What's your worst uncontrollable failure that you've ever encountered as founder?

Question

Hey hunters 👋

We barely talk about founder's mental health, while employee mental health is such a crucial topic everywhere in the world.

We sometimes encounter some uncontrollable, natural disasters in our life.

For me, I had a retail AI startup that was already past Series B crumble down in few months and leaving me in $2M debt.

Hong Kong had a massive riot and political unrest in 2018, effectively shutting down most major retail outlets which were my customers. We went into survival mode and endured for few month, only to face COVID right after in 2019. It effectively killed us with absolutely no option.

I was struck with facial paralysis from stress and massive debt to repay.

Luckily, I survived. 5 years in consultancy to restore my finances, and now back to startup world again, launching soon here :)

So here is the question to fellow founders: What is your worst uncontrollable failure that you encountered, and how did you recover from it?

CY Zhou · Accepted Answer

One of my worst uncontrollable failures was when a key investor pulled out last minute, causing a major cash flow crisis. Despite the setback, it taught me resilience and the importance of having contingency plans.

Gurkaran Singh · Answer

Oh, the rollercoaster of startup life! My worst uncontrollable failure involved a data breach that felt like watching my code break in real-time. But hey, rising from the ashes like a data phoenix taught me resilience and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures. How about you? What's your tale of startup woes and eventual triumphs?

Answer

Wow, sorry to hear about your struggles but glad you've been able to bounce back! I faced a similar situation where an unexpected natural disaster destroyed a key supplier's facility, setting our production back by months right as we were ramping up for a big product launch. Stress levels were through the roof trying to find alternative suppliers ASAP. Lots of sleepless nights and tough conversations with investors. In the end we managed to pull through by being transparent, overcommunicating with stakeholders, and hustling nonstop to get things back on track. Learned the hard way to always have backup plans and redundancies for mission-critical parts of the business. Resilience is key as a founder!

Ethan Young · Answer

I am not sure about this

Jung Kim · Answer

@dylanthomasbrockman Hi Dylan, thanks for the sharing. Funnily speaking (well, I can say its funny now), I had to experience something similar during my consulting years after the crash again, working for a client who's development team had to evacuate due to Ukraine war. It was chaotic but now that I look back, I wasn't as stressed that time. Probably due to the prior experience.

I'm happy that your situation got resolved and you've pulled through. Yes, resilience really is the key!

Jung Kim · Answer

I'm not sure if this is a bug in the app but my last question got cut off, it is supposed to ask "how did you recover from it?"

Jung Kim · Answer

@lightfield yeah that happens quite a lot of times, and they most of the times doesnt even give us honest feedbacks or explanation in my experience

Answer

i dont know

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I was wondering about this question ?

Answer

Had to fire the team, and I was left with facial paralysis from stress and massive debt to repay with only half my face moving.

Jung Kim · Answer

@gaspard_dupuich you too?

What's your worst uncontrollable failure that you've ever encountered as founder?

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