#tiktaktee

We did not succeed. At least not yet. it has been nearly one year since I applied and pitched to Penn's [Weiss Tech House Innovation Fund](http://www.tech-house.upenn.edu/) to bring [tik tak tee](www.tiktaktee.com) to life. And we did just that - we built a product and brought it to market. We moved remarkably fast and were on the right path. But the business has not yet succeeded. Endless unforeseen factors we didn't take into account, obstacles no teacher could have prepared us for, and [baggage](http://gsntv.com/shows/baggage/) (best show on TV by the way) that comes with being 22 years old doing this for the first time. It happens, apparently to the majority of bootstrapped startups. But we really thought we could make it happen, and we still do. So it is important to take a close look at what went wrong and what we can do differently in the future. It's a learning experience after all. Let's divide the story into 3 timelines: _The Boom_ (Jan - May), _The Coast_ (June - August), and _The Ugh_ (Sept / Oct); and two categories of reasons: _business_ and _personal_.  **Business** _Product Development_ - Neither of us was or is a skilled carpenter, mechanical engineer, or one with experience in the home goods industry. A challenge we sought to tackle, but one that proved more difficult than we thought. Each iteration of our prototype was stronger and better throughout The Boom, but we constantly struggled to get it exactly right during The Coast. You can imagine the frustration with having to fit more than a dozen components from different suppliers together perfectly, while balancing price and quantity, dealing with sample delays and defects, etc, etc, etc. A growing frustration with the product had a ripple effect that slowed our aggressiveness with biz dev, social media, intern management, and more. _Customer Service_ - We treated our first few buyers with the utmost care, following up to make sure they liked the product and even helping them assemble and play around with it in person. But once we started selling to people outside of network, we became lazier, especially during The Bust. _Assumptions_ - One of the core tenets of [Eric Ries's Lean Startup methodology](http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/) is testing assumptions. We knew the importance of doing so but failed to address them in a systematic manner. We documented and analyzed as much as possible but did not stop to make assessments as often as we should have. The sprint pace we were moving at felt right because we could see the progress right before our eyes, but it chipped away at product-market fit and meant putting in more time and effort that was necessary towards things we were not 100% sure were most effective. **Personal** _Transitions_ - Building and running a business is an incredibly time-intensive endeavor. Whereas during The Boom we had class for at most 20 hours/week, The Bust was triggered by the commencement of our full-time jobs consuming up to 70 hours of our time per week. Sneaking out of the office to call a supplier is simply not appropriate or sustainable. We did not have the bandwidth to grow at the pace we needed to. _Commitment_ - As a result of the transition from college to the working world, our scarce free time in the evenings became a delicate matter. Initially we loved the lifestyle - meeting nearly every night for a few hours and on weekends to crank out frames and continue pushing the business forward. It felt like we were working two jobs, and it felt great. We were rising to the challenge. But it became increasing difficult as we found ourselves beginning to sacrifice important parts of our daily routines, on top of the fact that I had moved into NYC and we once again were separated geographically. Product problems, issues with suppliers and banks, and general frustration turned tik tak tee into more of a chore than a dream. Rather than fighting through the roadblocks, we half-assed decision making, delayed meetings and postponed goals. You can't run grow a successful business on auto-pilot, can't bank on everything going your way when your way condones the bare minimum. We learned this damn well. We caught a glimpse of how much it truly takes to win. Despite our intense passion for the venture, we simply did not have the combination of experience, resources, time and the passion to overcome the inevitable hurdles thrown at us. Not yet. You can't put a price on a learning experience; mistakes we made with everything from negotiating a merchant bank account contract to filing a trademark application by ourselves will never be repeated. Taking time to review our approach and knowing what to avoid in the future will help us perfect our business strategy and affirm our understanding of how to increase the probability of success with the next steps we take towards our goals. We can recover from our mistakes. Our battle scars hurt but they only strengthen our entrepreneurial muscle. So as we near the one year anniversary, what do we have to show for tik tak tee? Having spent fewer than four weeks living in the same town together during that time, we developed and sold a product that now decorates dozens of bedrooms and offices from NY to San Francisco. Pretty cool. Now what? We're excited to regroup and finish what we started. Stay tuned.