After a year of market research, MVP testing, business model development and contract negotiations with local businesses, my start-up had just secured our first client, with two more in the final stages of contracting. Then Covid-19 hit and everything fell apart.When people ask me what happened, I blame the pandemic and everyone accepts that as a perfectly respectable and clear reason for the failure of a start-up in a new space. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing out on one of the most important aspects of failing: lessons learned. As of right now my takeaway is, " well next time just don't build a business that's vulnerable to disruption via total economic lockdown." But I know there's got to be more to it than that.Can you help me get more out of this failure than just sympathy and sadness?For those of you who'd like to try and help me find something to learn from this, here's an overview of the start-up and how it fell apart:My company offered VR consulting and implementation services to local schools, hospitals, libraries and airports. We advised these orgs on how to effectively implement VR, procured and installed the equipment, trained their staff to operate it and then provided tech support as needed.In January we had just secured a contract with the local community college district to build a VR Lab and we were finalizing a contract with a local hospital with work set to begin in April. We had just opened negotiations with the city's main library and had just lost a bid to offer services to the city's airport.Our company had just formed an LLC in January, we had two co-founders, and 4 unpaid employees working part-time. We had connections to the city's largest university through an incubator program. My other co-founder was well connected to city leaders in the entrepreneurial community, however we had virtually zero digital presence aside from our website.Our co-founders had sunk a total of about 25k into the business in the year since it's inception. Our operating expenses were nearly zero as we rented no office space, paid no salary, and needed very little software or equipment to secure contracts. Our first contract was negotiated for 85k and would have allowed us to repay the founders and begin paying employee salary.In February, our existing contract with the school was cancelled and the pending deals with all other clients were put on hold indefinitely. In the first few weeks of the lockdown, most of our potential clients remained hopeful that the delays were temporary and we could resume work in the late summer. By mid-March we couldn't get a single response from any of our previous contacts.We decided to turn inward, retool our website, build up our social media audience, refine our pitch deck, etc. But almost immediately after our last contract opportunity was officially lost, our employees began to drift. By the end of April our slack workspace was a ghost town. We couldn't meet physically, which may have contributed to the loss of internal momentum, however, without an office we had successfully cultivated a remote work environment from the start.The only things I have left are a website, an LLC, and about 20k in debt. All my previous clients have had to reprioritize their budgets and are no longer interested in VR at all. So, what do I take away from this?My main questions are: Was there something we could have pivoted to that I'm not seeing? Why did we lose internal momentum so quickly and what could I have done to hold the team together?Up until now I have just blamed the pandemic for everything, but I know there's always room for improvement. Is there anything you can that comes to mind at first glance of my situation? Any thoughts or advice you might have would be appreciated. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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