failed to take off as well as Facebook.  Founded in the year 2002, Friendster hit the ground running with $ 50 million as funding. The site was so popular, even Google wanted to buy the site for a whopping $ 30 million.  However, Friendster got too confident and decided to reject Google’s offer, a move which is still considered as one of the biggest mistakes made by a startup. While the idea of connecting with friends and talking to people on a common platform was considered a novel and bright idea, Friendster failed because it refused to move with the trends.  By not letting users share news, the site slowly started becoming irrelevant as people started growing bored of the simple tools. What also went against Friendster was, it was profile based and did not let you do things unless you went directly to a person’s profile. If Friendster had stuck to the trends and gone with the flow, it wouldn’t have fizzled out and disappeared so quickly. Oh well,  at least other social media platforms are learning from Friendster’s mistakes!

2. GovWorks

Founded in the year 1998 by two childhood friends, GovWorks had all the right intentions, but was not worked on in the right way. Designed both to help the government keep track of its clients, and for the citizens to perform tasks like pay tickets online, apply for jobs and look for information regarding to the city in which they were, the startup grew from having just 8 employees in the beginning to 250 employees by 2000.  However, because of major rifts between the two founding partners, the startup refused to take off. Furthermore, because of the founders’ inability to fix the constantly growing bugs, they had no option but to sell GovWorks in 2001. The lesson here? If you are mixing your professional and personal life, make sure you have a plan of action to not let things go bad.

3. Webvan

Before the likes of BigBasket and other grocery delivery platforms became popular, WebVan started toying with this idea in the year 1999.  Founded by Louis Borders during the dot com boom, the startup promised to deliver groceries to customers within a 30 minute time frame.  Louis Borders and CEO George Shaheen believed in the online system so much, they jumped into the business with guns blazing.  Despite buying warehouses full of produce, trucks to deliver the products and expensive computers to simplify the delivery process, the startup refused to make a mark. With people refusing to buy into the idea of ordering groceries online and because of the lack of internet everywhere, the owners had no option but to shut up shop in the year 2001.  If they had waited for a few years later, they would have made quite a mark now!

4. Pay By Touch

While Paytm is perhaps one of the most used apps for online payment, it wasn’t the first startup of its kind. Founded in the year 2002, Pay By Touch allowed users to make online payments with the swipe of a finger on a biometric sensor. Innovative and one of the first startups of its kind, Pay By Touch rose quickly and even raised $ 340 million! However, despite doing extremely well, the Company started failing because CEO John P. Rogers was accused of domestic abuse and possession of drugs, amongst other charges. With so much bad press, the Company stopped doing well and in 2007, it had to be shut down.

5. WebTV

Founded in 1995, WebTV was supposed to be a combination of the World Wide Web and television. Coming in the size of a VCR which promised to bring affordable internet to the living room without using a PC, WebTV grew so big, MSN bought it and renamed it as MSN TV in the year 1997. However, because of the lack of availability of broadband and the steep price of the device, the idea slowly started to die.  While WebTV didn’t take off when it launched, companies like Xbox 360 and DVRs are using a similar principle now.
While each of these startups thought their ideas could work if done right, they all failed because they just couldn’t make it across the troubled waters. If you think we missed out on other startups like these, comment and let us know!