Why my 3 startups failed ?

Failures aren't permanent, rather they are stepping stones for the success. 

But what if you did not learn from your failures and try to move ahead : it's most probable that you will fail again.

Over the period of last four to five years, I have been constantly failing, again and again, in whatever I did. I never been so consistent in any other thing in my life but failure.

So i decided to give it a break and do a Corporate Job and now it been two years since I am working. But I know that this is not what I've always wanted to do with my life and this single thought just don't let me sleep at nights. So I have decided to work on something, something which I have been thinking for a long period of time.

But before starting anything, I have decided to study my last 3 startups in which I failed miserably, and I found out that I haven't learn anything from my failures, and if I had learned anything from those failures, my story would have been different. So this time, before starting anything I list out all the possible reasons that caused these failures.

1. Know why you do what you do.

The single most important reason to my failure was I didn't know why I was doing it. It's equally or more important because until and unless you do something out of passion or because you are good at it, don't do it.

I did our first startup just because I wanted to do startup.

2. Choose your Co-Founder wisely.

Always remember just because you two are good or best friends and you share lot of similar things, doesn't mean you two can be good business partners.

Find someone with the same vision, passion and charisma like you. I would suggest better do it alone until you find someone to fit in that place.

3. Validate your idea before developing fully fledged product/ service.

We did an awesome while developing our service, we fully designed our website and did SEO. but no one was interested in service we offered. There might be various reasons as there might be other better ways to get the same service, Market-Product fit, unmatured market.

It's better to validate idea by offering it on trial basis to potential customers, users or even your friend circle, and ask for feedback and if they like that service/ product they will pay for it.

4. Don't try to do everything, gather like minded people.

In my 3rd startup, i tried to do everything alone. I had a bad experience of having co-founder from my last startup, so i decided to do it all alone. I did Website Design, development, Operations, Marketing and what not. 

Even if you are good developer, get your website/app designed from professional developers or freelancer, they are cheap and easily available. 

Focus on your operation, divide tasks and distribute it among your people.

5. Meet Your Partners/Customers personally.

Business is all about people not about organizations. Email or video conferencing will never be able to replace Business meetings.

Meeting your potential customer shows that you really care about them and you are serious about business, gives you more chance to win them.

6. Plan and Execution.

Planning is crucial, as it keeps you on the track and towards your goal. 

Write down things you want to do today, tomorrow, this week, this month in next six month. It's like setting your life goals, but don't just write it down, make sure you follow and execute it.

7. Be ready to pivot

It's perfectly right not to stick to initial idea and modifying it along the way, that's how everything works.

We humans are nothing but the product of an idea which kept itself evolving, so same applies to the Startups also.

Whenever you think that something is not working, talk to customer, ask questions and if that gets to to the conclusion that you need to change the initial vision of your startup, Pivot !