Loss of Motivation
Hey guys,
So a couple months ago I started a startup called LessonHop with my roommate. We sketched the idea out, made a business plan, and made a working MVP within the first week. It was the Airbnb for education - connecting local teachers with local students. We were inspired by this idea because we personally needed this, and there wasn't anything that worked (other competitors have a huge charge rate -- charging 40-60% of the Teacher's profit per lesson). So we decided to create our own. We had no coding experience, but we were able to bootstrap a ton of resources together to create a working MVP. But we soon just gave up after a few months... at first we were passionate, but we decided to take a break because we didn't feel like we were curating to local teachers and students' needs, but rather, we felt like we were making this business for money. What are your thoughts on this? Was this the right decision?
Well... Honestly you guys give up way too quickly.... Sounds that you guys actually had something interesting... However if you making something just for the money is more easy to fail because this websites need some time and work to actually create profit...
This happens with all pursuits in life. You could substitute LessonHop with some fitness goal and your story would still make sense. The excitement has worn off and now you're at a more normal stasis which will likely happen with every project or pursuit.
I think it's ok to lose passion but be honest with yourself as to why you're not going to continue and then accept that.
If you answered yes to either of these questions, you should continue. If you're burned out on the idea, then that's ok too.
If you need to take a break, go for it. If you don't feel like you're curating to local teachers, do you know why? What's preventing you from serving local teachers? Are your competitors doing that successfully? Could that be why they're charging so much (e.g. for marketing)? Maybe worth looking into. I agree with justpaulo and thomasm. Money is just one measure of value and success. Without revenue (and profit), though, your startup isn't sustainable and alternative models (non-profit, crowdfunded, government, etc.) prevail. As far as dwindling passion and giving up, It sounds cliche, but startups really are a marathon, and not a sprint. Even if you return from your break revitalized, I guarantee you'll run into many more reasons to give up, more challenges, more dark times. Almost every successful startup has stories of how they averted disaster, and every failed startup is a cautionary tale. Even if this startup doesn't make it, I'm sure you'll learn a lot. Good luck!
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
It's not that we didn't want to make any money at all, but it felt like we were creating only for money, and not at all for the students and teachers. But you do give a good point: no one gets any value. It's probably misleading in our title, but you could say we haven't quit 100%, but we're just taking a break. This was our first project, so as anyone, we got really excited for a few months, then it started to slow down. But thanks for the feedback man!