What was the idea behind Govworks.com?

(Explanation
about the company)

GovWorks.Com was a dot com company created in 1998 when a pair of
former high school classmates decided to start an company whose initial
model of business was to focus exclusively on the ability of helping business
people paying for they parking tickets online without the need to waste time
on lines and in exchange, they would receive some Revenues from a small
convenience fee that the site would charge to its customers. However soon
they realized that they could go much further with this concept and decided to
broaden their business on providing citizens an easy access to all local and
state government institutions for services ranging from filing for property
taxes, fishing licenses to paying parking fines.
Provide citizens with easy access to their local and state government
institutions services

Basically, the idea was brilliant since, As one of the young entrepreneurs
explains, this market is huge and the potential to provide high quality of
service to a notoriously inefficient sector was breathtaking.

Reasons of failure


Management
- Lack of passion for the idea
- Money raising disease


- Lack of adaptability
- Lack of organization
- Lack of defined strategy and roles

- Not taking advantage of external and internal feedback
- Poor launching management
- Inadequate competitors analysis

Team dynamics
- Lack of trust
- Conflict of interests: lack of shared risks, values, vision
- Lack of conflict resolution skills
They underestimated the
time needed to build the
core of the system
The need to raise capital took tremendous time and energy
(maybe because at the beginning they werent passing an
idea of an united team with strong and sync ideas) /
Success in raising money also brought a loss of control as
outsiders gained control of the companys board of
directors;

- Power struggles within the team

External Factor
- Internet bubble






the company grew too fast, from 2 to over 250 employees in about sixteen
months;
they underestimated the time needed to build the core of the system;
the need to raise capital took tremendous time and energy ( maybe
because at the beginning they werent passing an idea of an united team with
strong and sync ideas) ;
success in raising money also brought a loss of control as outsiders gained
control of the companys board of directors;

the govWorks founders were overly optimistic in their expectations of income
from clients;
they ran out of time and money;
fundamental mistakes in execution were made by the young,
inexperienced founders.


Too rapid of growth, business plans that dont address mass problems, and
poor execution. For a startup to make sense its got to apply a scalable
technological solution to a mass problem (i.e., one that a lot of people KNOW
they have). The product has to have a high margin and the company has to have
the expectation of being profitable in a short amount of time so it can either
stand alone or be bought for a premium.

mismanagement, demand for capital, speed to market and a lack of
proper service execution eventually contributed to the failure of the
company.

The company had a sound business plan butlike many on this
listrushed to market without the ability to service a growing
customer base. In three years of existence, the company burned
through close to $60M in venture capital.

One of the co-founders has been forced out by the board and other
senior executives


Tom descoordenado ao tentar vender a ideia, a falar d plantas na cave da
govworks = makes us look unfocus ; giving different messages to different
people