⚰️ Goodbye DataDistillr

8 things that killed the startup and the some lessons.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 December 21, 2023 | [Read Online]( [fb]( [tw]( [in]( [email](mailto:?subject=Post%20from%20Failory&body=%E2%9A%B0%EF%B8%8F%20Goodbye%20DataDistillr%3A%20The%208%20things%20that%20killed%20the%20startup%20and%20some%20lessons.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter.failory.com%2Fp%2Fgoodbye-datadistillr) Together With Hey — It's Nico. Last week of the year. If your startup has made it up to here, good work! 3,200+ VC-backed startups haven’t. Stick to Failory’s Newsletter to keep it like this ;) Here's what I’ve got today: - 🔗 Weekly Picks - 💀 Failed Startup: DataDistillr - ✍️ Strategy: 8 Principles To Ship Software Fast - 💡 Question: Is PLG The Right Strategy for Your Startup? - 📈 Opportunity: 6 Trending Industries for 2024 This issue is brought to you by [Masterworks](, the platform for buying and selling shares of artworks. 🔗 Weekly Picks Y Combinator partners on how to build a startup with no technical skills ([Link](). An interactive guide on how to build an early-stage fundraising deck ([Link](). 15 things Alex Lieberman would do differently as a 2nd-time founder ([Link](). Debunking the myth of first mover advantage in startups ([Link](). What’s needed to build the next generation of startups ([Link](). How to use psychology to design products that win customers ([Link](). Zeroqode will help you build web, mobile & AI applications without code 10x faster and at a fraction of the cost ([Link](*). Learn No-Code by committing to the 100DaysOfNoCode challenge. Receive a free 30-minute lesson straight to your inbox every day, starting on Jan 1st ([Link](*). Billionaires wanted it, but 54,578 everyday investors got it first… and profited. When incredibly rare and valuable assets come up for sale, it's typically the wealthiest people that end up taking home an amazing investment. But not always… [One platform]( is taking on the billionaires at their own game, buying up and fractionalizing some of history’s most prized blue-chip artworks for its investors. In just the last few years, its investors have realized annualized net returns of 17.8%, 21.5%, 35% and more from these opportunities. It's called Masterworks. Their nearly $1 billion collection includes works by greats like [Banksy, Picasso, and Basquiat](, all of which are collectively owned by everyday investors. When Masterworks sells a painting – like the 16 it's already sold – investors reap their portion of the profits. It's easy to get started but offerings can sell out in minutes. However, as a trusted partner, Growth Memo readers can [skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link.]( 💀 Failed Startup: DataDistillr All Great Things... Well, this is the post I’d hoped to never write, but alas, we’ve reached the conclusion that it’s time to shut down DataDistillr. www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-great-things-charles-givre-mtusc DataDistillr, an enterprise platform that used AI to help customers rapidly explore and analyze data, has announced it will cease operations. The platform, backed by Foundation Capital and Kaggle's CEO, had raised [$5M]( and was designed to enable data teams to work without ETL or data engineering support, aiming to simplify data use. In a blog postmortem, DataDistillr's founder shared eight things that contributed to the startup’s failure and some lessons learned from his journey. 1) Lack of a solid monetization plan: DataDistillr struggled to establish a clear revenue generation strategy due to the team’s indecision on whether to build a SaaS or a customer-hosted product. Lesson learned: Monetize your product from the beginning. 2) Building too much: DataDistillr attempted to build a comprehensive product but lacked the speed and focus to develop features specific to a targeted use case. Lesson learned: Start small and ensure the initial features work really well. 3) Misguided focus: Significant resources were spent on developing capabilities that were not in demand, diverting attention from essential aspects like stability and security. Lesson learned: The less technical your customers are, the more ‘hand-holding’ they want. 4) Not having a marketing plan: Being a technical founder, this was one of DataDistillr’s weaknesses. His reluctance to invest in marketing limited the startup's ability to acquire customers despite the technical strengths of the platform. Lesson learned: Marketing is essential. The first hire of a non-technical founder should be someone with experience in early-stage startup marketing. 5) Hiring the wrong people: They made some poor hiring decisions by bringing on people unsuitable for an early-stage startup or junior staff and interns just because they were less expensive. Lesson learned: Hire people with startup experience. 6) Hiring too quickly: After raising, investors pressured them to hire fast. So they did, driving up their burn rate far too quickly relative to their revenue. Lesson learned: Hire carefully. Use contractors for short-term work. 7) Focusing on the wrong customer segment: Early efforts to target large enterprises brought no deals. These efforts wasted time and resources on building enterprise-focused features that did not materialize into sales. Lesson learned: Don’t target large enterprises until late. 8) Not listening to customer feedback: They built features they thought customers would need, not what customers requested. Lesson learned: Build the absolute least possible and collect user feedback before investing time and resources. [​]([Read the article →​](​ ✍️ Strategy: 8 Principles To Ship Software Fast How to ship fast My principles for shipping fast and protecting momentum developed over ~12 years of building software. wraptext.equals.com/how-to-ship-fast Everyone talks about the need to ship fast in startups. But how do you actually do it? Equals’ co-founder has shared his eight principles for building software fast, which he’s applying at his startup. 