Maybe you are thinking to do the start-up thing yourself – hear what didn't work and how not to do it Maybe you just like a good story – and bad news are always the juicier news than good news ;) Be there for a first (and probably one of) - haven't told it before, might not tell it again In order to become an agile company, I'm convinced we need a culture that welcomes failure (quick & cheap ones). Let's all take a first step in that direction Because the time is just about right – two years after the fact, it feels ok to share a candid look back Because a colleague pointed me to a very interesting TED talk about the power of vulnerability

1. #fail
townster.de
Tina Dingel

2. Failure is
the state or condition of
not meeting a desirable or intended
objective, and may be viewed as
the opposite of success.

3. WHY?

4. 1) Culture of experimentation

6. Fail fast, fail cheaply

7. Failure is integral to
experimentation.
Failure drives creativity and
insight.
Fail for success.

8. 2) A personal story about
failures you don’t need to
repeat

9. LET’S GO…

10. #fail
#epicfail
#epicmegafail

11. TAKE AWAY
• What would I not
do again?
• Do differently?
• Start doing?

12. EUR X.000.000
burned

14. THE MONEY
The Money:
• Betafabrik, Incubator, Cologne
My Deal:
• three-year contract
• Expectation: behave like a founder - #fail
Me:
• 34yrs old, GM experience, Product Mkt at PP
• no coding experience

15. THE ‘SPACE’
QUICK QUIZ

20. THE ‘SPACE’
•
•
•
•
Location-based service
Directory of businesses
Events
Reviews by users

21. THE ‘SPACE’
•
•
•
•
Location-based service
Directory of businesses
Events
Reviews by users
How to earn money?
-> Make businesses pay for placements

22. THE APPROACH

23. Lean Startup Approach

24. Lean Startup Approach
Failure is the state or
condition of
not meeting a desirable or intended objective,
and may be viewed as
the opposite of success.

25. ‘Fat Startup’
IDEA
BUILD
PRODUCT
EXIT

26. ‘Fat Startup’
IDEA
BUILD
PRODUCT
EXIT

27. Idea from 2007 - it was 2009
#fail

28. Idea from 2007 - it was 2009
#fail
Why did I not question this?
#fail

29. TAKE AWAY
Internet
- fast developing space
- complex space
-> you cannot plan for complexity
-> you need to test and adapt in
short iterations

30. Way too many features

31. Way too many features

32. Way too many features

33. Way too many features
#fail

34. Way too many features
#fail
Did we test? Speak to consumers?
#fail

35. TAKE AWAY
Customer Driven Innovation
– speak to you customers
- Test stuff
- Focus, focus, focus
- What’s the critical functionality?
Shave off the rest, nobody will use
it anyway.

36. DEVELOPING THE
PRODUCT

37. • Townster:
•
•
Initially interns, freelancers (designer, product)
Berlin, Cologne
• Web Developers
•
External, Cologne-based
• Faux-agile w/daily phone 'standups’

38. Odd feeling - 'requirements doc' was
mentioned again and again.
#fail
Discuss your odd feelings!
Occasional visits to their office
Nothing to see / click
#fail

39. TAKE AWAY
The only yardstick is functioning
code. Nothing else matters.
Use agile dev methodologies –and
stick to them- even in the smallest
teams.

40. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
• Worked on use cases, wireframes,
content, branding, etc
• Got location data
• Got event data
• Busy, busy, bang, bang…

41. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
Retail therapy
• Office, infrastructure, etc.
 fat startup, burn rate
#fail
Still no product… and no valuegenerating activity.

42. TAKE AWAY
Question yourself: value
generating activity?
Spend time on understanding and
adapting the system

43. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
• Bought a coffee machine
– good!

