An open suggestion to the authors/producers/publishers of Founders At Work (which I'm reading at the moment):<p>What do you think of writing a book 'Founders That Almost Made It'? Using a similar fashion, but talks to startup founders who almost made it big, but didn't quite make it. Perhaps they had to exit via Plan C rather than Plan A, or they just quietly wound down the startup.<p>Following the adage that people learn more from mistakes, perhaps it'd be just as useful to get information on why they think they failed, than to read about those who have succeeded wildly?
To be interesting it would need some drama, however most "failures" just sort of whither or continue on in mediocrity. I'm an excellent example. I've started two companies both of which were in what I call survival mode when I left. I was making enough money to cover the bills and pay a modest salary but there was no break-through for either (and it was apparent it would never happen) so I left them. A pretty boring story.
You can buy case studies from Harvard's business school, many of which are failures. <a href="http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepreneurship.jsp?N=509628" rel="nofollow">http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepr...</a>
If you read "The Black Swan" this topic is discussed at some length. I believe that the consensus out there is that no one wants to read about failure. It seems extremely interesting to me but apparently no one wants to read about it.
1. Bill Gates.<p>Bright young technie with a ruthless entrepreneurial streak. After cutting a deal with IBM in the 1980s, his business exploded, becoming the world's leading software company. Gates had the world at his feet. He could have become a legend, creating software that people would love and idolize him for. Instead, he fluffed it. Microsoft became synonymous with buggy software and clunky overweight operating systems, and in 2013 - to the relief of almost the entire web development community - finally went bust. Gates, by then a broken man, spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, where he was rumoured to tell anyone who would listen that "Internet Explorer really is the world's best browser".