99.5% of consumer social startups fail. Here’s what it takes to be in the 0.5%
I’ve been in the consumer space since 2023, and through a mix of countless failures and occasional successes, I’ve learned and written hundreds of notes on what NOT to do and what you need to do to have any chance of success
Now I’m sharing those lessons in a series called Avoiding the Tarpit.
I’m calling it that because a lot of consumer founders fall trap into tarpit ideas which is a term coined by Michael Seibel & Dalton Caldwell from Y Combinator
A tarpit idea is one that attracts lots of founders but ultimately never works.
The idea excites them🤩, friends love it🤯, and investors 🤑 but history shows the same idea has been tried many times with the same outcome: failure.
Unless something fundamental has changed in technology or human behavior, stepping into it means burning time, money, and energy on a dead end
With consumer social, these tarpits are everywhere and at every step of the way
My goal with this series is to help founders spot those traps early and redirect their energy & time toward ideas with real chances of success.
Day 1 is live. Will mainly be posting them on insta
comment “tarpit” and I’ll follow you back on insta (or just comment anything to help make this post find the people who need it most)