Name:Dhiraj Vinjar Div:D15A Roll no.

62

Assignment : Identify minimum 3 unsuccessful startups with the

reason behind it.

1)Tiny Owl

This food-tech startup aims to create value for all

stakeholders in the food ecosystem that includes the
restaurant owners, staff, suppliers and consumers.

Through Tiny ownl app, Consumers were able to view each dish
with the chef’s profile and order the food from nearby
restaurants.

As the business observed a rise in the number of orders per

day, Tiny owl went on a hiring spree, and hired employees
rapidly to achieve high growth targets such as reaching 50
cities in one and a half years.

However, the business didn’t grow accordingly. From a peak of

about 1,100 employees, they went to just 200.

Unfortunately, Tiny owl shuts down in 2016 when it was

acquired by Roadrunnr.

Reason behind failing

Tiny owl founders weren't clear about of core metrics they
want to first improve on before scaling.
They spent lakhs of rupees Just in newspaper advertising and
other marketing resources for customer acquisition.
With such a considerable investment in their hands, founders
thought the best way to use the fund would be by hiring more
people and spending more money on marketing resources.
2) iProf

iProf delivers educational content, including videos,

digitized notes, and practice questions on a seven-inch touch
screen.

The product priced at Rs 14,990 & is positioned as a

supplementary learning module which aids in giving the
students a platform to revise what they’ve learnt at training.

Reason behind failing

The reluctance of schools to accept their study material.
A lot of free stuff is available on the internet.
The final nail to the coffin was hit by the rival Byju's
increasing popularity and market share.

3) Card Back
Founded by Nidhi Gurnani and Nikhil Wason, CardBack enables
credit, debit, and prepaid card holders to see all offers and
rewards on their cards without sharing any sensitive
information.

The company had raised $170K during its five year journey.
Backed by prominent angel investors such as Rajan Anandan,
Sunil Kalra, and Alok Mittal, Cardback etc.

Reason behind failing:

The Indian market was not mature enough in 2017 as most people
in the country do not have multiple credit cards.
The company needed deep pockets of investors ready to spend
educating customers in safety and security of products.
They even tried to move headquarters to Singapore, a country
where multiple credit card culture exists. However, the plans
failed due to a large investor falling out.