14 votes

A story about losing $10M on a to-do list startup

@Andrew Wilkinson:
This is a story about how I lost $10,000,000 by doing something stupid.Ten. Million. Dollars.Literally up in smoke. Money bonfire.That's enough to retire with $250,000+ in annual income.Here's what happened...

6 comments

  1. treed
    Link
    The funny thing to me is how he looks down on the original release of Asana and how his product looked so much better. Maybe it's just that the picture they show looked data, but I really liked...

    The funny thing to me is how he looks down on the original release of Asana and how his product looked so much better. Maybe it's just that the picture they show looked data, but I really liked original Asana, and slowly stopped using it after the redesign. The original one was fast and easy to use.

    2 votes
  2. [2]
    Lobachevsky
    Link
    Haha, I was actually considering making a productivity app. It's surprising to me that they would require so many resources and time to make, to be honest, since it's essentially a spreadsheet...

    Haha, I was actually considering making a productivity app. It's surprising to me that they would require so many resources and time to make, to be honest, since it's essentially a spreadsheet that's displayed in a pretty way.

    1 vote
    1. vektor
      Link Parent
      That's essentially true of a video game too. The question is how complicated is the spreadsheet and how pretty do you need to display it? And obviously both of those can be incredibly costly....

      since it's essentially a spreadsheet that's displayed in a pretty way.

      That's essentially true of a video game too. The question is how complicated is the spreadsheet and how pretty do you need to display it? And obviously both of those can be incredibly costly. Nevermind that in this case you also have to sync that spreadsheet across different platforms.

      3 votes
  3. [3]
    onyxleopard
    Link
    In case you are like me and cannot stand to read content spread across multiple tweets, here you go. I'm very skeptical that content that is posted to Twitter in this form is ever the kind of...

    In case you are like me and cannot stand to read content spread across multiple tweets, here you go. I'm very skeptical that content that is posted to Twitter in this form is ever the kind of content I want to read on Tildes. This was no exception—I don't really think I got anything out of this other than a feeling of bitterness at how lucky some people are that they can fail so hard and not be financially ruined.

    11 votes
    1. Adys
      Link Parent
      I hesitated posting a thread reader link instead. But that doesn't correlate with the content itself. There is plenty of fantastic content on Twitter in long threads, @foone is full of them...

      I hesitated posting a thread reader link instead. But that doesn't correlate with the content itself. There is plenty of fantastic content on Twitter in long threads, @foone is full of them especially.

      Anyway this is a pretty exceptional story, and it's really rare for people in this situation to share such stories. Personally after reading it I feel I have learned a bit about pride, humility and blind trust in yourself. Sorry you didn't get anything from it.

      9 votes
    2. stu2b50
      Link Parent
      I dunno, I thought it was mildly interesting. I actually remember back when Asana vs Flow was a debate people had, so that made it more interesting. In general you don't get nearly as many failed...

      I dunno, I thought it was mildly interesting. I actually remember back when Asana vs Flow was a debate people had, so that made it more interesting. In general you don't get nearly as many failed company retrospectives.

      8 votes