We’re Shutting Down and I’m Scared Startups Anonymous

Stories | January 28, 2014

After over two years, backing from a well-known accelerator, nearly one million in funding and a decent amount of traction, we’re shutting down.

I’m scared. I’m also sad, disappointed, ashamed, embarrassed & deflated. But mostly just scared.

Nobody but my cofounder and I are aware we’re shutting down yet. It’s been a few days since we made the decision and I haven’t even gotten up the courage to tell my family.

We haven’t paid ourselves a salary for some time with the hopes that we would raise more money, but also because we couldn’t afford to. My wife was counting on me to raise more money, now I have to tell her the news.

We didn’t leave enough money in the bank to pay off our debt, so now we need to tell people we can’t pay. Are they going to come after me, or my house and my car? I’m broke and I’m scared.

Our investors believed in us. They believed in what we were building and our abilities to execute on the vision and future we painted for them. Now we need to tell them that we lost their money. Will they forgive us? Will any investor ever trust us again?

What are we going to do now? I can’t afford to start from scratch again. I’m broke and it’s not fair to my wife to go any longer without pay. Even if I could, what would I even do? Will I be able to get a job? I can’t go much longer without a paycheck. But, I can’t imagine working for somebody else. I wish my wife understood that.

Are we going to get ridiculed for failing? What’s more scary, is anyone even going to care? After all, maybe that’s why we didn’t make it.

I’m not looking for a pity party, I just needed to get out my thoughts and feelings (and maybe searching for answers and advice). Maybe I’ll follow up with a post-mortem after I’ve had time to grieve.

Thanks for hearing me cry.