Fail Fast March Madness: Picking the Best Startup Fails & Recoveries
March 17, 2015
Fast Fails = Fast Learners: See the contenders in this year’s Tech March Madness Tournament
They say the tech world celebrates failure, but it’s how you bounce back that really counts. We chose 16 entrepreneurs who learned from their mistakes the hard way — now it’s up to you to decide who did it best.
In the world of entrepreneurship, failure is reality. Once promising businesses collapse every year. Smart founders find themselves up against the wall needing to pivot or surrender. Seemingly infallible products fall short of expectations. Even successful founders and teams come up short at some point.
Accepting that reality — that failure, in some form, is an inevitable aspect of building an innovative business — is critical to every tech company’s development.
Let’s Stop Celebrating Failure and Celebrate Resiliency, Instead
That said, failure is not something to celebrate, despite what certain tech hubs would have you believe. It’s not a badge of honor. It’s not absolute proof of innovative risk taking. And it’s certainly not something to be glorified or bragged about. Yes, failure can be evidence of a valiant (but failed) attempt to achieve something great. But it can also be indicative of foolish decision making, poor vision, and condemnable hubris. The difference matters and the latter shouldn’t be commended.
Instead, failure must be viewed through a different lens to reveal what it actually is: An opportunity to learn, grow, iterate, improve, and rebound. As Zendesk founder and CEO Mikkel Svane writes in his new book, Startupland:
 |
— Mikkel Svane, Founder & CEO of Zendesk |
Tech March Madness: Fail Fast Bracket
Tournament Schedule
- Round 1: Tuesday, 3/17 (voting ends Sunday, 3/22)
- Round 2: Monday, 3/23 (voting ends Tuesday, 3/24)
- Final Four: Wednesday, 3/25 (voting ends Thursday, 3/26)
- Championship: Friday, 3/27 (voting ends Monday, 3/30)
On that note, we’d like to welcome you to OpenView’s third annual March Madness bracket.
As you might have guessed, this year’s theme revolves around tech founders who have failed. But this tournament isn’t about honoring the startup world’s most notorious fails or complete disasters (you can find a list of those here). It’s about acknowledging entrepreneurs who have successfully leveraged the experience of failure to catalyze new innovation, improvement, or growth.
Below, you’ll find a March Madness style bracket with 16 profiles grouped into four “regions.” Each region has its own failure-related theme and we’re leaving it in your hands to choose which entrepreneurs are most deserving of moving on to the next round. Again, the goal is to focus on founders who tried, failed, learned from it, and bounced back in a big way.
Which entrepreneur has done that best? It’s your job to decide. So, get to voting — and please feel free to share your picks (and this bracket) with your network!
Who Has the Best Failure/Turnaround Story? Cast Your Votes!
Deadline for Round 1: Sunday, 3/23
Click here or on the bracket image below to cast your votes!
The Contenders: Pivot Region
[new_royalslider id=”83″]
|
Mark Organ, Founder of Eloqua and InfluitivePivot Region #1 SeedThe Fail: Targeting the wrong market with the wrong features Find out more and vote for Organ here |
|
Stewart Butterfield, Co-founder of Flickr and SlackPivot Region #2 SeedThe Fail: A “never-ending” online game that flopped — twice Find out more and vote for Butterfield here |
|
Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, Co-founders of Justin.tv and TwitchPivot Region #3 SeedThe Fail: A 24/7 reality show live-streaming Kan’s life Find out more and vote for Kan and Shear here |
|
Ben Rubin, CEO of MeerkatPivot Region #4 SeedThe Fail: A live-streaming video app with no heartbeat Find out more and vote for Rubin here |
The Contenders: Pricing Mistakes Region
[new_royalslider id=”84″]
|
Reed Hastings, Founder and CEO of NetflixPricing Mistakes Region #1 SeedThe Fail: Qwikster Find out more and vote for Hastings here |
|
Jason Lemkin, Co-founder of EchoSignPricing Mistakes Region #2 SeedThe Fail: Launching without a pricing plan Find out more and vote for Lemkin here |
|
Robin Chase, Founder of ZipcarPricing Mistakes Region #3 SeedThe Fail: Having to tell her users to take a (pricing) hike Find out more and vote for Chase here |
|
Chris Savage, Co-founder of WistiaPricing Mistakes Region #4 SeedThe Fail: Scaring away a major early customer with a price that was way too high Find out more and vote for Savage here |
The Contenders: “Un-Lean” Region
[new_royalslider id=”85″]
|
Nick Woodman, Founder of GoPro“Un-Lean” Region #1 SeedThe Fail: FunBug, a dot-com boom gaming and marketing site that went bust Find out more and vote for Woodman here |
|
Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk, Co-founders of Airbnb“Un-Lean” Region #2 SeedThe Fail: Not recognizing people want to actually see what they’re going to get Find out more and vote for the Airbnb guys here |
|
Hiten Shah and Neil Patel, Co-founders of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics“Un-Lean” Region #3 SeedThe Fail: A web-hosting company that never saw the light of day Find out more and vote for Shah and Patel here |
|
Danielle Morrill, CEO and Co-founder of Mattermark“Un-Lean” Region #4 SeedThe Fail: “Affiliate-for-everyone” marketing startup Refer.ly Find out more and vote for Morrill here |
The Contenders: Hiring/Team Mistakes Region
[new_royalslider id=”86″]
|
Kathryn Minshew, Founder of The MuseHiring/Team Mistakes #1 SeedThe Fail: Seeing her founding team self-destruct Find out more and vote for Minshew here |
|
Parker Conrad, Founder & CEO of ZenefitsHiring/Team Mistakes #2 SeedThe Fail: Getting ousted from his own startup by his co-founder Find out more and vote for Conrad here |
|
Tony Hsieh, CEO of ZapposHiring/Team Mistakes #3 SeedThe Fail: A series of bad hires that cost Zappos over $100M Find out more and vote for Hsieh here |
|
Anthony Casalena, Founder of SquarespaceHiring/Team Mistakes #4 SeedThe Fail: Waiting too long to hire and fire Find out more and vote for Casalena here |