VENTURES
Audio Annotation:
Knitd
Type: Side Project
When: 2012-2013
Burn: Small
Why did it fail?
~ Writers didn't believe people would pay for content "by the article"
~ Many writers wanted just to sell the license to their copy to a syndicator
~ "War on two fronts" /failing to onboard writers and readers
~ Soft launched, spiked thereafter
Givedom
Type: Side Project
When: 2008-2009
Burn: Small
Why did it fail?
~ Charities refused to let us take their payment details to pay them donations (?)
~ Direct Debit wasn't "fintech'd" yet, so payment collection was a huge hassle
~ Overall found the charity sector's hyper-commerciality a real off putter
~ Never launched it... side project time bled and I lost appetite
Blokely
Type: Main Project
(It even has a wikipedia page.... neat.)
When: 2011-2015
Burn: Huge
Why did it fail?
~ Content was on the transition of "free" to "paid"
~ Good writers were expensive, we were too reactive
~ Edited it myself for too long - hired experience too late
~ Paywalling failed, numbers too niche and other streams too slow
~ Here's the news piece from Press Gazette.. ahead of our time?
There you have it - a walk through my three biggest and best fails...
It happens - learn from it. If you haven't failed - maybe you never tried. (Or you're a rare brilliant legend, email me the secret!).
