A lot of startups fail because they never identify a customer. Or even a problem. This one failed because before writing a line of code the founder did not take the next step and ensure that the prospective customer was willing to spend money on a solution.
This is why so many failing startups try to pivot to two-sided business models like advertising. That's one of the hardest businesses there is to start. And it's what the founder did here, too.
It sounds obvious stated as follows, but every startup failure I've read or heard about fails to get these ducks in a row:
- problem to be solved
- customer who has the problem
- customer willing to spend money to solve the problem
- enough customers willing to spend money on solving the problem to fuel a startup
Oddly enough, many of the startup success stories gloss over these fundamental components. The net result is that there's way too much emphasis on the idea and not nearly enough on the customer.