Failure sucks. Startups are dying in numbers every year. Greater percentage of them shutdown and the founders move on to something else. The good thing is that most entrepreneurs don't give up that easily. You can easily start a new business but maintaining it is where the real deal is. These reasons are common with failed startups or those that are about to die: we need more money, we need more traction, we need growth, we need to start making money or else..., we don’t have enough buzz, we have management issues and founders have lost interest in the idea. Startups need to have the same kind of urgency to get things off and working as soon as possible, otherwise doomsday will be closer than they think. The money of your customers is the life-blood of your business. Not the money of investors. Not the money of your family or friends. Without paying customers, your startup starves, suffocates and eventually dies by suicide. Justin Kan, the founder of Justin.tv and Socialcam, wrote an
enlightening essay a few years ago about how startups don’t die, they commit suicide.