> Ultimately, the reason that the startup died was because I did not do the due diligence in discerning whether this was a problem that I genuinely wanted to solve with my entire being. That's the bar for creating a successful startup, you need to find a problem that you're willing to dedicate yourself entirely to solving.
I believe you pulled the plug a few months early because of this. But your startup was unsuccessful because you ran out of money while toiling in a market niche with well established dominant players and you did not have enough value add. That was where you needed more due diligence.
It's simple and very hard. You need to build a product customers want.
I agree with you on the unique highs of the start up life. Great, horrible, great, horrible. The successful startup was one of the peak experiences of my life.