My first startup had 2k users and £30k sales in 45 days, but I still failed.

My first startup had 2,000 users and £30k in revenue in 45 days, but it failed. Here’s why.

This might not be the best post for a group titled "Success Stories", but I think that some of the lessons will definitely help.

Like most founders, my first startup was a failure. Well, actually this was my first tech startup, but not my first business. However, going into the world of tech as someone who had never put together a proper tech product before, I was basically starting from scratch.

So, this is why I failed. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

1. Bad market opportunity

My first startup was a mobile ordering company called Kardlo. I actually wanted to get into digital identity, however, as soon as I had bought the domain and registered the company, it became apparent that mobile ordering services were in high demand by the hospitality industry.

Being someone who had been running marketing campaigns for hospitality businesses for the past few years, this was a perfect opportunity for me. Or was it? You see, while this looked like a great opportunity for a new company to sweep in and take over the market, I was forgetting one major factor. A lot of other entrepreneurs and larger companies were starting to build mobile ordering services, and they had a lot more money and resources than me.

It was like I was Wales playing against England in the World Cup. It looked like a great opportunity, but I was going to lose anyway.

2. I wasn’t fast

Being a one-man band, it’s extremely difficult to build a product, iterate a product, get new customers, manage existing ones, etc. In hindsight, a lot of my problems could have been solved by:

• Building a better product at the beginning
• Having a better marketing and sales strategy
• Automating customer service
• Bringing in another co-founder who either could help build the product or help market it

One of the key lessons I have learned in business is that speed is everything. You have to be fast. If you’re not, someone is going to overtake you. This goes for all businesses. You could be a year ahead, but if you aren’t innovating and growing as fast as another company, pretty soon they’re going to catch you up.

3. I let my first customer push me around

Getting feedback and improving your product so that it is perfect for your first customer is a great way to build a product. But like I said before, speed is everything. Unfortunately, I let my first customer push me around a bit too much. I wasted valuable time. I built features that only they needed. Which ultimately led to me building a product that did not meet the requirements of the rest of the market. I had essentially spent over a month going in the wrong direction.

After this month, my competitors had claimed most of the opportunities within the market, and more importantly, COVID regulations started easing off in the UK, which meant that hospitality businesses were less interested in trying out new tech and had so much more in terms of operations on their plate.

So how did this whole operation fail if I did £30k in revenue in the 45 days of launching? Well, part of the deal with my first client was that I would take control of promoting their mobile ordering service. We essentially turned their closed bar & restaurant into an alcohol delivery service. However, it was their alcohol, I was only selling it. So I wasn’t making £30k, I was making a relatively small fee for the services that I provided. So my gross profit on the whole ordeal was only a few grand.

Ultimately I decided to close my business after coming to the realisation that it was a dead horse.

“You can keep pushing a dead horse, but a living one moves a lot faster.”

I’m sure there's a quote like that or something. If not, I’ll claim it.