1) Protect momentum: Startups need momentum to ship quickly. When a project is constantly delayed, it can be demoralizing. Losing momentum drains energy, causes people to lose focus, and makes it hard to regain speed. Protect momentum no matter what. 2) Beware of prioritization: Spending too much time on prioritization indicates you need to be closer to your customers. If you are not close enough to your customers, you cannot keep your priorities aligned with their needs. This can lead to priorities constantly shifting, causing wasted effort and lost momentum. 3) Stay close to the design team: Stay extremely close to designers’ work to avoid misdirection. Meet with your designers daily for at least 30 minutes per individual. 4) You should be wrong sometimes: Perfect decisions do not exist. Move faster by being okay with some mistakes rather than trying to analyze every option. Being occasionally wrong is better than losing momentum by trying to find the perfect answer. 5) Only doers can plan what you work on: The people who plan timelines should also be involved in doing. This is because those who understand the practical aspects of the work are better equipped to make realistic plans and timeline decisions. 6) Always plan the ‘How’: Every development project, no matter how small, requires a plan detailing how each requirement will be implemented. Without this, missed requirements guarantee wasted effort backtracking later. 7) There is no quality vs. speed tradeoff: The biggest myth is that you can’t ship high-quality code and be fast at the same time. With sufficient focus, great engineers consistently achieve both. 8) Capture inspiration: Moments of inspiration are rare and valuable. Drop what you are working on when inspiration strikes to quickly build on that momentum. [Read the article]( [→]( 💡 Question: Is PLG The Right Strategy for Your Startup? Is PLG the Right Go-To-Market Strategy for My Startup? Three key questions to ask yourself. If you're considering PLG as your go-to-market strategy, here are three questions to ask yourself to determine if it's the right approach for your startup: 1) Does your product support single-player mode? For PLG to be effective, the product must be valuable for individual users before it can appeal to larger teams. This contrasts with traditional B2B models, which focus on selling to department heads with seat-based pricing. Successful PLG companies like Dropbox and Grammarly allow individual sign-ups, who then invite their teams. In contrast, products like Box require multiple teams to adopt the platform for effective use. For PLG to be effective, a user must sign up and experience value within the same hour or day. 2) Can you acquire users organically? PLG startups often use organic channels like search engines, product virality, user referrals, and word of mouth for user acquisition. The two fundamental questions are: - Who is your target customer? - Are there enough of these people who you can acquire and convert through organic channels? If the answer is yes, then PLG could be a great strategy for your startup. 3) Is your product viral enough to go from single-player to multiplayer? A key aspect of PLG is utilizing existing users to drive new user acquisitions. Successful PLG companies integrate viral features into their products, measured by the K-factor. K-factor in PLG answers a simple question: How many new users does an existing user bring to the product? You should think about viral loops you can embed into your startup to improve your K-factor score. If you can answer yes to at least two of these three questions, PLG can be a viable go-to-market strategy. If it meets all three, you can confidently pursue a PLG motion. [Read the article →]( 📈 Opportunity: 6 Trending Industries for 2024 Startup Opportunity Areas in 2024 Where are the future opportunities to build great startups? www.focusedchaos.co/p/startup-opportunity-areas-in-2024 Founding Partner of Highline Beta, Ben Yoskovitz, has shared six industries where he believes the future opportunities to build great startups are in 2024. 1) Eldercare: Eldercare is a big space with tons of serious problems to address. Sameer Dhar, a founder working in the space, has shared[research on 15 ideas]( within the industry. 2) Death: Planning for and dealing with death is an uncomfortable topic that is ripe for innovation, from wills and estate planning to grievance and bereavement support. There is also a huge upcoming wealth transfer as older generations pass on their assets. 3) Women: Despite comprising half the global population, women's health research suffers from underfunding compared to "men's diseases." FemTech is being defined as its industry/vertical with over 95+ startups in the ecosystem. 4) Housing: High prices and bureaucratic hurdles make it difficult to build affordable housing. While alternative solutions are gaining traction, regulations are lagging. There’s a need to innovate the business model of home ownership. 5) Sustainability: Sustainability remains an urgent focus area with room for progress. Highline Beta has invested in supply chain visibility, compliance, and EV infrastructure. 6) Vertical SaaS: Going deep into a specific vertical to understand needs and build tailored software solutions. While it is possible to enter a vertical that is too small, Ben believes too much emphasis is put on market size early on. If you reach real scale, you can grow a market or identify adjacent markets to explore. [Read the article →]([​]( 📰 Classifieds 📞 Struggling with your startup? [I offer 60-minute strategy calls]( to discuss idea validation, MVPs, growth strategy, and more. 💡 Struggling to validate your startup idea? [I've created a course]( on how to use pre-sales to validate it. 📈 Struggling to achieve PMF? I've [written an eBook]( about the exact strategies used by Slack, Intercom, and Airbnb to achieve it. 💰 Struggling to raise funding? I've curated lists of [2,100 accelerators and incubators]( and [1,000 VC firms](. 📊 Looking to get in front of +40k startup founders? Sponsor this newsletter.​ 👂 How Was Today's Newsletter? - [🔥 Great]( - [😒 Meh]( - [👎 Not Interesting]( That's all of this week. Cheers, Nico “*” is a sponsored link. Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here]( © 2023 Failory 1309 Coffeen Avenue Ste 1200, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801, United States of America [[beehiiv logo]Powered by beehiiv](