How did you know it was time to close your startup? 🛑

Question

At some point, many of us face a situation where our business stops growing. We realize that pushing forward might only drain our time and energy without real results. Deciding to close a startup—especially if it’s your first or second venture—is incredibly tough. We often identify ourselves with our businesses, and shutting them down can feel like admitting defeat (though it’s absolutely not the case).

I’d love to hear your stories about closing a business. How did you make that decision, and what was the experience like for you? Your insights could be invaluable to others navigating similar crossroads.

TJ Larkin · Accepted Answer

We spend tons of time planning our launch but rarely think about exit signs. From experience, having clear checkpoints helped me big time. My criteria: if revenue didn't hit our target after 12 months of solid work, or if savings started shrinking, it was time to pause and think. This kept me from falling into the 'just one more month' loop. Best advice I got was treating the potential to exit like a business decision, not a personal failure. Sometimes the best path forward is choosing a new direction.

Jurijs Ivolga · Answer

I tried launching several online businesses, but most of them failed due to my lack of ability to sell a product.

My approach has been: if there's no traction after 3 months, just pull the plug. To be fair, those 3 months weren't something I came up with myself—I don't remember exactly where I read about it, but it resonated with me, so I adopted it.

Nick from FirstHR · Answer

When you have been in sales for 6 months and have not achieved any results, although you have followed all the rules.

Now with the help of AI you can easily get sales instructions, average metrics and many other tips. If you have done everything correctly, but there are no results, then it is either a pivot or the end.

Sabaat Parasad · Answer

When I was no longer able to defend the financial strain, I knew it was time to to close  There was simply no growth in spite of all the effort.

Answer

When the financial strain was becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

Answer

The lack of market demand.

Jurijs Ivolga · Answer

@solodnev I’m working on something new now, I’m not yet ready to share what it is, but I hope it will be much better than anything else I tried to launch before.

Answer

When I realized the market wasn't responding to our efforts.

Answer

3 months seems a bit short, unless you're able to dedicate full-time effort to it. I usually give my ideas at least 6 months to gain some traction, iterating on the product, marketing, etc. But yeah, if there's zero revenue and negligible growth after 6-12 months of hard work, might be time to pivot or pull the plug. It's a tough call to make, but sometimes necessary to cut your losses and move on to the next thing. Curious to hear others' thoughts on this...

Stepan Solodnev · Answer

@jurijs good luck!

Stepan Solodnev · Answer

@_cassidy_doyle Thanks for the answer! 
You mean runway and burn rate?

Stepan Solodnev · Answer

@paul_turner_ Do you think such an analysis can be done before the release of the product? Or did you have an unpredictable situation. I would be glad to know more

Stepan Solodnev · Answer

@tjlarkin Amazing thoughts. Thank you! And how many such exits have you had?

Stepan Solodnev · Answer

@jurijs Thanks for the thoughts! It’s great that you’ve found an approach that works for you. Are you currently working on a project that showed strong traction after those 3 months?

TJ Larkin · Answer

@solodnev Haven't had any, but sold my insurance agency a while back for good.

How did you know it was time to close your startup? 🛑

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