When do you decide to shut down your startup?

Question

Most of us here hustle to build something which could be a unicorn someday or a sustainable income source, which can be called successful depending on our goal or metrics. A company doing a new thing would have different metrics and an individual doing business would have another set of metrics. So, the question here is when do you call it out and move on? How does one decide? If you've done it in the past, please share your experiences.

Abadesi · Accepted Answer

@vamshi4001 Paul Graham of YC wrote about how early stage founders should focus on milestones - they are a great way of measuring not only success but also when to draw a line in the sand. If you keep missing key milestones you need to seriously consider if the project is worth sustaining.

Dario · Answer

@vamshi4001 My girlfriend would tell me, she is more reasonable than me.

Dan Edwards · Answer

@vamshi4001 Perhaps this recent story on why we shut down Sip, could be helpful? https://www.producthunt.com/stories/sunsetting-sip-a-post-mortem

Kaven C · Answer

@vamshi4001 Keeping the product goals and milestones in check is very important. This is to ensure that the "journey" is interesting which what keep us moving. Having long term with smaller achievable goals in between and when that come to a standstill you will need to evaluate your chances if the stuff you working on works.

Cedar Milazzo · Answer

@vamshi4001 I agree with Abadesi.  Focus on milestones. You should know what will indicate you are making progress and on your way to success.  If you are consistently not making progress toward those milestones, you should re-evaluate things...

When do you decide to shut down your startup?

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