We learn as much from our failures as we do
from our successes. That has long been a truth in business as well as in life.
Here are some prime examples of entrepreneurs who bounced back from failure.
Nihal Mehta
Nihal Mehta is the
founder and CEO Local Response. This is a ad-tech firm working out of New York
whose primary focus is on social media targeted ads. Anyone who has been in the
tech industry is bound to have a failure or two on their portfolio. Mehta's
first tech venture folded in 1999. However, he was able to hold onto the programming
assets and merge them into a new company that was eventually sold to Omnicon
Group. After that he started up Buzzd, which was a real-time mobile city guide.
The initial funding was for $4 million. Unfortunately, Buzzd was ahead of its
time and never really caught on with consumers.
Instead of going
under, Mehta regrouped and recapitalized the entire financial structure of the
company. This gave him a much needed cash boost to rebrand
as Local Response, and had him poised for the Smartphone revolution that would
come a few months later.
The big lesson was
finding a way to stay active. "I learned this the hard way--it was six
years from my first company to my first exit," Mehta told Entreprenuer.com
"Building products isn't easy, but if you keep working hard, keep throwing
things at the wall, you will find a way."
Kathryn Minshew is
CEO and co-founder of the Manhattan-based, The Muse. This is a
career-development platform that is chock full of resourceful original content,
interactive job boards and insightful company profiles. In 2010, Minshew
launched Pretty Young Professionals which was geared as a networking site for
professional women. A year later the redesigned site attracted 20,000 young
women and that's when the trouble started with her partners.
Everyone had a
different idea of where the company should go next. Instead of working through, they decided to split up with an equity and intellectual property agreement
being formed on a handshake and notepaper without lawyers. Mistake. Minshew
took what she learned to start the Muse, which recently posted an impressive 2
million users over 160 countries. Her take away was to formalize partnerships
at every step of the way with proper legal representatives. A shrewd business
lawyer will see potential pitfalls.
"It's so
important to find people who share your values and ethics," she told
Entrepreneur.com. "There are a lot of things you can paper over, and
having different sets of opinions is valuable, but not when it comes down to
code of conduct."
This was a classic case of "anything that can go wrong, will!" Jadhavji suggests hiring a management team who can handle a crisis with swift action.
