I burned my first startup to the ground. Here are the hard lessons I learned.

Photo credit: Pexels.

It’s been nearly 12 months since my first startup went up in flames. I’m going to tell you how it all happened in hopes that my mistakes  and the insights I learned from them  can help you in your own startup adventures.

Before you read this gasoline-drenched story, know that I’m doing fine now. I’ve launched a new startup called Mindflow.ai, which just graduated from Y Combinator’s Startup School.

So without further ado, here are some hard lessons learned.

“Make something people want.” –Paul Graham

I wanted to build a company

Before setting out to build my first company, I was a frequent app builder and hackathon attendee. I loved the rush of “willing” an idea into existence with software. The more I built, the more I learned. After building several projects, I began to feel that, with enough determination, patience, and perseverance, nearly anything was possible.

Me and my sister winning first place in a summer-long hackathon.

But working on side projects and building prototypes were no longer enough! I longed to build something with real utility. I wanted to experience creating software that actually solved a problem for people, preferably on a large scale. I wanted to build a company.

As a university student from Tel Aviv in Israel studying at Technion in Haifa (over 100km away), the problem I wanted to tackle was clear—transportation. Commuting was a pain point and finding ways to and from campus was always a logistic issue.

Hatching the idea

Our nifty splash page.

Recruiting a team

Early mistakes

MVP

Funding and accelerators

Things fell apart

Trying to find middle ground

Looking back