A few months ago I wrote on a company I was involved with that went under and how in its sudden closure I was left with so many questions. Especially when it was a company that seemed to have everything going for it. I had a lot of conversations with people afterwards asking me questions about why and how it failed and in the end we all felt that it would have been great if those who did know a lot of the answers were more open about it. Here in Boulder where the business culture is heavily revolved around start-ups, it is always interesting to hear and understand why some companies make it and most don’t. It serves as a lesson. Well, last week a company called Monitor110, a competitor to my current company Collective Intellect, went under and their co-founder, Roger Ehrenberg, was brave enough to tell us all what exactly happened and the lessons from it. In fact he made a list of 7 reasons why they folded and reading ‘em I find many similarities to companies I’ve been a part of or seen that also folded:
1. The lack of a single, “the buck stops here” leader until too late in the game
2. No separation between the technology organization and the product organization
3. Too much PR, too early
4. Too much money
5. Not close enough to the customer
6. Slow to adapt to market reality
7. Disagreement on strategy both within the Company and with the Board
Check out the whole piece, Monitor110: A Post Mortem. Very interesting.
