Jeremy Au breaks down why most startups fail and why it’s rarely just one thing. Backed by funnel data and battle-tested case studies, he reveals six patterns that repeatedly kill ventures, no matter how visionary the founders are. From premature scaling to bad macro timing, this talk shows how failure is often structural, not personal.
**00:05 Startup Funnel Reality: **Out of 1,100 seed-funded U.S. startups, only 12 reached unicorn status. Failure happens at seed, Series A, Series B and beyond.
01:26 Case Study: Jibo’s $73M Fall: The world’s first social robot died from engineering overruns, leadership disruption, and Amazon’s cheaper, voice-only Echo.
03:53 Defining Failure: A startup fails when early investors don’t get their money back regardless of user love, media buzz, or product quality.
**08:00 Six Killer Patterns: **Startups fail from co-founder misalignment, building without validation, misreading early traction, scaling too fast, bad timing, or relying on too many risky bets—all seen in cases like Quincy Apparel, Triangulate, Baroo, Fab.com, and Iridium.
22:40 Rebound & Revenge: Failed founders often bounce back—some become professors, others launch billion-dollar revenge startups like Rippling and Anduril.
Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/anatomy-of-startup-failure)
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