Failed Startup Post-Mortems: What We Learned

We've collected post-mortems from over 200 failed startups. The patterns are depressingly consistent. Here's what actually kills companies, based on what founders say when they're finally being honest.

The Number One Killer: Running Out of Money

This sounds obvious, but the nuance matters. Companies don't just "run out of money." They run out of money because they couldn't raise more, and they couldn't raise more because they couldn't show progress, and they couldn't show progress because they were building the wrong thing or selling to the wrong people.

The money running out is the symptom. The disease is almost always product-market fit failure.

The Cofounder Problem

23% of our post-mortems mention cofounder conflict as a primary or contributing cause. But here's what's interesting: it's rarely about the conflict itself. It's about what the conflict prevents—fast decision-making, unified vision, the ability to pivot when needed.

A bad cofounder relationship is like driving with the parking brake on. You might still move, but everything takes more energy than it should.

Premature Scaling

The startup graveyard is full of companies that hired too fast, spent too much on marketing, or expanded to new markets before nailing their core. The pattern: early traction creates confidence, confidence drives expansion, expansion reveals that the early traction wasn't what it seemed.

What Survivors Do Differently

They stay small until they're sure. They talk to customers obsessively. They measure leading indicators, not vanity metrics. They're willing to look stupid by pivoting. They treat money like oxygen—necessary for survival, not a score to maximize.