44. TAKE AWAY
Coffee is crucial.

45. RECRUITING

46. EXIT
‘For an exit,
we need a two-person management
team’

47. EXIT
‘For an exit,
we need a two-person management
team’

48. Management team
@townster

49. Management team
@townster
Turned out to be
#epicmegafail

50. TAKE AWAY
Invest time, time, time in selecting a
co-partner.
That person is going to be your
‘work spouse’.
Go date…

51. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
Office Warming Party – nice!

52. Hiring a CTO

53. Hiring a CTO
Turned out to be an
#epicmegafail

54. TAKE AWAY
Developers are not ‘different’.
You need to work with them.
It should be fun.
If not – re-think this relationship.

55. DEVELOPING THE
PRODUCT

56. CODE REVIEW
Externals reviewing externals

57. CODE REVIEW
#epicmegafail

58. No Code!
At least not usable one

59. TAKE AWAY
The only yardstick is functioning
code. Nothing else matters.
Face customers, deliver actual value

60. Start anew!
With one CTO & one junior dev
Web App

61. Way too many features
#fail

62. Way too many features
#fail
Let’s add another one…
Actually, let’s add a whole new product!

63. MOBILE – iPHONE APP

64. TAKE AWAY
Identify mistakes / failures.
Dare to speak about them.
Don’t repeat them.

65. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
Weird coding activity seemed to be
going on…
…but nothing to see.

66. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
•
•
•
•
Hired a marketing manager
Hired a product manager
Got a PR agency on retainer
Got a marketing agency to think about
marketing
#fail

67. TAKE AWAY
As a Start-Up do your own PR.
And do your own marketing – with a
great product.

68. BURN, BABY, BURN

69. Weird coding activity seemed to be
going on…
…but nothing to see.
Getting nervous…

70. Weird coding activity seemed to be
going on…
…but nothing to see.
Getting nervous…
No transparency on progress.

71. Weird coding activity seemed to be
going on…
…but nothing to see.
Getting nervous…
No transparency on progress.
Setting deadline – to no avail.

72. Hiring external developers and
consulting.
Injecting SCRUM.
‘Definition of Done’

73. TAKE AWAY
You have doubts?
Nobody takes them seriously?
Are they serious?
Then start SCREAMING to be heard.

74. November 2009 - January 2010
Still no product live
Coding, coding, coding….

75. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
Fired the CTO –
finally

76. LAUNCH
ST
1
FEBRUARY 2010
- YEAR AFTER START THE FIRST PRODUCT IN MARKET
- ONLY THEN FIRST FEEDBACK
#fail
-> from here to April 2011

77. Very slow
test & learn cycles…
…but at least we learned.

78. MOBILE – featured in iTunes Store!

79. MOBILE – featured in iTunes Store!
Downloads!
Yay!

80. Way too many features
#fail
Let’s add another one…
Actually, let’s add a whole new product!

81. Way too many features
#fail
Let’s add another one…
Actually, let’s add a whole new product!

82. MOBILE – Android App

83. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
Too much stuff….
#fail

84. TAKE AWAY
Identify mistakes / failures.
Dare to speak about them. Don’t
repeat them. Learn from them.
And FOCUS!

85. HOW TO EARN MONEY?
Really not that easy in given space
So we didn’t make any fresh money
But we were burning through it like mad

86. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
nd
2
GM was
‘let go’

87. FRESH MONEY!
EXIT
?

88. IN PRODUCT

89. MEANWHILE AT THE OFFICE…
Cost cutting:
• Marketing manager
• Sales manager
-> ‘let go’

90. FRESH MONEY!
EXIT
?
Investitionsbank Berlin Brandenburg loan
#fail

91. TAKE AWAY
Borrowing money from a bank is a
hugely time-consuming process
Is this a value-adding activity?

92. FRESH MONEY?
Alternative revenue streams…
‘Do some sort of agency business, hire
out your developers.’

93. IS THIS REALLY ME?

94. REVERSE
Investitionsbank Berlin Brandenburg loan
- Negotiate way out

95. Failure is integral to
experimentation.
Failure drives creativity and
insight.
Fail for success.

96. a LOT was learned!