Concept: Why I Failed

[Paul Mulhern]

So recently I had an idea that of starting a site that would be kind of like inc.com or entrepreneur.com but focus exclusively on why a business's failed.

All content would be generated by entrepreneurs, real primary sources.
Two section headings, Why I Failed and What I'd do Different(for those entrepreneurs that didn't fail but want to share their story and experiences).

It would be static HTML and not too hard to build, each article would follow a format and be searchable by location, year founded, nature (fashion, tech, mobile app, etc)

It would be non-profit, but with the majority of businesses(even venture backed ones) failing I think it would be really interesting to learn from the business owners themselves what exactly went wrong.


What do you guys think of the concept? I can't gauge or estimate on how easy or difficult it would be to get contributors (minimum 100 words, basically 1 bullet point and then have it expanded a little) even if I made it easy for them to submit and easy on the small scale of how little they would have to write.

Thanks in advance.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Bigguns50]

Interesting. All I mostly read is 'success', 'succeed', 'successful business', etc.

You could have fun with the name. Fail Fast, Learn to Fail, The Failed, Fail and Win, Fail and Succeed....

Lessons in failing is definitely huge to success. I've heard and read many successful people talk about failure but no one I know of focuses on it.

 

[ZCP]

How about an anonymous 'failblog' / 'fmylife' site for business........

 

[Thriftypreneur]

I can't imagine myself being too interested in reading about nothing but failure.

But, I could find myself being very interested in reading about a failure and the success found after overcoming that failure.

 

[Maya Nehru]

I actually think that is a really interesting idea. As someone who is trying to start my own business, it would be helpful to hear about why others failed and what they would have done differently.

 

[DaRK9]

Don't do static HTML. WordPress all the way for something like that.

Personally, I find success much more interesting to read, but it might help others.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Paul Mulhern]

Thanks guys.
For €40 to start and host I think I'll give it a go and see if people find it useful.

How willing do you guys think Entrepreneurs would be willing to write about their failure?
I've seen lists compiled, very brief 'business post mortems' but to contribute to an unknown site. Initial traction is my primary hurdle I think.

 

[themaxx]

Thanks guys.
For €40 to start and host I think I'll give it a go and see if people find it useful.

How willing do you guys think Entrepreneurs would be willing to write about their failure?
I've seen lists compiled, very brief 'business post mortems' but to contribute to an unknown site. Initial traction is my primary hurdle I think.

To start, why don't you review the mixergy entrepreneur interviews, and summarise those? Pretty much every one of those talks about the business failure and how the entrepreneur overcame them.

 

[NicoleMarie]

Also, what will your USP be? Is it going to be a website focusing JUST on this concept? Is it going to be that it's coming from actual people rather than the website owner's opinions?

 

[mentalic]

I think it is an awesome idea, I also agree with themaxx suggestion. It will give you an initial boost of content.
Just go for it, don't think of it too much.