Here are the five powerful lessons from the video “My Tech Startup Failed…” by the popular YouTube channel, Tech With Tim.
TL;DR:
- Validate First, Code Later: The biggest mistake was jumping into development after talking to only a few people. You should spend months validating an idea—and even try to pre-sell it—to get proof that users are willing to pay.
- Build Less Than You Think: Fight the engineer’s urge to over-engineer. Instead of a complex mobile app with 20 games, a simple webpage with a single game would have been a better MVP to test the idea in days, not months.
- Your First Release Should Be Embarrassing: Don’t spend months perfecting a product in a cave. Ship a buggy, flawed version early, then use real user feedback to iterate and improve rapidly.
- Detach Your Ego from Your Code: Negative feedback on your product is not a personal attack on your skills. Treat it as data to improve the experience, not an insult to your self-worth.
- Learn to Fail Fast: Don’t cling to a dying idea. You often feel the signs of failure months in advance. Cutting your losses early is a critical skill that frees you up to find the next, better idea.
A 2-Year Post-Mortem: 5 Lessons from a Failed Startup
After two years of work and a significant financial investment, the tech startup that Tim (Tech With Tim) was a part of, failed. He shared the five critical lessons he learned from the journey.
The Context: “Lumosity for Athletes”
Tim joined the company as the second employee, leading all of the engineering. Their idea was a mobile app for “cognitive training for amateur athletes”—essentially Lumosity, but designed specifically for sports. The concept was compelling enough to help them raise some initial funding. However, the execution was fraught with challenges.
The 5 Hard-Won Lessons
Lesson 1: Validate Your Idea (Properly)
This was the biggest mistake and the root cause of all subsequent issues. After coming up with the idea and seeing some mild interest from a few people, they immediately jumped into building the product.
They skipped the most critical step: proper validation.
- What they should have done: Spend months without writing a single line of code. Instead, they should have interviewed hundreds of potential users, created a video demo, and tried to get people to pre-pay or put down a deposit for the idea. This is the only way to prove the market truly needs your solution.
Lesson 2: Build the Absolute Minimum Viable Product
As an engineer, Tim admitted to falling into the “I love to build” trap. He constantly added features, improved the app, and made it more complex without a clear user-driven reason. The result was an app with 20 different games.
- What they should have done: Build the simplest possible MVP. Instead of a complex mobile app, they should have created a simple webpage with a single game and a basic leaderboard. This could have been built and tested in days, not months.
Lesson 3: Release Early, Iterate Quickly
They spent months perfecting the app before its release. When it finally launched, it was full of bugs, unnecessary features, and required numerous changes.
A mentor gave Tim some advice (albeit a bit too late): “Your first release should be absolutely embarrassing.”
- What they should have done: Accept that the first version will be flawed. The key is to get it into users’ hands as early as possible, collect real-world feedback, and iterate quickly with constant updates every few days or every week.
Lesson 4: Detach Your Ego From Your Code
Tim realized he had attached his self-worth to the product he was building. When he received negative feedback, he felt hurt and offended instead of seeing it as constructive criticism.
- What he should have done: Understand that user feedback about a product is not a comment on whether you’re a bad engineer. It’s just data. Separate your personal feelings from the work and use that data to make the product better.
Lesson 5: Learn to Fail Fast
This is the hardest lesson to put into practice. Tim admitted that, deep down, he knew the startup was likely going to fail months before it actually ended. But he clung to a sliver of hope.
- What he should have done: Cut ties as soon as the negative signs appeared and his confidence waned. Killing a bad idea quickly frees you up to find success with the next one. He wishes he could have learned the lessons of two years in just 6-8 months by being more decisive.