Two Biggest Tech Startup Failures That Hogged the 2016 Headlines

According to renowned digital entrepreneur Neil Patel, about 90 percent of startups fail. While this is sad news, what’s even more unfortunate is the missed opportunity to succeed simply because of poor work ethics and lack of foresight.

Below are two of the biggest startup failures last year. Read on to know what went wrong with them.

Theranos

Theranos almost had the perfect narrative to be the ultimate Silicon Valley superstar. Elizabeth Holmes founded it when she was barely in her 20s and after dropping out of school. It dealt with a revolutionary idea, which was to speed up blood testing and making the process more affordable. It garnered more than $8 billion valuations and interests from multiple venture capitalists.

In 2016, Theranos came crashing down due to a critical mistake: apart from hiding inaccurate results, it performed blood tests on its competitor machines. The scandal was so serious that Theranos had to leave the business model behind, close its facilities, and lay off over 35 percent of its workforce.

Zano

To anyone who wants to start a business by bootstrapping, Kickstarter is a saving grace. As long as you have an ingenious product and a great marketing, you will likely get funding for your project within days or weeks.

The problem, however, is that not many startups that get crowdfunded can sustain the sudden influx of orders, growth, and popularity. Take, for instance, Zano, which accumulated a total of $3.2 million from the crowdfunding site. The team promised to build a drone that can take amazing photos while following users around, but it never got to send any prototype to more than 6,500 backers.

One of the foremost reasons for the failure was the overwhelming orders, which, to be honest, could happen to any business that became successful overnight. Although it had several other issues, if it could have taken advantage of good order taking services from call center agencies like UnitedCallCenter.com, it would have been one less problem for the team.

These may be horror startup stories, but these should not stop you from trying to create your own small business. After all, any kind of business always comes with a risk. But, as long as you have integrity and strategic planning, you can be two steps away from failure and closer to success.